Priya Vij, Hapny Home

[00:00:00] Sanjay Parekh: Today on the show, I’m speaking to Priya Vij, the founder of Hapny Home.

Hapny Home is a new home accessory brand focused on the small design details that have the power to transform your space, starting with cabinet hardware. The name Hapny — spelled H A P N Y — comes from the names of all the cities where founder Priya has lived and rented apartments — Houston, Austin, Portland, and New York. The Hapny Home launch collection includes solid brass knobs, cabinet pulls, and appliance pulls.

Priya, welcome to the show!

[00:01:26] Priya Vij: Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

[00:01:28] Sanjay Parekh: I'm super excited to have you here. I am personally in touch with buying cabinet pulls. My wife and I, we've done this before. But before we start talking about what you're doing as this side hustle, I'd love to hear a little bit about you and your background.

[00:01:40] Priya Vij: Yeah, definitely. Love to hear that you're familiar with cabinet hardware. Right now, I am sitting in Houston, Texas, which is actually where I was born and raised and spent my childhood. And when I turned 18 and it was time to go to college, I said I would never live here again. So as life happens and it's ironic, this is where I am currently based.

I left Houston to go to college in New York at NYU and spent a few years working there after I graduated. And the like a good Indian daughter went to business school to get my MBA at UT in Austin. Through there, I was able to get a connection to Nike based in Portland, Oregon, where I then moved after Austin to work a couple years at that company.

And then that's really where the idea for Hapny started brewing. Then COVID hit and I had some family things, so I came back home to Houston and that's actually where a lot of my business has been based out of. So, using this is home base for the time being.

[00:02:35] Sanjay Parekh: So the, the name HAPNY, it's not in the order of the places that you lived, it's in the order of —

[00:02:41] Priya Vij: That can make it a word that you can pronounce.

Yes, it was lot, really hard that the N and the Y come second. So to move it around, to make it from a soundable word.

[00:02:52] Sanjay Parekh: Plus, probably a domain name, that's available.

[00:02:54] Priya Vij: That the saga always, of finding the social media channels and website that are available.

[00:03:01] Sanjay Parekh: So, okay. You started this as you're kind of working full time as a side hustle. What kind of gave you the idea to even do this? And even think like, oh yeah, I am not doing enough already. Let me add yet something else to my plate and add a side hustle. Like what got you to that point?

[00:03:19] Priya Vij: So, my story with becoming a side hustler, entrepreneur is not, I think, typical to most. I did not grow up, wanting to do this. I never was like the kid at school doing the candy bar arbitrage. I was the person that was buying the candy bars, like loving that there was candy at school. I never had this like secret side hustle growing up where I was always trying to be the businesswoman. My dad had his own, and he still has his own, cabinet hardware company.

So that's obviously one of the most direct ties to why I'm doing what I'm doing and where the idea came from. But I think, subconsciously, growing up with a father that was an entrepreneur and being around that, and my brother actually joined the business after he graduated college. So, I had both of those family members around me all the time doing their own thing.

I think it took me a while, but definitely over time, that was always in the back of my mind as an option. And I knew I wanted to go do my own thing. I wanted to branch away from the family. I never wanted to be in the family business. And like I said, I didn't want to be in Houston. So that's why I kind of bopped around and got as far away as I could.

But then I started to recognize, ahead of COVID even, but I think COVID especially for the home industry and home brands really accelerated a lot of opportunities. But I was sitting in Portland, loving my job, working at my dream company, and just started to help my dad out with a few things that he needed help with on the side.

And it was easy, just like website stuff or more digital things. My dad cannot turn on a computer. I'm not being mean. He literally does not know how to operate the internet. So, there were some digital things that I started to help him with. And through that, I naturally started to, just small optimization opportunities that I knew he wasn't taking advantage of and things that would just make life easier.

And that slowly started to spiral over time as, yes, this is something I can help my dad with, but then, oh, there's actually like, my dad's a successful business owner in this space and he doesn't do these things. So, what if I was a brand that did do these things, could I also build upon this? And that started to sit in the back of my mind.

