The health benefits to running a startup

As far as startups go, if this was the land of zebras, ofCourseBooks would be a platypus.

First, because the platypus is a freaking awesome animal (they have venom spurs on their hind legs and even though they’re mammals, they don’t have nipples!)

Second, because we tend to zig when other startups zag. And not just for the fun of it too. We just want to run our company like it’s our company. (And guess what? It is.)

Without data and analysis, good choices can’t be made. That’s just how companies make their products and help their customers do even better. But, not every company needs to measure the same metrics.

For us, growth isn’t important. We’d rather make sure our existing customers are rocking their online courses. So growth isn’t a metric we care about. Also for us, investment isn’t important (we were profitable before we launched and don’t need someone else’s money because we run so lean). So looking good to investors isn’t a metric we care about either.

So what is important? Obviously we want our online course teachers to rock the courses they teach. But secondly, we want to make sure we (the cofounders: Jason, Zack and Paul) are at our best. And being at our best means taking care of ourselves.

We’d like to take startup transparency to whole ‘nother level.

Say hello to OCB Health.

We want to make sure that we’re getting the sleep and exercise we need to run our company. And, we want to share that data with you, real-time, so you can see how many steps we’ve each taken, what our heart-rate is and how much sleep we’re getting.

Just like they tell you on a plane, if you’re travelling with a dependent, and things go to shit, you put your oxygen mask on first. Our mask is being fit and healthy first. We work hard, but also know that if we don’t treat our bodies well, our minds won’t produce what we need them to. If we’re getting regular exercise and sleeping well, then we are at our best to run our company and help our customers. So it’s basically a win-win (without crazy flight scenarios).

Just like platypodes (the correct pluralization of a group of platypus), we’d like to defy “business as usual” and do things our way. And as usual, we’d like share everything, including our health, with you.