Introducing Happiness
I launched HappyFeed for iOS in the App Store in the Fall of 2013. It took weeks before it reached even 10 users, and I still distinctly remember my excitement from each new signup during the first few months (about how long it took to reach the first 100 users).
HappyFeed is a digital gratitude journal based on a common practice in positive psychology called ‘3 gratitudes’ (maybe you’ve seen this TED Talk). In short, the app is a quick and easy place to record 3 gratitudes each day. By reflecting on and recording things you are grateful for each day, you are essentially rewiring your brain to focus more on the good. Focusing on good things tends to make you a happier person. 😊
Positive psychology is becoming a massive research field — much more so now than it was 3 years ago when HappyFeed started. There are plenty of books, TED Talks, and research papers explaining how to be happier. Frankly, with such an overwhelming amount of information and options, finding happiness is becoming exhausting.
The purpose of HappyFeed is to help people adopt simple practices that are proven to increase their happiness. In short: Building Happiness.
Motivation
I’ve been working on HappyFeed for over 3 years, so why start writing about it now? Hopefully the graph below will illustrate my point.
HappyFeed is currently enjoying some hockey-stick organic growth (sorry for the buzzwords), and it’s always easier to start something when things are going well. It’s likely that growth will taper soon and require more product enhancements and marketing maneuvers, but I’m riding the high while it lasts.
Up until last summer, I limited my HappyFeed updates to when a user emailed my about a bug, a new iOS release required changes, or a server update threatened the stability of the app. It took a long time to decide I wanted to go all in: literally years.
As you might guess, it’s hard to commit to a startup. There’s an enormous chance of failure and oodles of stress along the way. Even after you’ve started working, there are two little voices fighting for control.
“Don’t Do It!”
- “This is just a cute feature, not a real company”
- There are much more “important” things to work on
- Issues with engagement, stagnant DAU (daily active users) growth
- Personal issues: money, time, etc. (this could be 30 bullet points)
“Do It!”
- Emails from excited users, requesting updates or saying how much it has changed their lives
- Steady increase in signups and downloads without any marketing
- Realizing how much joy the app brings me personally
- I’m actually “passionate” about this field and it is something I can see myself working on for many years
“Do it” eventually overpowered “don’t do it.” So after a few months of focusing on growth (see chart above) here we are.
Building Happiness
Today I’m starting a channel here on Medium to write about the struggles and successes of growing HappyFeed. My hope is to create content that is specific to my challenges while applicable to other early growth-stage B2C startups. I have a habit of writing lengthy posts, but I’ll try to break it up into short topic-specific articles.
As a Place to Find Clarity
You might guess that someone building an app to record daily moments is into journaling. It makes it easier to linearize your thoughts. It gives you a sense of where you’ve been and maybe where you are going. Doing it publicly provides an opportunity for others to share in your learnings. I’m writing here to do this for myself and for my company — think of it as an experiment.
As a Resource for Entrepreneurs
More importantly, I think there’s a real lack of information from startups that are in early growth stages, especially consumer internet companies. People don’t like to blog when they are in the rough or slow parts of building a company. They only want to share the success and seldom the struggle. Some successful founders have given great talks about the early days (particularly these two by AirBnb and Instagram). I, at least, would love much, much more of this. Plus, retrospective thinking is a massive problem in tech. If you are successful, then you can claim you knew what you were doing all along. I want to be able to present problems clearly as they occur.
…Problems?
Every product has its problems, whether or not the founder is willing to express them publicly. HappyFeed has plenty that I’ll be working to address in the upcoming years. Here are just a few things that keep me up at night:
- Habits are crazy-hard to keep. How can we make it easier?
- How can a product stand out in a crowded space like journaling?
- How do you apply a viral growth rate to a private app?
- How do you build trust around a new brand?
When writing about these problems I’ll do my best to maintain a balance between too-broad and too-specific. The goal is to be helpful to others while still providing concrete examples.
Product Philosophy
Every product team should have a set of guiding principles that empowers their decision making and fuels their growth. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer here but simplicity is key. Here are a few of mine:
- Every feature, message, and decision must increase user happiness
- Never sacrifice product for growth, or “don’t be Candy Crush”
- Solve little problems first but always consider the big picture
Probably not a complete list, but I like the idea of having these written down from the start.
Moving Forward
I’ll be covering a few new topics each month with the hope of helping other entrepreneurs who are in a similar place. Startups are always a struggle and “consumer internet” tends to face a lot of criticism. My goal is to demystify it just a little and perhaps eliminate some stereotypes and false truths along the way.
I also firmly believe that helping people find more happiness will lead us toward a world where everyone can be a little more empathetic, a little more caring, and a little less fearful. I’m looking forward to sharing this journey with you and building even more happiness.
Download or learn more about HappyFeed at https://www.happyfeed.co
*Note: This channel is generally intended more for other founders and entrepreneurs than for HappyFeed users, but I have a lot of love for them and all the rest of my time goes to them.
