Happier, Inc. Co-Founder & Chief Happiness Officer, Nataly Kogan Tells Us What Makes Her Happy!

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.