Boosting creativity in a tech startup

Fresh and innovative ideas can give your start-up a real competitive advantage. For this reason, sustainable creativity should be one of the top priorities for each tech company. That’s self-explanatory, yet the question remains – how to achieve it?

At Applicake and FutureSimple we do it in several ways: keeping team meetings short and fun, RailsTalks and “hackfests”, taking time-off together (the list is long). We will cover them one-by-one in this blog so stay tuned.

Recently we bought IdeaPaint – which appeared to be a fantastic means to boost creativity. How come? IdeaPaint „turns virtually anything you can paint into a dry-erase surface and any room into a hub of creativity and collaboration.” It brings you back to childhood when you thought drawing on walls was *fun*. Apparently, it works the same way with adults – it’s just soooo tempting to take a marker and start drawing! What? Whatever. It can be a general project outline, a graph, application architecture design, a fun-I-need-a-break-drawing, a todo list,  an inspirational quote or simply a lunch wish list Suddenly a boring office wall turns into an amazing communication medium and a place to brainstorm ideas. With no restrictions in the shape of  whiteboard borders and, thus, no limits to the flow of ideas.

Implementing such solutions in your office is a (small & cheap) step we encourage all start-ups to take. Think of it – your team is, by far, your most valuable asset. Do make this extra effort in order to build a fun workplace that boosts productivity and makes people reach their potential. An enjoyable environment will inspire teamwork and might result in innovative solutions.

Take a look at how ideas are grown within the Ruby on Rails team at Applicake (a fantastic video by Socha and Dorota):