About one and a half years after its founding, the Viennese “PsychTech” startup HiMoment has reached around 30,000 regular users. Now premium content in the form of 21-day lucky challenges to bring in first sales.
It’s a question that every startup has to ask: When do you start monetizing? A prime example is probably WhatsApp. Nearly ten years after its founding, five years after it left Facebook, with more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, it has not yet found its business model. If the Viennese startup hiMoment offers paid features for the first time around one and a half years after its launch, with about 30,000 users returning weekly, it is by no means too late.
Happiness diary with AI in the background
HiMoment has so far relied entirely on its free downloadable app with its “journaling function”, which is based on the “Savoring Method” from psychology. The users hold special moments in their life by photo or text in diary manner in the app. An algorithm then makes sure to show them those moments at a later date. “The special thing is that the powerful artificial intelligence behind the moment based on the user behavior constantly learning what topics are important to the user and what inspirations they need exactly for successful journaling,” it says from the startup. The app also helps users to catalog their most beautiful moments and find them again anytime.
hiMoment: Brain becomes “tricked out”
In addition, the app shows the users at regular intervals two “hiMoments” simultaneously and lets them make a selection. “As you reflect on the positive feelings you experienced in those moments, the brain reactivates the same regions that were active the first time you experienced those moments. Thus, the body is flooded with the same positive emotions as then, effectively tricking the brain, giving it another shot of the happiness that was felt when the positive moments happened”, explains Co-Founder and CEO Christoph Schnedlitz.
Premium content with gamification approach
In the premium content mentioned above, with which sales are now to come in for the first time, HiMoment relies on a form of gamification. Specifically, the startup in its app offers seven “premium tracks”, each containing 21-day challenges, in which each user receives a mini-challenge, which should lead him to his goals every day. It deals with the areas of self-love, self-confidence, relaxation, partnerships, relationships, work and movement.
Also published on Medium.