And then I think paint was one of the first kind of silos in this industry that started to get millennialized, like I say it, or disrupted in that way. And there was a brand, Backdrop that I love and yeah. So, they really caught my eye and I think they've done an incredible job just building a brand in an industry that does not really have branding or have that kind of level of affinity and attention to the customer journey and just hadn't been disrupted in a long time.

And that got my gears turning for, is there an opportunity to do something like this in hardware? There's a very fragmented market. There's a lot of key players that have been in the industry for decades, if not even longer. Some of them have been around for over a hundred years.

And there's just a very standard, status quo way of doing things and existing, and I was sitting on this gold mine in the sense of my dad has a supplier, which is one of the biggest roadblocks. He has a ton of networks and contacts. He obviously knows a lot of the ins and outs of the industry that somebody is an outsider wouldn't necessarily have experience with or access to.

And so, all of those things culminating together slowly over time. Plus ,then COVID, everyone's at home. I had free time to kind of think about these things that all slowly started to form into what is now happening today.

[00:06:44] Sanjay Parekh: So, first of all, I love that you called out the candy bar arbitrage.

[00:06:48] Priya Vij: Yes.

[00:06:48] Sanjay Parekh: As a kid, I have talked about that on a number of episodes because it is actually one of the things that I did, and I found that is a common thing with a lot of other entrepreneurs that started out young and maybe not even realizing that they were going to be entrepreneurs or wanted to be entrepreneurs.

[00:07:03] Priya Vij: Totally.

[00:07:04] Sanjay Parekh: Is that something that you've seen or heard of from other people? Is that why you know that? Because I didn't mention it to you.

[00:07:09] Priya Vij: No, you did not mention it to me. I've heard it, through different episodes of your podcast that I've listened to, but also it is I just hear that a lot. Like, I think that's a very common and if it's not candy bar, maybe it's lemonade or maybe it's, you know, insert whatever here. But I think that general idea, that I've been business savvy and had that drive and had that interest since I was a little kid. Then transforming that over the years to now I run my own business today I think is something that I see or a lot of people around me in this world having, and I just don't have that. So, it’s funny. So, I think maybe I'm also just hyper aware of it because of that.

[00:07:46] Sanjay Parekh: And it's okay, like you can be a side hustler or an entrepreneur founder without having the history. Like everybody has to have the first time they did it.

[00:07:55] Priya Vij: Yeah.

[00:07:55] Sanjay Parekh: Right. It doesn't matter if you did it the first time when you were eight or, you know, 28.

[00:08:01] Priya Vij: Totally.

[00:08:06] Sanjay Parekh: It's still your first time and you know, you're still going to have to learn some stuff. But you can still get there either way. Okay. So. You started thinking about this. COVID helped to accelerated it, you see what's out there, you know, there's Backdrop, there's a bunch of other companies like this doing this kind of improved experience.

So why of all things though other than, you know, your dad being in this business and having access to this, why is it that that knobs and pulls and things like that really excites you in terms of a business?

[00:08:30] Priya Vij: Yeah, it's funny because I, the amount of hours that I've spent talking to friends and random people at parties about cabinet hardware, like it’s not a very sexy thing to talk about. But it is, I really truly believe that when you're thinking about and this is where a lot of Hapny's name, like the fact that it's the cities I've lived in and rented apartments.

This was actually my initial vision which has shifted a bit just in terms of how I'm launching and how I'm actually going to move towards that. But it started with the idea of nobody's talking to renters about hardware. So, like I grew up literally in the industry with my father talking about it all the time.

And then when I would leave, I would never think about hardware. It would never show up in my path. It would never interest me. I wasn't getting targeted ads on Instagram. Like hardware was just not in my bubble and not in the bubble of the people around me and that just felt like a huge miss once I started to think about it. Because all of us are renting and when you think about renter hacks, hardware is actually something that you can absolutely do today with no issues. And it's arguably much easier than painting. It's easier than putting up shelves. It's cheaper than buying pieces of furniture.

