17-year-old builds online service to address teen issues, wins big at US challenge

To help teenagers in distress during the pandemic, a city-based Class 12 student turned entrepreneur with his classmate to build a free online peer counselling service. This unique startup service by teenagers for teenagers has just scored high, emerging second in an American Studentpreneur Challenge.

Kian Godhwani and his co-founder Nandini Bhattacharya called it the HappyInc.

Building the company from scratch, they pitched the idea behind it at the University of Arizona Studentpreneur Challenge. After two grueling rounds that had an essay and a five-minute pitch to a panel of professors and entrepreneurs, the duo finished second out of 131 competing teams.

Here’s how HappyInc works, as Godhwani put it: “It is a service where teenagers between 13 and 18 years can talk, vent and express themselves freely with their team of helpers, who will be there to listen to them, understand what they have to say and support them, all while passing no judgment.”

Help-seekers will have to visit the website (happyinc.in), navigate to the ‘Book a Session’ page and fill out a few details. “Within minutes, a helper is assigned to them and the sessions are conducted on Zoom.”

Teenagers themselves, the helpers get that role after a two-week in-house training programme with professional counsellors. The help-seekers could also take a chat option and remain anonymous throughout the process. The services are completely free, say the founders.

Mobile app soon

Moving beyond the website interface, HappyInc will soon take the shape of a mobile app. Explains Kian: “We are working to develop our app through which teenagers can not only seek help through our helpers system, but also spread hope and happiness through their stories and hobbies, and make a positive impact even if it may be a small one.”

Launched on August 20, the online service with a team of 15 helpers has so far assisted over 60 teenagers. More than half of the help-seekers had returned for multiple sessions. “Next year, after our board exams, we will be free to fully focus on the project and make it even bigger,” Kian told DH.

Born and brought up in Bengaluru, Kian made full use of the time he spent at home, learning online during the pandemic. “I had done some internships, poured all that money into this venture. In future, we expect to be a very profitable company, providing free help for teenagers by enlisting psychiatrists, therapists and more,” he says, gearing up for the launch of the app by December 2021.