originally posted on the Design Cloud blog

A CONTEST FOR THE HEARTLAND OF AMERICA

Are you a Silicon Prairie startup?  Win a $20,000 space makeover from turnstone! 

Teams have 2 hours and $200 to do good as they see fit in their city.  

It's a Braintree tradition going on three years, and the Do Good! competition just keeps getting better.  In past years, teams have bought toys for homeless teens, donated blood, salted sidewalks, paid off layaways at toy stores, received flu shots, donated food to soup kitchens, and much more.  As the team has continued to grow in Chicago, Menlo Park, San Francisco, and New York City the ideas have gotten more diverse, and the amount of good done increased.

Jason Fried and 37 Signals do a great job of creating an environment that promotes concentration and critical thinking.  Because of that, they have a ongoing office policy that promotes "library rules".  Read Jason's recent blog about it here: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3357-an-office-with-library-rules

Work to live, or live to work? The former is a broadly-acknowledged philosophy at 25 American companies that rank highest for their emphasis on work-life balance.

Hireology's mission is to help businesses build the best places to work.  I recently posted my first video blog to explain a couple of quick tips on how I personally try to accomplish this.  The full video (only 4 minutes) can be found here.  Below you will find a quick summary.

To build the best place to work, focus on these 2 major areas:  office culture and hiring the best people.

This post originally appeared as a guest piece  I wrote for NBC’s INC WELL (edited by the one-and-only David Wolinsky)