Like when you're running through the ways that you can make an apartment feel homier and can express your personality through your design, hardware just doesn't come up. But it felt like a miss to me because, more often than not, every apartment has cabinet doors and cabinet drawers. And in order to open them, you have pieces of metal called hardware.

And so, it's in your space and I think there's no conversation around what happens if I change this. Like, it doesn't have to exist like this. And if I actually choose a nicer piece or a different color or a different shape, whoa, all of a sudden my kitchen feels totally different or this IKEA dresser that everyone has, now mine looks different, and someone might even ask where I got it.

Because it totally like it's a little piece of metal, but it genuinely does have the power to just change the way that something looks and feels in your home. And when you're a renter, you already have the holes drilled into your wall, or in your cabinet door and drawer, and you just have to know what to do.

With like a knob, it's very easy. With a pull, you need to measure some things, but it's still easy and you can change it out. And then when you move out, just change it back. It's easier than having to paint your wall white again, or fill the holes that you drilled for the gallery wall or for your shelf.

And so, there was just -- I obviously had the lead and I'm biased because I came from the industry, but then I also genuinely, the more that I thought about it really started to understand that I would totally be doing this and I'm not. And I wonder why that's not happening. And just started to dig into that more and more and build this idea around there that I really believed in and still do today and want to just help share with other renters and homeowners as well.

[00:11:22] Sanjay Parekh: And I think the other thing that's probably going in your favor here is we've moved more to a society that cares about design, right? Looking back, like 20 years, 30 years, there really wasn't much discussion about design. Things were big blocks of stuff, right?

Like there wasn't really some thought about it. But now a lot of attention is put to design and making sure things look good.

[00:11:48] Priya Vij: Absolutely.

[00:11:48] Sanjay Parekh: So how much does that really play into kind of your discussion? Or is that just something that under the lay? Like, do you not even talk about it because it's so obvious to people that might want to buy?

[00:12:00] Priya Vij: Oh, I think it's a huge part of it. It's a huge part of how I went about creating the seven collections that I launched with, like everything about that was design. I think if you look at my dad, one of the opportunities I identified with him and his other companions in the industry, like his competitors, they have thousands and thousands and thousands of SKUs.

And it's, I get it. Design is also, the tricky thing about design is that it's very subjective, right? So, you have to, as a company to be successful, I have to carry enough variety for you to feel like I'm representing what it is that you want and that's such a tricky thing to be able to do, and a very expensive thing to be able to do because you have to have a ton of SKUs. I mean, it's true in fashion. It's true in every industry.

But my dad has thousands of SKUs that just sit there and that like a lot of them, and it's not just him, a lot of these designs that exist in the market exist because they were just, that's what was available, and it was the cheapest option, and that's what like was the easiest to buy. Or this other brand does it and it does really well, so I'm just going to copycat them. And there wasn't any emotional connection to the design element of it. It was just very like, that's what else is out there and I don't have this shape, so now I'm going to have this shape.

And I spend a lot more time focusing on design and being really intentional with the designs that I created to help with that conversation. And then that's absolutely something that when I talk about the brand and when I try to put forward the brand to customers, that's something that I hope comes through and that I spend a lot of time talking about because, yes, we care a lot more about design now.

I think we appreciate it more and we also appreciate and understand that our environment affects us and especially once now for 18 months plus we were all stuck at home. It all of a sudden became even more obvious that like you have to invest in your space and that affects your mood, that affects your productivity.

It affects how you feel and there's different elements of details that can go into making your space feel more like you and feel comfier and make you happy. And so, they all kind of work together, both from the product creation and just generally what's happening in the industry all the way through, like just what customers I think are feeling and wanting today in the market.

[00:14:11] Sanjay Parekh: So, okay. I love all of that. So, somebody that might be listening to this is thinking, okay ,I want to do the same thing. I want to start a cabinet pull company. But I think the biggest missing piece there is that manufacturing partner.

[00:14:26] Priya Vij: Yeah.

