Impressive! OpenWetWare is extremely useful, my supervisors old lab from when she was a post doc uses OpenWetWare to store all their protocols and calculations, it was very useful when she changed institutions for us to get a copy of those, you saved me a lot of time from having to email people for their protocols.
In my opinion lab environments aren't really like start ups in terms of culture, students have their own way of doing things and trying to force them to do things a particular way is detrimental to their performance and attitude. Since students are around for at least 6-7 years there is not really the issue of turnover and the necessity of keeping things uniform so that a replacement can pick up work right away. Whatever system you use a new student will still need several months to adjust and learn the basic skills necessary for research, during that time they can develop a system of their own so it's not really downtime. As a student I think trying to force such a culture is a mistake, you'll develop a reputation if you hardball it. Most PIs take the attitude of we don't care as long as the job gets done and things are labelled for safety sake. That seems to work quite well.
In my opinion lab environments aren't really like start ups in terms of culture, students have their own way of doing things and trying to force them to do things a particular way is detrimental to their performance and attitude. Since students are around for at least 6-7 years there is not really the issue of turnover and the necessity of keeping things uniform so that a replacement can pick up work right away. Whatever system you use a new student will still need several months to adjust and learn the basic skills necessary for research, during that time they can develop a system of their own so it's not really downtime. As a student I think trying to force such a culture is a mistake, you'll develop a reputation if you hardball it. Most PIs take the attitude of we don't care as long as the job gets done and things are labelled for safety sake. That seems to work quite well.