Veteran game designer Chris Hewett and his team at Mindbloom want to make sure you are living your healthiest, happiest life.
Though he was once no stranger to the hectic schedule and eighty-hour work weeks common in the tech startup space, Chris took a step back and decided it was time for a change.
Now, he’s all about helping users manage their own journeys to personal satisfaction through interactive technology. “I had my Oprah moment,” he says in this episode of Nextcast. “I want to see people living their dreams and following through on their passions.”
- Chris didn’t come to found Mindbloom by accident. He used to be overworked and motivated by negativity. He understands how easy it is to “fall into the trap” of thinking working more means working better. “If I work a lot, I must be getting a lot done.” But he realized it was actually just causing him to “lose perspective and be less effective.” (2:24)
- After taking time off to improve his own life balance, Chris noticed how many others were struggling with the same problems he had faced. That’s when he decided to do something about it, and founded a company that makes self-improvement “fun and simple.” Mindbloom was born out of a desire to make life improvement accessible to anyone, where users can start small and work self-improvement into their routine. (3:28)
- “Some companies create an environment where they’re trying to keep people there all the time…We try to create an environment of personal life balance.” says Chris of his corporate philosophy. He makes sure his team doesn’t just work hard on Mindbloom all day every day; he makes sure they have time for their own activities too. (6:04)
- Chris credits his Mindbloom team with helping him enact a company culture and corporate strategy that has led them to success thus far. Especially in the early days of the startup, it was essential to “maintain the vision and the passion. It’s easy to get pulled in a lot of directions and squander your efforts.” (12:00)
- Chris summarizes his vision by sharing a fantastic story of how he decided to stop being motivated by fear and to start being motivated by visions on his own success. (20:00) And the future looks bright: “It’s really exciting because there’s a big opportunity to do something that can affect a lot of people’s lives and get them to change their behaviors – that’s the brass ring.”
Nextcast founder Jeff Dickey is passionate about technology, business and philosophy. He works as the chief cloud architect at Redapt, a Redmond-based cloud and big data infrastructure company. Additional reporting by Kate Stull. [Editor’s note: GeekWire is proud to partner with Jeff Dickey who produces the Nextcast entrepreneur interview series].
Previously: Matt Hulett’s startup advice: ‘Money makes you soft’…Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz on search, startups, sticking it out…Entrepreneur Dan Shapiro: Startups aren’t a science
