13 Creative Ways to Celebrate Your Startup’s Wins

Labor Day is meant to celebrate work, and I suspect many entrepreneurs will do so by…working. But to keep up with the long marathon of startup life, it’s crucial to celebrate work sometimes by not working.

We asked entrepreneurs how they celebrate their successes, and here’s what they shared with us.

“If something really exciting happens, like a new product feature or we land a big customer, we like to do the Anchorman team jump.”

Anchorman team jump

– Matt Thompson of Ninua

“Our biggest parties occur when the entire team works together to reach major company milestones. When we raised our last round of funding ($11M), we had a casino night at the top of a local hotel. (If you thought the World Series of Poker was intense, try watching 100 extremely smart, focused, competitive employees throwing death stares across the table as they bet the farm. Classic.”

– Kevin O’Connor, CEO of FindTheBest

“The first retailer we ever signed up called me to tell me that he sold a vest today. It was our first through-sale. I ran around the office twerking. Everyone groaned. I laughed. It's been a great day.”

– Tom Nardone, president of PriveCo

“We celebrate by getting out of the office together as a team, whether it's a BBQ or a bow tie making party. No really, we make bow ties. It's like a knitting circle but better because there's booze and awesome Spotify tunes. We also get together as a team and make hot sauce, or what we like to call AwesomeSauce.”

– Daniela Bolzmann, cofounder of WeDeliver

“We've slowly expanded our office to cover most of our floor. Each time we have a little post-Friday party at the office, and for the first expansion we even hammered through the wall ourselves with a sledgehammer. For the last expansion, we even had lobster rolls (perfect for Labor Day!).”

Labor Day demolition

– Kelly Fitzpatrick, marketing coordinator of Noom

“My cofounder Jonathan Mead and I had a dance party on Skype to celebrate the start of our crowdfunding campaign. We sent the dance video to all our contributors. It was a lot of fun and our customers got a huge kick out of it!”

– Dustin Lee, cofounder of Playbook

“When we sign a new customer, we stop work briefly and the rep rings the gong in front of the whole company. He or she first has to share how our whole team contributed to the deal. It might have been an incredible marketing campaign, someone on our customer happiness (CHaps) team going the extra mile during a trial, or an incredible feature that we designed and built last sprint.”

– Fred Shilmover, president and CEO of InsightSquared

“At Soft-Pro (my first startup back in the 90s in Russia), we celebrated our major customer win in the Far North by doing a picnic outside in the Siberian wilderness – in -32ᵒ C/-26ᵒ F weather (no kidding), drinking pure alcohol (90 percent) to stay warmed and alive.”

– Alex Fedosseev, cofounder and CEO of 1World Online

“We celebrate our success through drinks and video high fives on a Google Hangout. Most of the company is remote, but there's no reason why we can't share a beer together and congratulate everyone on a job well done.”

– Noel Chandler, cofounder and CEO of Mosio

“We held a costume party, took out staff for cocktails and dinner, and took the entire office out on a day-long walking tour that included breakfast and a gourmet lunch.”

– Amit Bendov, CEO of SiSense

“We celebrated our success by having money fights in a Scrooge McDuck-type chamber at the Famigo HQ. You'd be surprised by how much damage a flying stack of Benjamins can do to a cornea. Now we have money fights with goggles on. Safety first.”

– Q Beck, cofounder and CEO of Famigo

“Last month, we wrapped up principal development and celebrated by taking a day off and renting an electric boat in Newport Harbor. It was a great chance to get out of the office, enjoy the California sunshine, and eat some delicious Mexican food. Afterwards, we dominated all comers at a Laser Tag facility.”

– Amira Jennifer Fickewirth, president of Aroundwire.com

“We threw a birthday party for the Bulu Crew complete with a birthday cake. The night included an awards ceremony and an employee talent show where everyone got to show off some of their lesser-known talents. What made it most special was seeing that our team not only has passion for the company, but they're excited about being part of this team.”

– Paul and Stephanie Jarrett, cofounders of Bulu Box

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Written by:
Kira M. Newman is a Tech Cocktail writer interested in the harsh reality of entrepreneurship, work-life balance, and psychology. She is the founder of The Year of Happy and has been traveling around the world interviewing entrepreneurs in Asia, Europe, and North America since 2011. Follow her @kiramnewman or contact kira@tech.co.
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