[00:14:26] Sanjay Parekh: And you were fortunate that you had your dad that had this relationship. So how much was that partner involved in the process of helping you kind of design all this stuff?

[00:14:37] Priya Vij: Yeah, it's one of the biggest blessings and like probably one of the main reasons that I could even launch this, especially at the time that I did, since nobody could travel. My supplier is in Taiwan.

So, like traveling to Asia was not an option for the last couple of years. So I wouldn't have been able to even find someone. We are fortunate that the supplier that we use, the main partner that I work with, he has a really strong technical background in design.

I do more than this. Like I come to him with pretty well -ormatted and sketched out designs, and I have my idea. But he's able to be a really great thought partner in, okay, functionally speaking, in terms of how we have to manufacture this through the process like that element of the design, isn't going to work out. So let's tweak it this way and we can have a good back and forth that way.

Or I can come with a shape, and he'll be like this. Isn't going to be able, like the machine's not going to be able to curve this way, or we can't polish it this way. And he can provide a lot of that more technical expertise paired with my design vision and his own, to come together and create a product that is still true to the vision of what I want, but also very functionally and tactically speaking, can actually be produced and will feel well in the hands of the customer.

[00:15:49] Sanjay Parekh: So. Okay. I love all that. Now I'm thinking about like the second part of this, which is, okay, you've got this partner manufacturing your stuff in Taiwan. First of all, we've heard of all the logistics issues.

[00:16:00] Priya Vij: Yeah.

[00:16:00] Sanjay Parekh: So I don't think we need to deal with that. But your stuff is on a boat. It's getting over here, whatever. Where's that stuff landing? Because I'm looking at you right now on the video stream and I don't see bunch of boxes behind you.

[00:16:11] Priya Vij: Yes.

[00:16:11] Sanjay Parekh: So there's some place that all this stuff is. How did you figure out that part of the process?

[00:16:15] Priya Vij: Yeah. So that again is where, that's also why I'm back in Houston. So, it comes full circle. So, my dad's warehouse is based here. My dad has lived here ever since he came from India and this has been his home base. So he has an office and a warehouse here.

And that was a huge deciding factor. At least as I get started, I really wanted to try to minimize the upfront costs and a lot of the risks that I could, to kind of dip my toes into this water without completely being submerged, since I had the privilege to do so by building on my dad's operations.

And he very lovingly and kindly has cleared some shelf space in his warehouse for me in the very back. So I have all my boxes over there. And I'm able to use that as my warehouse right now while I get this all off the ground and running.

[00:17:02] Sanjay Parekh: So I'm taking that to me that when orders come in, it's you back there fulfilling orders?

[00:17:08] Priya Vij: Yes, it is. It's me. It's getting my hands dirty, you know, I'm back there fulfilling orders. Opening boxes, creating TikToks about me fulfilling orders and opening boxes, since that's what you have to do these days. Yeah, it's me and there is one partner that my dad has, one of his employees that has been there for 30 years with my dad.

And he used to babysit me. So now it's funny that he's helping me run my own cabinet hardware business. So there's a lot of like that emotional element too, behind the scenes that actually makes it really fun and really nice.

[00:17:40] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah.

[00:17:40] Priya Vij: So, I have him there to help out whenever I need. But other than that, it's just me.

[00:17:46] Sanjay Parekh: So, I love this. You just mentioned TikTok. So let's talk a little bit about that side of it. How are you getting the word out about this? Because it's super hard for anybody, no matter what you're doing.

[00:17:57] Priya Vij: Yeah.

[00:17:57] Sanjay Parekh: You're a new D to C brand, direct to consumer brand. How are you getting people to know about this?

[00:18:05] Priya Vij: I would love for someone to tell me the answer to this question. Because it is probably the hardest thing that I'm working through today. I have not been as good as I should be, I guess is fair to say, about creating content, putting it on social media. I personally have, which I think many people can probably relate to, in my personal life, I've been trying to detox from social media more and more.

