This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sophia Kianni, a 24-year-old startup founder based in New York City. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
When my startup was raising $35 million in Series A funding, it was naturally a very intense period for our company. We were heads down, with everyone coming to the office early and leaving very late, five to six days a week.
Coming out of that time, one of our team members brought her dog, Ollie, to the office, and he kind of became our secret productivity hack.
Now he comes in most days of the week, and it truly feels like we have an office dog. Culture is everything at an early-stage startup, and Ollie helps us foster an environment of people who are excited to do their work.
He’s even helping us with hiring.
My company grew in size before Ollie became the office dog
I launched my commerce startup, Phia, two years ago with my roommate at Stanford. We’re using AI to match users with products aligned to their preferences across various brands.
Our office is based in Union Square in New York City. For the past year, our team of about 10 was working out of a 17th-floor office that we loved. As we completed our Series A funding round and expanded our team, we decided to rent the office on the floor below ours, with a staircase linking the two areas.
I call our new floor the hacker lounge because it’s where our engineers work and has a more casual, industrial vibe, with a common space to roam. That’s where Ollie, our Shiba Inu office dog, hangs out. Anyone who wants to be around Ollie can come down to the lower level; otherwise, they can stay on the top level.
Ollie’s owner manages him in the office
Our team member who owns Ollie is fully in charge of him at the office, including his food, water, and bathroom breaks.
The bottom floor’s layout is weirdly perfect for a dog. There’s a tiny office space with only one desk where we keep his dog bed and food bowl, so when our teammate needs to go heads down to work on something like financial modeling, he can hang out in there.
The rest of the space has a large open concept in the middle where he can just roam around where he wants to. While he stays in the hacker lounge downstairs because of the space, our upstairs office stays much more buttoned up and professional.
Having a dog in the office has helped with our mood
As an early-stage startup, we have a level of intensity and grind culture, but we want to make sure our office environment still feels collaborative, kind, and inviting. I feel like that’s exactly what a dog helps facilitate.
With Ollie around, we can laugh and talk with other people on our team while playing fetch. Having an office dog makes the atmosphere so much lighter and encourages us to spend that time together.
It’s also so motivating and exciting knowing that if I’m staying late at the office, at least there’s a delightful dog to cheer me up.
He’s given us a productivity boost
In the past, when I needed a break while working on something intense or time-consuming like an important deck, I’d leave the building to take a walk and clear my head. However, it was a time-consuming process.
Now I can access that same mental reset by petting Ollie or having a lighthearted moment around him with my teammates. Then I can easily resume the task I was focused on with a fresh perspective.
I think those refreshing moments with Ollie put us in a better mood, so we’re able to stay at the office longer and be productive for a longer period of time.
Ollie is helping us with hiring
We’re trying to grow our team, so we’ve been making a lot of content tailored toward hiring recently. I feel like showcasing Ollie in our content has been a great way to showcase our work culture and attract the type of people we’re looking for.
Of course, we want to work with someone who is extremely high IQ and high agency, but we also want someone nice, fun, kind, delightful — the type of person who might be attracted to the idea of an office dog.
We’ll make content saying, “If you want to come and play with Ollie, you should apply to Phia”, and it’s been a great hiring funnel. We recently got an email from someone with the subject line “I want to say hi to Ollie,” and it was a pitch to work for us.
Not every office should have a dog
I don’t have any frustrations with having an office dog. He fits perfectly in our space. When we have people come to our office, like investors, we have them go to our conference room.
If you’re thinking of getting an office dog, make sure you have the right space to fit them in. If you have the facilities to have a dog, I would 100% recommend it.
Do you have a story to share about a unique productivity hack? If so, please reach out to the reporter at [email protected].
