Just after we pitched in the Startupbus semifinals, Mashable posted an article about Happstr! Yay hooray!

Why build a happiness map? The Startup Bus answer, co-creator Ricky Robinett says, is that people might one day pay to track their happiness like they do their fitness. There’s also an opportunity for brands to sponsor some happiness. But, at least when he’s not competing in a contest for which business model is a criteria, Robinett says Happstr is really just a sincere effort at making the world a better place.

Go read the full article and spread the happiness!

First the video, now the slides. It’s Happstr Madness!!

We’re rockin’ out here in Austin and passed our 500 tap-in a few hours ago! Pretty good for a launch that wasn’t supposed to happen and technically still hasn’t! Every time we look at the map we are happy. How happy? This happy:

We made a video to tell people about Happstr! We’re pretty loopy right with lack of sleep, but you should totally check it out!

…Robinett’s project reflects the feeling of euphoria and possibility that seems to emanate from Startupbus. The company is called Happstr, and it’s a geo-tracking site based on the concept that people who are around happy people become happier themselves. “There are studies that have shown even a third degree friend with a higher happiness level improves your own happiness by 6 percent,” Robinett says; comparatively, “happiness only goes up 2 percent for a $10,000 raise.” Why not an app to track happiness, then? “The site we’re building has a button that says ‘I’m happy.’ You click it and it asks you if you want to say why; you can say why or not, and we use the reaction to buid a heat graph and see what areas are the happiest. If the neighborhood over there is happier, you can go there and get a boost.”

Go read the full article!