So, it's been one of the, I guess, more personal challenges about running a brand and starting a business is that I know I can't afford to do that, especially not at the start. So, kind of grappling with my own personal feelings about social media channels and how to build the brand out there.

I haven't nailed it. I'm working on it. I know everyone says consistency is key, so I'm really trying to just have fun with it. I think what I love about the way that social media is trending and what we're kind of hearing and seeing a lot more with Gen Z, is that the polished, really high end, really expensive looking stuff doesn't really resonate as much anymore.

And I think there's a lot more of an appetite for the behind the scenes, scrappy kind of people just making it happen and getting a closer look, a behind-the-scenes look at that. And so that's definitely something that I can relate to, and I feel like I can do. So, I'm trying to lean in more to that. And that's also, what's more authentic to me. As a founder, like I said, right now, it's just me.

So, if I'm going to post on social media, it has to be something that feels right to me and makes me actually want to go create the content and want to post it. And if that means that my personality can come through, I can make glitches, I don't have to spend hours editing it, I don't have to have the like nicest camera to shoot it. Then I'll be much more likely to do it.

So, it's balancing what actually will make me do that work with then like what the market needs to see and what consumers want to see and are responding to. And then just slowly getting traction through there.

I know partnerships are an opportunity that I'm thinking about when I look ahead in terms of growth and just getting visibility. I feel like there's actually been a couple of cool brands that have been popping up in the home industry space and a lot of them are female owned or co-owned. So really leaning into that and just keeping my eyes open for those types of brands to, to work together and build visibility and partnerships together.

I'm going to go more of that authentic route to start, and then we'll see what happens.

[00:20:28] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. I love that.

[00:20:31] Adam Walker: Support for this podcast comes from Hiscox. Committed to helping small businesses protect their dreams since 1901. Quotes and information on customized insurance for specific risks are available at Hiscox.com. Hiscox, the business insurance experts.

[00:20:52] Sanjay Parekh: So, the thing that I've been thinking about this whole time now is, okay, you're talking about Hapny. You started as a side hustle. It is a side hustle. All of this work that you gotta do in sales and marketing, but you also, by the way, have a full-time job.

[00:21:05] Priya Vij: Yes.

[00:21:06] Sanjay Parekh: Where does life fit in all this? How, like, how do you balance all of this stuff, right? And now you're back home in Houston, you've got family there, you know, like it was a different story probably when you were, you know, somewhere else in a different city where there's no family, because then maybe you can just work all the time, but how are you balancing all of this stuff and making sure you're not burned out? And also, you know, you're not rolling into a party and they're like, oh, gosh, Priya is here. She's going to start talking about cabinet handles again. Right? Like, like how are you balancing all of that stuff?

[00:21:37] Priya Vij: Yeah, it's a great question and something that it's probably like the biggest priority for me. And it's something that I kind of have to think about and work through every single day when I'm looking at my schedule and making it. It's a lot, I'm tired a lot. And I also like, on top of all those things, am one of those people that I need eight hours of sleep. Like these people who sleep for two or three hours, I just, I wish so badly.

It would make my life so much easier if I could operate like that. But no, like if I get less than seven and a half hours of sleep, I'm grumpy and can't function. So, I also have to balance that. I think it just comes down to, I did a lot of soul searching before I started this and that sounds kind of cheesy and fluffy, but I think it, it really did require me being very honest with myself about things like that.

Like I need sleep. I need to see my family. I need to have a healthy relationship with my partner. I need to see my friends. And just listing out all the things that I know I need to be a functioning, happy adult that can then show up to work and do things well and be effective. So, it was a lot of just like listing that out and being really honest with myself that, okay, these are the things I can't, kind of, slip on and then having to design my life and work flow kind of backwards from that.

Which sounds a bit opposite, since in starting a business, it's almost like you should lead with the business and lead with the side hustle and that needs to be everything. But I think, knowing myself, that's just not, I tend to have, there's something in me that I love that I didn't like I don't have the secret for. Because it's just how I am. Where I will never let work take over.

