I've been a fan of the app Happier ever since I
saw it's catchy icon in the App Store in June and couldn't wait to give the
free app a go. Four months on I use it daily and tell all my friends about it!
I even wrote a review on my favourite app, you can read my full post here. When we contacted co-founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happier,
Inc. Nataly Kogan, we were really pleased that she was more than happy to answer
some questions as part of our blog's Entrepreneur Interviews section.
Based in Boston, Happier, Inc. is on a mission
to inspire people to be happier in their everyday lives. Research has shown that in sharing good things and focusing on the positives, we become healthier and more productive. The company's first
product, the beautiful iOS app and online community designed to encourage
people to share happy moments enables us to do just that.
Since using Happier, I have become more
grateful for the little things in life and aim to put three happy moments in each day. Nataly,
co-founder of Happier, Inc. talks to us about her positive moments, energy,
favourite foods and wanting to be a spy! We're sure she'll inspire you as much
as she has us...
Enjoy, Jane x
What inspired you to create
Happier Nataly?
After my family
fled Russia in 1989, I had a rough time. After a few months in refugee camps in
Austria and Italy, we finally made our way to the United States and then spent
a year living in the projects, on welfare, in Ypsilanti (outside Detroit). When
I finally got on my feet I decided that to make up for the hardship my family
went through by chasing the American Dream. To me, this dream meant becoming
HAPPY. And the way I thought you got there was by achieving a LOT and making a
lot of money.
So for the next
20 years I did just that - a series of impressive jobs, starting companies,
publishing a book with Hyperion, getting the fancy stroller and the fancy car,
you name it. By the time I was in my early 30s, I really appreciated my life
but I was not happy. Not at all. Mostly I was really exhausted.
My father is a
scientist so I decided to see if there was scientific research about what I
could do to be happier. I spent a few years reading every academic paper and
hardcover book I could find and then I had a "holy crap"
moment. I was doing it all wrong. Money or achievements don't make us happy.
But there are some really simple things that we can do and that have been
scientifically proven to lead to positive and optimistic thinking. Some of the
most powerful are: Focusing on and capturing a few positive things about our
every day, helping others smile, being surrounded by more positive people
(because happiness is contagious).
I changed my
approach based on what I had learned, stopped chasing happiness, and became a
lot happier. And this inspired me to create Happier and to encourage millions
of other people to stop saying "I'll be happy when..." and start
saying "I am happier now because..."
Another huge
inspiration for me was realizing that being happier isn't just more fun. There
is wide body of research that shows being more positive is fundamentally
important to living well. Happier people catch fewer colds, have a 50% lower
chance of a heart attack, are less depressed, stressed, and anxious, sleep
better and make healthier lifestyle choices. And that's our mission at Happier:
To help millions of people become happier in their everyday lives so that they
live better and in more fulfilling ways.
What have you learnt along
the way?
Oh so much! One of the most amazing things we've learned
is just how powerful it is to be able to come to a community focused on
appreciating small positive things and to read what makes others happier. So
many of our users tell us that they start using Happier at first as a gratitude
journal, to capture what they appreciate in their lives. But what keeps them
coming back multiple times a day is the amazingly supportive community and the
fact that they can get an instant positivity boost when they read other users' happy
moments.
We have 1000s of
emails from users sharing with us that reading happy moments shared by the
community helped them get through a difficult situation, a tough day, or a
really horrific life experience. We are so grateful to know we can make someone's
life better but true credit goes to the community at Happier, where people
share these small positive moments and encourage each other, even on tough
days.
How would your colleagues
describe you?
Ha! I should ask
them. Probably energetic, fiery, full of ideas (sometimes too many), overusing
the word "awesome", did I say energetic?
I hope and I
think they would say that I live and breathe Happier - not just the company,
but everything we are about and our vision. And they would be right.
What does a typical day at
Happier HQ look like?
There really
isn't a typical day since we're a young start-up and things change a lot.
Most days you'd
come in and find us cranking in our very bright and open Happier HQ, which is
on the fifth floor of this beautiful industrial building, and is a very airy
loft. We usually have some music cranking (we take turns taking over the
speakers so everyone can share their music tastes). The team usually grabs
lunch together - we try to not have meetings too much so this is a great way to
catch up. Burritos are high on our list of faves and if it's remotely nice out
we are out there, catching some sun.
Every Wednesday
at 6pm we have Happier Hour. It's a chance for a team to grab some drinks and
snacks and just chill out at the office. We often invite friends or other start-ups
to join us, and once a month have an open community Happier Hour. It's one of
our favorite team traditions and we even have a custom Happier Hour neon sign!
Since I do a lot
of speaking and work with investors and partners, I run around and travel more
than anyone on the team. We all use virtual chat and other tools, like Google
Hangout, so we stay in touch even when I am on the road.
What has
been your biggest challenge to date and how did you overcome it?
I think one of
the biggest challenges is that people assume they need to be happy to be on
Happier. It's actually the opposite.
Most of us are
not insanely happy or really unhappy all the time, we're somewhere in between.
We have good days and rough days and routine days and days we just don't want
to get out of bed. The premise of Happier is that because happy moments can be
so small - a good hot coffee in the morning, a favorite song coming on during a
commute, a nice text from a friend or a hug from your kid - you can find one in
every single day, including the tough ones.
So we try to
articulate this as much as we can so that new users coming to Happier don't
think this is a community only for endless optimists or people who are shouting
about how happy they are. The best way we've found we can do this is through
the happy moments our users are sharing - so you'll find those right on our
homepage on happier.com and on the Discover tab in the Happier
iPhone app.
If you weren't spreading happiness with
Happier what would you be doing?
Well, for a while I really wanted to be a spy. (Let's just leave it at that.)
But probably I
would be driving my family nuts by trying to start my own fashion label. It would
have a lot of edgy cuts and yes, tons of orange, of course.
And finally, what's the
best piece of business advice you've ever been given?
Tough to pick just one, but one of my favorites
is about asking for help and asking for feedback ALL THE TIME. No one has ever
built a great company on their own.
I have a rule -
I ask for help once a day. A mentor, someone on my team, a friend. Sometimes
it's big, sometimes something small. But it's a way of thinking and it also
sets an example for my team that they can and should do the same.
Quick
Fire Favourites...
Way to unwind?
Go for a really quick walk outside.
Fitness activity?
Walking and yoga. Especially hip hop yoga.
App (that's not Happier!)?
Instagram.
Food?
A really crispy baguette with butter.
Figs. More figs.
Steel cut oatmeal made with hot milk.
Cherries. More cherries.
A really great steak with a glass of Rioja.
(Can you tell I like food?)
Song?
Lose yourself by
Eminem. It's my fight song.
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