Creating jobs, confidence, and opportunity for the science community
Since our inception over two years ago, HappiLabs has been focused on a mission:
to improve the happiness of scientists and the quality of their research.
When we have decisions to make or new initiatives to advance, our mission guides us. As CEO, one of my toughest decisions:Do I hire one full-time employee or hire a bunch of part-timers?As an entrepreneur looking out for the long-term health of the science community, empowering scientists to believe in life outside the lab is critical. Therefore, I thought we'd bring more happiness to the science community by hiring more people than hiring one. It created extra work for HappiLabs, and therefore, more costs, but we created income, skills development, and opportunity for scientists.So....Thank you to the scientists who have worked with us over the past couple years. Growing from a tiny seed into a sapling would not have been possible without your brains.We've hired postdocs, grad students, and unemployed scientists for small jobs (1-12 hours/week). We call them "microjobs." They could be an intern (but that's an undergrad term) or a contractor (but there are few contracts involved), so a microjob is a fitting term for a scientist in this role.As of September 18, 2014:
- 17 scientists have cycled through HappiLabs
- Working 1,038 hours
- Earning $21,911.82 at rates ranging from $18-$25 per hour
What have they learned? Kate knows more about IP than you probably do. Anthony created one of our logos. Raudel can list 15 suppliers of pipette tips off the top of his head. Ben understands the value of quantifying the cost of a science experiment, and Ian helped us start a script for a PCR Tube Adventure movie. We've also seen Aaron, Adam, Beth, Chris, Chrissie, Eric, Joanna, John, Nadia, Tracy, Vidhya, and...Andrew Thaler, Phd was a marine biologist looking for work when we found him. He is now on his way to Papa New Guinea to study the ocean floor with OpenROV. With us, he organized a Sloan Foundation grant and generated content for the HL blog. We received excellent content and Dr. Thaler received health happiness while he waited for new opportunity:
The "microjob" really did help me out during a pretty rough time and that extra money each month made the difference between cut-rate and decent health insurance.
Meet more of our current and past microjobbers: Our PeopleThank you to my family and friend investors who put up the money to create the first microjobs, and Ethan Perlstein who took the risk to sign the first Virtual Lab Manager contract. Without you, we would not have been able to accumulate the knowledge and experience necessary to make us awesome Virtual Lab Managers.How can we improve your happiness as a scientist? Thank you for listening and help spread the word about our mission.
Tom RuginisCEO and Virtual Lab Manager™