Like, I will reach a capacity with work, and I will just shut down and I'll need to go out to dinner, and I'll need to go have a glass of wine and I'll need to like, see a friend. And I never actively built that boundary in. But it's just always something that has been within me throughout and is really working in my favor now because it just stops me from totally becoming burnt out.

But I think continuing to recognize that and create those boundaries and blocks to turn off from work. Because I've seen what happens when I don't. And I think the fallacy of thinking that if you work all the time, you'll get more done. But you really start to see diminishing returns when you're not taking care of yourself.

[00:23:59] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah.

[00:24:00] Priya Vij: Just really becoming comfortable with that and then being comfortable with turning off and taking a step back and, I think, as a society, we're all kind of struggling with that. But just being comfortable with being unproductive a little bit. But also, just taking stock of everything that I need to do.

And I spend a lot of time organizing. I have a marker board calendar. I have a weekly calendar that I write down. Like I'm one of those people that always has papers and post-it notes and like all these things with me where I'm constantly looking at, okay, what are all the things I need to get done tomorrow personally, and professionally from side hustle and day job? And how can I fit everything in and just try to be as efficient as possible?

And I get very type A in that way. So, it's just ruthless subconscious boundaries and also ruthless prioritization. But full acknowledgement that it can only last, doing everything, for so long. So, we'll see.

[00:24:55] Sanjay Parekh: Right.

[00:24:55] Priya Vij: We'll see how long that can work.

[00:24:57] Sanjay Parekh: And I think we've all found that, and I think most people recognize, that work fills the amount of time that you give it, right?

[00:25:04] Priya Vij: Yeah.

[00:25:04] Sanjay Parekh: Like just like meetings. If you schedule a meeting for an hour, it's going to take an hour. But you could do probably the same meeting in 15 minutes. Because if you set aside 15 minutes, people get to the point and it's you know, so it's one of those things that work expands at the time that you allot to it.

[00:25:18] Priya Vij: Absolutely.

[00:25:18] Sanjay Parekh: So, thinking about you know, I'd love for you to give some advice here. So, you're talking about all this stuff that you're scheduling are, is there a tool or a set of tools that you use that like you could not live without that helps you accomplish all this stuff or stay organized to get all this stuff?

[00:25:35] Priya Vij: I love Post-it notes. It's really --

[00:25:37] Sanjay Parekh: Post-it notes?

[00:25:38] Priya Vij: Like I'm very old school.

[00:25:40] Sanjay Parekh: Old school, analog, love it.

[00:25:42] Priya Vij: I will have Post-it notes all over my computer. I'll have the most urgent things that need to get done on my phone. So that it's like with me at all times. I know that it's not like, again, it'll only last for so long.

But that is how I get through like my day to do list and keep track of everything. I always have a pen and Post-it note handy so that I don't forget. I love Excel right now. I'm really using like Excel in sheets and at work, actually we use AirTable a lot and I've heard amazing things about AirTable. So that's something

[00:26:09] Sanjay Parekh: I love AirTable, actually.

[00:26:10] Priya Vij: Yeah. I've heard like a lot of great things about AirTable, so that actually might be a tool that I start to look at. But I think for me what helps is just that I've always been this way. So it doesn't feel daunting to have to worry about my schedule and balance a lot of things.

And to your point now I'm balancing family. Like I've always kind of had a lot on my plate, across different aspects of my life. And so, it works in my favor now that I'm used to managing and kind of contact switching all the time and having to do different things and bounce around. And so, there are digital tools that I'm sure would make my life easier that I will spend some time looking at. But for now, Post-its. Post-its are really all I got

[00:26:53] Sanjay Parekh: Post-it notes work. I mean, you know, a computer crash is not going to take your Post-it notes away. Right. So like…

[00:26:59] Priya Vij: It's true.

[00:26:59] Sanjay Parekh: There's some benefit there. Okay. So, thinking back now. Like you've been in the thick of this for a little while and you didn't know that you were going to be an entrepreneur earlier. So, if you could go back and tell yourself ,your pre-entrepreneurial you, something what would you tell that person? And what advice would you give that person?

