STARTUPSWELLNESS

REVOLUTION

500

Is there anything you need, that you don’t have time for?

Eat Healthy

Organizemy space

Connectwith people

Exercise

Take a break

If you do it, your startup will thank you for it.

If we want to make 500 Startups the leading startup accelerator, we need

everyone to be at their best so we can perform as a team.

Obvious question

So, how do we get there?

I don’t know. Yet.

This summer will be one of exploration – finding out what matters to startups to enhance their creativity/productivity.

Through innovation in the areas of

architecture, team building and healthy

eating I hope to develop a sense of personal and community wellness in

500 startups.

WELLNESS FOOD

PEOPLE

SPACE

To narrow down the scope of the project, I will concentrate on the kitchen. An overarching goal is to

create a sustainable system based on practices that can be replicated in the future and in other locations.

PEOPLE

With so many brilliant people together in one room, it would be a waste not to get them to use each other as a resource for creativity. We are social animals who need others to stay focused and motivated…

The plan

Understand the work rhythm and define good times for interventions

500 food-team rituals

Weekly or bi-monthly events promoting interactions between different startups through food and wellness activities

Different startups could host the event each week and showcase their own culture

Introducing team methods/ exercises that can be replicated

Team check-ins (how are you doing, really?)

Organizing people with similar hobbies to encourage inter-team partnerships through informal activities

500 running club

Reward pro-activeness coming from startups

Awesome-Possum rockstar of the week where current nominee chooses next week’s

Solutions I could implement

Consult with d.shrink faculty for a good

team dynamics introductory session

SPACE

What behavior do we want to create in the kitchen?

• Community Space – make it feel ours e.g. Hanging cups on the wall with everyone’s names on them

• Expressive of company’s culture - board with question of the day aimed to make people think outside the box

• Functional – easy to use and clean up after yourself

• Responsible - establish a protocol, a culture of maintaining the space

• Relaxing – a space where you can disconnect and take a break e.g. rubix cubes on tables, puzzles

• Design and build furniture - one idea is to use Koa wood to build a bar table for the kitchen

• Buy and install necessary equipment - e.g. a salad/sandwich fridge.

Solutions I could implement

Make the kitchen area THE place to be

FOOD

Even the busiest designer or computer programmer has to eat. Mealtimes are ideal to bring the team together!

One of your mentors, Brenden Mulligan, pointed out that pizza and Ramen are hurting startups. With better food “you’ll sleep better, be better rested, and use your time more effectively when you’re awake.”

Today,-Your food budget: assuming ~60 people x 12 food events/month x $10 = $7,200/month-Your food sponsors: San Franola

The plan

• Optimize the use of the budget to include an open kitchen system (the kitchen is stocked with healthy snacks that can be eaten throughout the day by everyone who wants them)

• Develop easy recipes that can be carried out at a fraction of the cost

• Get companies to give us wholesale prices• Find other food/health companies and persuade them to

sponsor/cut a deal

• Look into 500 Startups food related companies like foodspotting, e la carte, textaurant, ordermapper, spoondate, wednesdays and cookpad to see how we can use them as a resource and test our own services at the same time

• Continue to use the Beta version of waiter.com while we explore other options like zerocater.com

Solutions I could implement

Find out what startups really want to be eating… and make it work

WELLNESS FOOD

PEOPLE

SPACE

STARTUPSWELLNESS

REVOLUTION

500