Creativity at Work conference was held at Reykjavik University 15th of October 02010. I was asked to talk about the hottest start-up on earth.

We had some great talks over there. I loved the enthusiasm in the both the speakers and the crowed. My number one takeaway was that you should rather stay home when you are sad, then when you are sick, because creativity really fosters in happiness.

Here are my slides as well as a few points about what I talked. I could talk forever about our environment, spirit and culture, but here are just a few points. I tried to focus on the office, or to be exact, the bar - we at CLARA are doing whatever we can to to make the place where we spend most of our time, look less like an office and more like an bar. Being a high-tech start-up, that’s basic! The things that we think are needed to run a successful bar/start-up are the following;

• A Keg. Grabbing a beer after work should be as easy as possible.
• Openness. We try to be as open as possible. We have a blog that’s open to all the team members, advisers, board and investors. There we share detailed information on our key performance indicators; progress, money, products and so forth.
• Methods. Living and breathing in an extremely fast environment calls for disciplined methods. We stick to agile project management and love it.
• Team. When everything is put right together, getting awesome talent to join your team is a bit easier. It’s still extremely hard, but a bit easier.
• Organic. We’re not just talking about building an garden in the middle of the office. Also the spirit and the culture must be genuine and organic.

I’m looking forward to learning even more stuff about running a fun start-up / bar - so if you guys have any ideas, don’t hesitate to let me know!