At 2 p.m., when focus starts to fade and the next meeting is already looming, Ashley Almonte steps away from her desk and into a pod.
For 12 minutes, Mindspace’s US marketing lead uses red light, sound and other sensory features inside OpenSeed’s Iris meditation pod at the coworking company’s downtown Miami location. Then she heads back to work.
“I’m not a meditation expert. I don’t know how to quiet my mind on my own,” Almonte told Refresh Miami. Having the pod nearby, she said, gave her a practical way to reset before another call or task.
That small ritual captures the case Miami-based OpenSeed has spent years making: Workplace wellness works best when it sits inside the workday, within easy reach of people who need it.
OpenSeed founder and CEO Jonathan Marcoschamer first spoke with Refresh Miami four years ago, when his startup was still in its early days. Since then, OpenSeed has launched a redesigned pod created with San Francisco industrial designer Yves Béhar and expanded to more than 30 locations worldwide. Its clients now include Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, and Hilton’s headquarters, while pods have reached Australia and Korea. It is pursuing opportunities in Saudi Arabia and Europe, with airport installations expected to follow in 2027.
The Iris model adds vibration and red light therapy to the company’s mix of sound, light and aromatherapy. The goal is to help users settle their nervous systems through guided sessions that take 11 to 15 minutes.
“Meditation apps are good, but we believe that we don’t need more content,” Marcoschamer said. “We don’t need to look at our screens anymore.”
For Mindspace, which has more than 50 locations, the pod is part of a larger effort to make offices worth returning to after years of remote work and isolation. Almonte said members still want social events, yoga and community programming, but their needs now reach into the physical design of the workplace.
“I don’t even think it’s going to be a trend anymore,” she said. “I think it’s a standard and a must-have across locations.” Mindspace hopes to add OpenSeed pods at more US sites and possibly across its global network.
OpenSeed is also preparing for its next phase. Marcoschamer and cofounder Vids Samanta remain the company’s two-person core team, supported by independent contractors. After bootstrapping and focusing on sales, the startup plans to restart fundraising this year, with capital going toward hiring, marketing, research and expansion.
An AI-based platform due early next year will learn users’ goals and preferences, then serve more personal sessions. Marcoschamer also sees pods moving into hospitals, residential buildings, airport lounges and airlines, placing short breaks where stress runs high.
Miami, Almonte said, needs little convincing. “You don’t have to explain wellness to Miami. They just get it.”
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