There is only one strategy for having been fired, and that is to immediately admit it. I love it when someone says, 'I was fired.' It shows me I'm dealing with an honest person. Someone who explains a firing by blaming someone else is not mature enough to work here.
We initially started remote. My cofounder is based in the UK and is planning on relocating to New York. We have a sales guy in France, and we have someone running customer success in Illinois. Our goal has always been: How do we actually get people in the same office? You just work faster. I'm getting absolutely roasted by most of the remote tech worker community for my post in favor of the office.
Every founder wants top-tier talent. But when your company is young, two obstacles loom. The first one is that no one knows you. The second one is that, likely, you can't afford a full-time senior hire. The irony is that this is when you most need experienced leadership, because without it, you risk mistakes that cost more than the salary you were aiming to save.