[00:27:21] Priya Vij: I think that a lot of what I used to do and spend time on, I was, I like spent a lot of time about like just kind of in big picture, visionary things and just like, I'm a Pisces so I'm like very dreamy and like spiritual and like in my head, a lot about those things. And so, I like to just kind of think a lot and then what, it's good to be visionary in that way, but I think what happens then is I’m like, oh, it's very easy to then not make any progress against that and even it doesn't have to be a business.

Like it's just any part of your life. If there's something that, know, you want to get after, and it's this big goal and you have this dream. I think once I tend to identify that then I don't really take action against it. And then everything that pops up in my day to day that is like, well, oh, if I only had done this, then I could have knocked that out.

Or like, it's very easy to then make myself feel bad for not doing enough because I'm like over here in like visionary land. And there was a post, I follow this Instagram account called The New Happy. And they have really cool, just simple graphics about like basic life truths and philosophies and a lot of what they've post just really resonates on multiple levels.

But one thing that I saw, right, when I was getting started that has just stuck with me ever since, and I think is great advice to anyone who's either already knows that they want to start their own thing, but again, it doesn't have to be specific to business is, it's a big square that says, define your dream or define your vision.

And then the next slide is the square is broken down into like five or six things. And it's just define your, break your vision down into steps or break your vision down into goals. And then you take your goals and then they cut the boxes even smaller. And then it's break your goals down into steps.

And then the last slide is just one little square highlighted, and it says, take it one step at a time. So, you've gone from one huge square now to like a hundred little squares, but you're just focused on this one, tiny square in the corner. And I think there's something about that. That for some reason really resonated with me is that I think we're all very like, okay, there's too much to do.

We don't have enough time and I can't make a to-do list that's a hundred things long because that just feels so daunting. So, I'm just not going to do anything instead and just like let things simmer. Whereas I think having a hundred, really small, actionable to-dos that are like, write an Instagram caption, or take this one photo that you think could be valuable and save it for later.

Like they can be very, very small scale, heads down, in the weeds, but doing those little actions over time actually help you start chip away more than just like spinning in the big. And so, I think I would just tell myself to, and tell anyone who's like interested in it, I've just like really stripped down to the bare bones of what it is that you want to get after and what you want to do and just start doing it.

Because those are also things that, I don't know how to build a Pinterest strategy, so I'm not going to do anything. Versus like, I'm just going to make this one post, and like take this picture, and do this thing, and like, maybe try. Those are two completely different paths as you start to spend day over day doing that. And I think that a lot more can get done when you just start trying and start doing, even if it's the smallest thing.

[00:30:36] Sanjay Parekh: Just start doing. I’ve got to ask, since you, you mentioned being a Pisces. Do you happen to know your Meyers Briggs personality profile?

[00:30:43] Priya Vij: I don't. I used to know it, but I don't. I need to go back and do that though. I love those things. I'm like very into understanding that stuff.

[00:30:50] Sanjay Parekh: The reason I ask is I've heard, and I don't know if this is true or not. Maybe it's just an anecdotal thing, but I've heard that 80% of founders and entrepreneurs are NTJs.

[00:31:01] Priya Vij: Oh, my gosh, I'm going to write this down and go see.

[00:31:03] Sanjay Parekh: So I'm an ENTJ.

[00:31:05] Priya Vij: Okay.

[00:31:05] Sanjay Parekh: And I heard this years and years after I'd actually done the Myers Briggs. And once I was a founder and everything, and so I was just wondering if you happen to be either an E or an I NTJ and for the listeners that, that know Myers Briggs, you'll know that stuff. If you don't know Myers Briggs go look up The Myers Briggs personality test.

And I think there's some places online that you can do them for kind cheap, free. I was lucky I got it when I was an intern during college. I was working for somebody and they actually had all the interns do an official one and they brought in a psychiatrist. I don't know, somebody that like analyzed the stuff and told us stuff about us.

