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Nataly Kogan

Founder of Happier, Happiness Expert and Tech Entrepreneur
Nataly Kogan
  • Top exec at Mckinsey, Hudson Ventures and Microsoft’s Future of Social Experiences Lab (FUSE)
  • Featured in top news outlets, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune
  • Sought after keynote speaker on topics such as corporate culture and finding happiness at work

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Nataly Kogan is a former VC and the founder of Happier, a global technology and learning platform helping individuals and organizations to realize full potential by adopting scientifically-proven practices that improve their well-being.

From her teenage years as a Russian refugee learning English in the projects outside of Detroit, to becoming a leading venture capitalist in a predominantly male industry while still in her twenties, Nataly has continually achieved at the highest of levels. 

She has held top positions at Manhattan-based firms McKinsey and Co. and Hudson Ventures, served as the only female board member at Constant Contact, worked at Microsoft's state-of-the-art Future of Social Experiences Lab (FUSE), and served as Vice President of Consumer Experience at WHERE, which she helped sell to PayPal in 2011.

Despite a lifetime of accomplishments, Nataly found herself vastly unfulfilled. Initially a skeptic of the research related to the positive effects of gratitude, kindness and mindfulness on our daily lives, Nataly decided to incorporate happiness into her own life—solely in order to prove the research wrong. 

But the more she applied these techniques, the more she immersed herself in and embraced the science and research—experiencing firsthand how effective happiness can be as a tool for realizing full potential in all aspects of work and life.

Rather than chasing "The Big Happy" of career, money and achievements, Nataly soon decided to dedicate her life to discovering and sharing the tools and best practices required to reframe the concept of "I'll be happy when..." to the more powerful "I'm happier now because..."

With this mission in mind, Nataly launched Happier to an overwhelming global response and has since built a community that has shared over six million happy moments (and counting) on the Happier mobile application and website.

Since launching Happier, Nataly has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, New York Magazine and Time Magazine, and has appeared as an expert on Dr. Oz, Bloomberg TV, and "One World" with Deepak Chopra.

She is a sought-out keynote speaker, having appeared at events that include at Million Dollar Roundtable, Fortune's Tech Brainstorm, Blogher, SXSW, the 92nd St. Y, Harvard Women's Leadership Conference, TEDx Boston, and many more.

Nataly lives in Boston with her husband and daughter. When she isn’t running Happier, she can be found painting in her art studio, doing creative projects with her daughter, deepening her practice of yoga and meditation, or cooking up feasts for her family and friends – all of which bring her a lot of joy.

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Speaker Video

Improving Happiness, and the Bottom Line. Our always-on work environments are making us less productive, less creative, and generally unhappy regardless of our chosen careers. A recent Gallop study shows that when an employee reports increased feelings of well-being, it is 20% more likely that the employee's coworkers will report being happier too. In other words, well-being spreads, much like stress spreads—with more than 50% of employees reporting being "close to burnout" when asked about their stress levels.

In this talk, Nataly shares insights and strategies for a happier workforce. Why? Because happier employees are more creative, more productive, less likely to take time off from work for health reasons, better communicators, and deliver better customer service—resulting in an improved bottom-line for all.

The Pursuit of Happier... Why is the pursuit of happiness so stressful and unfulfilling? Why do we believe that huge achievements trump small everyday moments that connect us with ourselves and those we love most? After years spent chasing "The Big Happy" of career, money and achievements, Nataly explores how the science and research behind happiness can be used to improve all aspects of our lives, showing audiences why we should stop saying "I'll be happy when..." and start saying "I'm happy now because..." Nataly approaches happiness as a clearly-defined practice rather than some spontaneous feeling, sharing with her audiences strategies, techniques, and tools – along with a strong dose of necessary inspiration – to make them part of their own busy lives.

The New Way to Lead at Work. This speech is suited for managers and division leaders who are driving toward specific strategic goals.  In a high-stakes, high-stress environment, creativity, teamwork, and shared purpose become fragile.  How does a leader protect those values which determine the success of a project, and retain the best people for the next project?  How do leaders cultivate purpose, satisfaction and the right environment amid the stress of a project to bring out the best in the team?  The balance might seem delicate, but Nataly explains how happiness helps the team drive faster and better toward shared strategic goals.

Cultivating Happiness at Work. In this speech, Nataly helps individuals learn how to move their careers forward with optimism, purpose and satisfaction.  She shares her happiness manifesto and gives research-based instruction to make happiness a habit and a regular practice, rather than a vague concept.  She shows how we each have a responsibility to ourselves and our careers to find the positive path in any work environment, and how if we can do that, we make ourselves invaluable to our employees.

Fire Up the Awesome. This speech is targeted at women to encourage them to connect to their true purpose, learn how to deal with fear, and move from a position of strength to achieve significant growth and fulfillment in their careers and beyond. Nataly has spent her career in male-dominated industries and doesn’t deny that women face significant challenges in the workplace, as well as trying to balance their usually extremely high expectations of themselves with often out of date societal expectations. She offers women audience frank stories, paradigm shifts in thinking, and practical strategies to help them unlock more of their potential without losing their sanity.

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