14 days, 7 crazy peeps and a loft in Prague
October 23rd, 9:45 am, Paris time — we can hear our 7 names called one after the other followed by “Last boarding call for Air France flight 5032 heading to Prague, Czech Republic. Please reach gate 49 immediately!”
We left Montreal on Saturday night and the day after, we were running like never before trying not to miss our flight connection to Prague. That’s how it all began.
A couple hours later, we safely reached our 2-bedroom apartment located in the old Prague, surrounded by the most fancy restaurants and trendy coffee shops. We get to work as soon as we reach the apartment. Tasks keep adding up to our to-do list. We’re on a mission and nothing can stop us. Failure is not an option.
“‘You’ll will have 14 days, plane tickets for Prague and access to a loft. Upon your return, you must have an innovative solution to present us and be ready to hit the ground running” — Simon De Baene, CEO, GSOFT
First week recap
The intensive work load mixed with proximity with your colleagues teaches you to drop the professional mask we had all been wearing so far. The human experience begins and it’s exciting. It brings drama, joy, frustration, solidarity and so many other emotions that we hadn’t felt in a long time.
After a week under pressure, the emotional schedule starts looking like a roller coaster :
- Day 1: The flight hype — The economy class feels like first and we have the same feeling you get on your first road trip. We take a step back and all agree on the business vision.
- Day 2: The project kick-off — The team is up early and excited, we kick it off with morning planning and a well deserved coffee. The SNOOZIT website is up and running. It can be improved but for a first version, it’s great. We’re heading to bed between 3–4 in the morning.
- Day 3: Medium heat feeling — We’ve missed the alarm and woke up too late. Workload stacking up, we argue a little and realize we’re behind schedule. We’re tensed and we can feel the pressure rising.
- Day 4: High heat — The end of the week is approaching, time’s running out. We focus on marketing campaigns to get traction.
- Day 5: The Rainbow— We’re delivering features. We hit a major technical milestone. We’re able to turn On/Off VM’s using our technology. It’s a huge step forward for SNOOZIT. Time to celebrate. #Champagnepoppin’.
- Day 6: The day off — Technically, it was half a day off. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a team building activity called “Escape Room”. We cracked the code in 43 minutes. #Proud The night ended at a steak house, we all deserved it.
Day 7, perfect Sunday
We took a moment to appreciate what we’ve accomplished so far. Such tremendous amount of work in only 7 days. Definitely a lot to be proud of!
Aside from the work, we should also appreciate the fact that even though there can be stressful moments, there is a perfect chemistry within the team. We’re confident about the results we’ll bring back with us to Montreal. Colleagues are now considered as friends and we all learned new skills. I couldn’t ask for anything more.
Day 8 to 14
Stay tuned for the second week of our journey.
For more info about our Beta version, visit www.snooz.it and subscribe to apply to our VIP-Beta program.
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Thanks all,
Guillaume from SNOOZ.IT
