What Is Hippo?
What is it?
Hippo is a tool that lets you take control of your happiness.
You can track your feelings and behaviour over time to see you what's driving your happiness now.
You can train your brain with evidence-based techniques to become happier.
Think of it like a FitBit for the mind, or a stress first aid kit: a combined happiness tracker and a happiness trainer.
Is it for me?
Happiness can be hard. The developed world has become no happier in the last 60 years. Stress and anxiety issues are getting worse.
Research suggests this is because we adapt to most changes, we're bad at remembering how we felt in the past and predicting what will make us happier.
Hippo helps you understand yourself so you can do more of makes you happy whilst worrying less. If you want to be happier, try it.
How does it work?
The app prompts you to track what you're feeling, doing and thinking at that moment. This is a new, powerful way of capturing your life as you live it and learning what - for you personally - determines how you feel.
There are also scientifically-backed tools to help you manage your moods, such as mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy, and some simple ideas to get you smiling again when you’re feeling low.
Currently, Hippo is an experimental prototype, the first version of hopefully many, and only available on Android (sorry!). We haven't implemented all the features yet, but they're coming, promise. Ultimately, Hippo will be powered by artificial intelligence so it learns what makes you happy and gives you personal guidance.
Team Hippo
Our Story
Hippo was created by Michael Plant, a philosopher who researches happiness at the University of Oxford. He got the idea for Hippo in March 2015 when he became unexpectedly depressed failing to start another business and realised the happiness app that could have saved him hadn't be built yet.
Michael started working on what he thought was missing, brought David Serrano on board as CTO and they began development in David's living room in August 2015. Michael started his PhD at Oxford in October and the initial prototype was released in early 2016.
Our Mission
At Hippo, our goal is to make the world as happy as possible.
We're going to work at the cutting edge of happiness research and technology so we can build the best tools to help people lead joyful, fulfilling lives.
In our dreamworld, society has realised you need to look after your mind as much as your body, and stress and depression have gone the same way as smallpox.
If you want to join us on our mission, think you can help us, or have questions, don't hesitate to get in touch.
Michael Plant
(CEO/Chief Philosophy Officer)
David Serrano
(Chief Technology Officer)