As we face decisions on what to build let’s step back and ask ourselves a simple question: what's best for our users? What will be conducive to their long-term success, their health and happiness? Answer this honestly without regard to our convenience or short-term business opportunities and you have your answer! The long-term success of our customers will lead inexorably to the long-term success of our business. The weight loss industry especially is full of companies that prioritize quick fixes over true, sustainable solutions. The enduring merit of our business will come (only) from helping people in a sustainable way. This is also a guiding principle for how we work together as a company: minimize red tape, focus on outcomes over outputs, on long-term solutions over quick fixes, and by always asking how we can maximize our impact.

Humans love to play. Games are the oldest form of social interaction and span all cultures. Since we all instinctively gravitate towards fun and away from work, it’s a neat trick if you can take something hard and make it feel fun. This is our art. We take the difficult journey of adopting healthy behaviors and reframe it as a social game. As players achieve microgoals along the way, they build confidence and momentum: it’s a marvelous cycle! This trick also applies to our company culture, where designing for fun makes our jobs more enjoyable and sustainable.

We care about results. In our games, the goals and deadlines are always clear, players commit, and we verify. Internally we do this with OKRs: we set goals and dates, track progress, review results, and celebrate when we’ve succeeded. We believe people appreciate the healthy pressure of being pushed and thrive in environments with clear goals, accountability, and rewards.

Would we all eat cleaner, exercise more, sleep better, and feel less stressed if we only had the 100th generation Apple Watch? In the world of behavior-change, tech companies love to use sensors, devices, and data to nudge behaviors. To us, this misses the point. Most of the time we know what we’re supposed to do … we just don’t do it! The key to living better isn’t more data but to embrace that we’re social creatures. We humans love to share experiences, have fun together, and feel a sense of belonging, especially among people who can relate to us because they’re going through similar challenges. We believe the world needs more healthy, honest places to connect without the toxicity of social media. That doesn’t exist today so we’re inventing it: a safe, goal-oriented social community that’s positive and open, full of empathy, compassion, support, and inspiration. Internally, we understand we are all human. We have good days, bad days, great times and hard times. We support each other as we move through life together.

This goes beyond just making products that improve people’s lives. It goes beyond treating our customers, employees, investors, and partners ethically and with respect. It extends to our communities and to the world at large. Every person and organization has a sphere of influence in this world. And as our influence grows, we will use that influence to increase opportunities where everyone, regardless of background, can thrive as part of the uplifting communities we are creating.

When you’re trying to do something bold there will always be skeptics and obstacles in your way (including sometimes yourself!). Overcoming them requires grit and resilience and a stalwart belief that you can and will succeed. But where does this belief come from? If it’s blind faith you’re being naive. A realistic, honest belief in yourself comes from having had success. Nothing breeds confidence like accomplishments. That’s why we love the equation Succeeding = Believing. The equals sign is important because it flows both ways, back and forth. You succeed a little and you believe more. You believe more so you succeed more. This virtuous cycle, fueled by optimism but grounded in reality, is the essence of WayBetter. This applies to our players but also to ourselves as a startup setting out to do something so preposterously ambitious as to believe that we can spread health and happiness around the world with social games.