About Zest

Zest’s Origin Story

During her 10 years in tech leadership at high-growth, fast-moving companies, Jen Ottovegio struggled to maintain her own wellness routines - she didn’t have time for meditation (which helped her regulate and show up better at work and at home). She didn’t have the capacity to actively pursue personal growth — coaching sessions were canceled, communication workshops passed her by, goal-setting trainings never got on her calendar.

She watched her own team struggle with this too.

She realized if she brought in education-oriented and wellness-supporting opportunities into the workplace, then they were more likely to get on the calendar and everyone could benefit - professionally, personally, as a team, and as a company.

She started bringing in incredible teachers to run yoga, fitness, and meditation classes. Employees were eager to attend and develop skills together. It felt great to have permission to do this at work... not to mention it was super convenient. It also had the added benefit of building cross-departmental connections and team unity. Recruiters loved it because it was a very special perk for talent attraction & retention.

These programs are undeniably effective at teaching employees to better manage stress, increase productivity, and improve wellbeing.

But what Jen noticed is that when she passed ‘program management’ over to HR, they often didn’t have the bandwith required to design, launch and promote these programs in an ongoing capacity. It’s not surprising, giving how much was already on their plate. And she couldn’t continue to have two full-time jobs - ‘marketing leader’ and ‘wellness & development program manager’.

That's when Zest was born.

Zest now runs wellness-supporting development programs on behalf of HR teams at many different companies across different sectors. For businesses that see the value in offering group-oriented programming, but struggle with internal bandwidth to make it happen, Zest offered a new way.

Zest helps employees live healthier, happier, and more connected lives by teaching regulation skills and supporting personal growth. And Zest helps HR teams by being fully customized to the team and highly turnkey - which means programs are engaging and effective, without draining internal resources.