[00:31:45] Priya Vij: Oh, that's cool. I'm going to have to do it. I'll report back.

[00:31:47] Sanjay Parekh: Okay. I love that. I love that. Okay. So, let's just wrap up here. I've got one last question for you. You've done a lot. You're figuring this stuff out. It sounds like this is going to be the way. What's next for you and Hapny? And by the way, also, I’ve got to tell you, I love the name Hapny.

[00:32:07] Priya Vij: Oh, thank you.

[00:32:07] Sanjay Parekh: ‘Cause it also makes me feel happy. You're like, it's just one letter off and it's like, ah, it's a really nice name.

[00:32:13] Priya Vij: Thank you so much.

[00:32:14] Sanjay Parekh: What's next for you and Hapny?

[00:32:17] Priya Vij: Part of what I'm doing, tactically speaking, I've launched with cabinet knobs, cabinet pulls, appliance pulls. I only have seven collections, which feels like a lot to me. But then when you look in the world that like we've talked about, I need many more. So, I think a lot of just general design expansion and creation there and also looking at adjacent product categories.

So, bath accessories and anything else in like the cabinet hardware world. But then tying a lot back to what we were talking about at the beginning of just, general, more education and like bridging the gap between, okay, what can I do in a space? And then, oh, cabinet hardware? Helping to kind of connect those dots for people.

I think there is a subset of the population similar to you that knows it. Like, you know, cabinet hardware, you buy it, you get, there's nothing really that I need to sell you on there. But then I feel like everyone who's not in that category, obviously there's nuance, but it feels very stark. Then there's like people who don't know the difference between a knob or a pull, and don't have any idea how easy it is to like unscrew a knob and put a new knob in.

And so, I'm really energized and excited at the thought of just kind of helping educate in that way and helping just create more opportunities for people to realize that they can design their space and that they have more control of what's around them. And that this is another avenue in which you can express yourself in your home and look how easy and fun it is.

And kind of just like content around that and making it more playful and digestible. There's so much content out there, obviously on every topic, but on hardware and how to install it and how to, you know, choose what hardware is right for you and your space. And so, I've spent many, many hours poring through everything out there to kind of pull together what I'm calling like the hardware manual that I'm hoping to launch on my website soon, we'll cover the nuts and bolts, no pun intended, of everything that you need to choose your hardware down to installing it.

So, both the design and product creation. But also, more of just that conversation starter and really having, having, finding ways to make hardware part of more mainstream conversation.

[00:34:17] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Okay. So for our listeners, Who are thinking they need new hardware and you don't have to be a renter to buy from you, right?

[00:34:24] Priya Vij: Absolutely not.

[00:34:25] Sanjay Parekh: You can have a home and just want to change out your knobs or pulls or whatever you want to change out. Where can they find you? And the collections that you've got right now?

[00:34:35] Priya Vij: Yeah. So, I actually don't sell direct to consumer right now. So, if you go to my website, HapnyHome.com, you can sort, you can see the whole catalog. You can see all my products, both in action and lifestyle settings. And then there you'll find there's a where to buy page. I sell online through different online marketplaces. One of the biggest ones is myknobs.com. Straight to the point. So, you can find my products there. And then I'm also in brick-and-mortar showrooms in 20 different locations across the nation right now.

But also, slowly starting to expand that over the next couple of weeks, making some trips to get in more cities across the nation. So, you can see me in person and see my products in person in those showrooms or shop us online.

[00:35:16] Sanjay Parekh: There you go. Priya, this has been fascinating and just so interesting and you know, all the luck in growing Hapny. I'm super excited to see Hapny in a store near me soon.

[00:35:28] Priya Vij: Thank you. Thank you so much.

[00:35:35] Sanjay Parekh: Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of the Side Hustle to Small Business Podcast, powered by Hiscox. To learn more about how Hiscox can help protect your small business through intelligent insurance solutions, visit hiscox.com. And if you have a story you want to hear on this podcast, please visit Hiscox.com/shareyourstory. I’m your host, Sanjay Parekh.