Making time to do the things we love can be a challenge for anyone. But when we do, we're able to clear our minds and be more productive and efficient at work – allowing us to have more free time to do the things we love. It's a virtuous cycle.
That's why Liza Nurik, Eleanor Mooney, and Carrie Brightman launched ThinkingVine — a company that gives employees a fun outlet to clear their minds with enjoyable activities like painting, embossing, wiring, and mosaics.
"So many people move to places like New York City because of all of the opportunities — events, culture, art, music, food, yoga classes, and meeting people," Nurik says. "But most people end up with only a few hours each week to enjoy the city because of all the pressures of work."
In just three months since launching their company in New York, ThinkingVine has already put on events for companies like Google, Etsy, GrubHub, Foursquare, Seamless, and WeWork.
"There's a really big demand for it," Nurik says.
To learn more about ThinkingVine and why it's blowing up in the New York tech and startup scene, keep scrolling.
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Nurik got the an idea for ThinkingVine while teaching art classes in Brooklyn.
Nurik, who has a background in art education, was teaching art classes to about 40 students of all ages at her studio in Brooklyn while working part-time at a school last winter.
She hosted activities like "paint and wine night" and some of her students, who were in the workforce, said, "I wish we did this at work!"
A student who worked at Google suggested she host corporate team-building art classes.
Nurik met her partners at a networking event.
Nurik was motivated to bring art to the workplace so she went to a New York Entrepreneurs & Startup Network event that was advertised on meetup.com to start looking for partners. Not only did she find the whole event "incredibly exciting and energizing," but she also found her two business partners.
"That was my first networking event and it kind of hit the nail on the head because I met these girls," she says.
Mooney and Brightman, who come from an operations background in hospitality and retail, were initially hired to help with marketing but were so organized and hardworking that Nurik offered them partnerships, which they gladly accepted.
They landed their first client with a cold email.
When they launched in November, ThinkingVine had zero clients so Nurik decided to reach out to GrubHub just to feel out how big the demand was for creative outlets at work.
She sent out a cold email to the general email address that she found on the GrubHub website to ask about piloting an event with them. She said all they would need is "a group of brave volunteers to get together in a room and make art with us." GrubHub readily accepted the proposal.
"It was just a stab in the dark, but they were so gung-ho about it," she says.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider