Embark on a remarkable journey into the heart of entrepreneurship, where Talia Soen, Founder and CEO of Happy Things, navigates the complex landscape of happiness and well-being. In an illuminating interview with Industry Leaders Magazine, Soen unveils the genesis of her entrepreneurial voyage and the inception of Happy Things—an ingenious platform that ingeniously weaves science-based, personalized happiness training programs into the fabric of daily life.
Soen’s journey as a techpreneur began at the tender age of 12, with a resolute ambition to forge her path. A decade later, she embarked on a mission to blend her passion with purpose—creating a tech startup that resonated with her deeply rooted desire to uplift lives. The result: Happy Things, a pioneering endeavor that converges cutting-edge technology with the transformative power of happiness.
Happy Things emerges as a catalyst for cultivating happiness as a skill, debunking the myth that joy is merely an external reward. Soen’s insights, nurtured by her background in psychology and a fervent pursuit of holistic wellness, have led to a dynamic platform that redefines well-being. As the first-of-its-kind happiness habit-building app, Happy Things epitomizes personalized progress, reminiscent of a “Duolingo, but for happiness.”
Diving into the essence of Happy Things, Soen intricately explicates the science of happiness. Rooted in positive psychology, the platform empowers users with simple, science-backed activities spanning relationships, mental and physical well-being, stress relief, and personal growth. Through Happy Things, Soen bridges the chasm between academic research and everyday application, fostering a kinder, happier world—one activity at a time.
Yet, Soen’s journey has not been without challenges. As a female entrepreneur, she navigates a realm often dominated by male counterparts, striving to build a girls’ club of mutual support. Her indomitable spirit and perseverance stand as a testament to overcoming biases, defying odds, and inspiring aspiring female entrepreneurs to forge ahead.
The future glimmers with promise as Soen envisions a world where happiness is embraced as a universal pursuit. With a resolute commitment to measuring and enhancing happiness, Soen forges a pioneering path that aligns business success with a profound social impact. In this candid interview, Talia Soen reveals how she is turning her vision of a kinder, happier world into an empowering reality, one Happy Thing at a time.
Industry Leaders: Can you tell us about your journey as an entrepreneur and how you came up with the idea for Happy Things? What motivated you to start this venture?
I’ve wanted to start my own company since I was 12 years old. 10 years later, when I started working in tech, it became clear that that company would be a tech startup, and it was just a matter of finding the right idea – a product that was needed, that answers a problem that I was passionate about but also uniquely fit to address.
Happy Things is really the product of my own journey – I spent most of my life feeling that I wasn’t happy enough, and searching for ways and solutions that will help me live a happier life. This journey led me to get a degree in psychology and various certifications in coaching, nutrition, fitness, and more. I was even a yoga teacher for a few years. The most important thing I learned during this journey was that happiness isn’t something external that happens to us, or a reward for our achievements (“I’ll be happy when…”). Happiness is a skill that can be practiced on a daily basis, just like playing the piano or learning a new language.
However, just like any other skill, the hard part is building the habit and sticking to it – and even though I was incredibly motivated to incorporate more happiness into my life, I found it very difficult to maintain. I started looking for tools that would help me build the habit of practicing happiness – but couldn’t find any. Most apps in the wellness space don’t look at happiness as a whole, as something that is really multidimensional yet also very individual; they tend to focus on a specific element of wellbeing (i.e. meditation), and offer a one-size fits all solution.
That was my personal “A-HA” moment and the birth of Happy Things – an app that helps people practice happiness as a skill in just 5 minutes a day, with simple, personalized, science-based activities. We like to think about it as Duolingo, but for happiness.
Industry Leaders: Happy Things is described as a platform that turns happiness into habit. Could you explain how your science-based, personalized happiness training programs work and how they contribute to building a happier, kinder world?
Happy Things is based on the field of positive psychology. There are thousands of studies that show that we have the ability to impact our happiness levels throughout our daily lives, and even tells us how! Yet these methods haven’t really reached the general population yet in a way that helps people build a habit and integrate it into their life.
Happy Things turns the science of happiness into habit by breaking it down into simple, science-based activities covering all areas of life – relationships, mental & physical wellbeing, stress relief, personal growth and more. We basically create the bridge between academic research – that has seen a lot of great breakthroughs in the field in the last decade – and the general public.
Our mission is to make happiness an accessible and teachable concept, because happiness is much more than smiling, or waking up in a good mood. Happier people live longer, healthier lives, both physically and mentally. They are more productive and successful. They help others, volunteer, and give back more to their communities – they truly create a better world.
Industry Leaders: Traditional business models often prioritize profit over well-being. How did you approach reinventing the business model for Happy Things to align it with your vision of making happiness accessible to millions worldwide?
That’s a great question, because it can seem like two opposing motivations – on one hand, when building a product you want people to use it as much as possible and spend more time on it. It’s easy to use psychological principles to get people “addicted” to your platform in some way (we’re all familiar with infinite scrolling on social media…).
But on the other hand, when building a product that’s meant to do good in the world and help people, you want to avoid using these methods – so it’s a really fine line, finding the balance between building a great product that people love and find value in, without using methods that don’t benefit them – in short, finding ways to use technology for good.
A few things were clear to us from the beginning:
1. It would be a challenge. A lot of the activities that are suggested in the app, actually take our users outside of the app – things like: take a 10 minutes walk, call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while, or even unplug from all screens for 10 minutes! So we’re actually doing the opposite of what most apps do… and yet we’re seeing that our engagement and retention rates are extremely high! So people are responding really well to this method.
2. If we want to reach millions of people worldwide and really make an impact, we need to build a successful company, while staying true to our values and giving back to the community.
3. We do not want to incorporate ads into our product, it is kind of counterproductive to the user experience. That’s why we chose to implement a subscription model – we believe that good products and good content are worth paying for. While we do charge a subscription fee for our app, we offer discounted rates for teachers, social workers, healthcare employees and more, and are always looking for non-profit organizations to collaborate with, as well as universities, hospitals and mental health centers – who can provide the app to their employees, patients or students.
Industry Leaders: As a female entrepreneur, what challenges have you faced in the industry, and how have you overcome them? What advice would you give to other aspiring female entrepreneurs who are looking to disrupt traditional models?
Female entrepreneurs face many challenges that male entrepreneurs don’t. Since most entrepreneurs and investors are still men, we have less role models. When going to industry events, many times I’m still the only woman in the room, which can sometimes be demoralizing.
We might have less opportunities to create social relationships with investors, because while male entrepreneurs might go out for a drink with a male investor, I personally won’t feel comfortable doing that (and I heard enough stories about deals being closed over drinks at the bar). And while I never experienced it myself, there is no shortage of stories about sexual harassment by investors.
Also, there are unconscious biases that work against women, such as the “familiarity bias” – a phenomenon in which people tend to prefer familiar options over unfamiliar ones, even when the unfamiliar options may be better. As most investors are men, they automatically relate and connect more to other men, making it easier for them to invest in male entrepreneurs than in female entrepreneurs.
My advice for aspiring female entrepreneurs is first: just go for it. Women, more than men, have to feel like they’re 100% ready before pursuing their dreams and aspirations (in the same way that women don’t apply for jobs unless they are 100% qualified for them, while men will apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications).
Second, take into account that it is a harder journey for us. Don’t compare yourself to men and their success stories. I did that at first, asking men how they raised their first round. More often than not, the answer was “this investor was a good friend”. Acknowledge it, but don’t let it deter you, or frustrate you (not too much anyway, it is very frustrating).
Last, create a “girls club”. Surround yourself with other female entrepreneurs, mentors, and advisors, who know what it’s like to be a woman in this world. I’m not saying not to take advice from male entrepreneurs or advisors (I’m part of a CEO forum where 80% are men, and having this forum is extremely important for me). But at the end of the day, being able to share this journey with other women, who have a better understanding of what you’re going through, makes a really big difference.
Industry Leaders: Happy Things aims to create personalized products to promote happiness. How do you ensure that your offerings cater to the diverse needs and preferences of your users? How important is personalization in your business model?
Even with the initial version of the app, it was important to us to build a dynamic and flexible experience for our users, offering them a variety of activities in different topics, but still allowing them to select what they want to do each day. Unlike other apps in this space, where you have to accomplish specific tasks in order to advance, our app offers a specific activity, but allows you to switch to a different activity if you want. So if our suggestion for you today was “make your bed”, but that doesn’t work for you today, you can switch and get a completely different recommendation. You can also go back and do your favorite activities again.
Moving forward, as we collect more data and learn more about our users, we’ll be able to tailor plans and activities specifically for them. This will be based on demographic information (age, gender, etc.), preferences, happiness metrics, in-app activity, and data from external sources, such as wearable devices, healthkit, location, weather services, etc. Research has shown that tailoring the activities to each individual is beneficial and can create a bigger impact – and that is what we’re aiming to achieve.
The personalization is a huge part of our product vision, but an even bigger aspect is being proactive – acting as a personal happiness trainer to our users, accompanying them throughout their daily life and proactively suggesting the right activity at the right time.
Industry Leaders: Can you share any success stories or examples of how Happy Things has positively impacted individuals or communities? How do you measure the effectiveness of your happiness training programs?
I can do better and share a testimonial we received from a Pediatric Oncologist:
“I absolutely love this app! I started using this during an especially difficult time both personally and professionally. Most people have struggled in the last couple of years with the pandemic. Being in the medical field brought its own emotional challenges. In a fast paced world with never ending to do lists, this app has helped me focus on self care and happiness. I love knowing that I will do at least 1 activity in the day that’ll either make me or someone else smile- be it appreciating something beautiful, leaving a kind note for a loved one, or doing something nice for someone who isn’t expecting it. I look forward to this one activity daily; this has consistently helped me focus on the good things in life. The app is simple, easy to use, and has an explanation for why an activity is recommended. And the customer service has been amazing! I highly recommend this self care app as a step to help you focus on happiness and work life balance.”
In order to measure the effectiveness of the app, we use an in-app happiness questionnaire, which is based on the PANAS questionnaire, one of the most used methods to measure happiness. The original questionnaire includes 20 items, asking people “In the past week, how often have you felt ____?” with an array of positive and negative emotions (excited, nervous, proud, etc.). Working with a researcher from one of Israel’s top universities, we made adjustments so it’s suitable for the app – our questionnaire focuses only on the positive emotions, and has 6 items instead of 10. Users answer the 6 questions and receive a score on a scale from 1-5.
Our users fill out the questionnaire for the first time as they are signing up for the app, and that score serves as their baseline. The app then prompts them to check-in periodically, based on their usage (ideally, once a week), and this allows them and us to see their progress.
Looking at the results, we’ve seen that after just one month, our users experience a 17.5% improvement in their score after just one month, and a 57% improvement after 7 months.
Industry Leaders: The concept of happiness and well-being is increasingly gaining attention in various industries. How do you see the future of happiness-focused businesses, and what role do you think they will play in shaping the entrepreneurial landscape?
As I mentioned before, happiness isn’t this “fluffy”, nice-to-have concept. It has a significant impact on the macro level as well – happier people live longer, healthier lives, both physically and mentally – meaning lower costs on healthcare systems. They are more productive and successful – meaning greater returns for companies and organizations. They help others, volunteer, and give back more to their communities – creating a better world.
As the importance of happiness and wellbeing gains more attention, I believe more and more organizations, and even governments, will prioritize and actively work to promote it, understanding the value it has not just for individuals. It will be a KPI that is measured, just like the number of sales, or bugs fixed.
Our goal is to create a movement of happiness as a way of life, and turn the science of happiness from a niche into a mainstream concept. Quite similar to what Headspace and Calm did with meditation – 10 years ago, meditation was not a well-known concept, very few people were actually aware of its benefits and practiced it regularly. Today, you probably won’t find a person who hasn’t tried it, or at least heard about it. It’s become completely mainstream, and that’s what we want to accomplish with happiness as a skill. This trend has already started; there are more and more books and podcasts about happiness; the most popular courses in Yale and Harvard are about happiness; and the search for solutions is growing.
Industry Leaders: Happy Things has a mission to create a kinder world. How do you infuse kindness and empathy into your company culture and operations? Have you faced any unique challenges in building a company that prioritizes kindness?
I believe that being kind and compassionate will only yield good results.
This is something I have always emphasized – be a person first. It’s really not that difficult. Ask people how they’re doing, and if they need anything. Tell them to take the day off if they’re not feeling well. Make sure they feel appreciated and that they’re maintaining a work-life balance. When people feel like they matter, that you trust them and value their work and opinions, they’ll want to give more and be a part of what you’re creating.
For me, there is no other way, and it’s always worked: when I was just getting started with Happy Things, I was able to build a team of people who contributed their time and expertise to me without getting anything in return (and some of them are still working with me today).
