How Do You Feel Today?

How ya feeling?

For most of us, that’s a subjective question. Our answer depends on a wide range of factors: how much sleep we got, the weather, the news we just heard, our most recent interaction with a partner/child/colleague/boss/barista.

Lisa Hu may not know how you or I feel, individually.

But she does care — a lot — about how all of us feel, together.

The Westport resident is a founder of The Real Feel. The startup gathers quick, anonymous input once a day from users, about how they’re feeling.

Using emojis, it takes the pulse of how we — everyone — feels. Using public polling, AI and data/content analysis, it figures out why we feel that way.

The Real Feel shares those insights (anonymously) with businesses and government agencies. It’s one more way for them to make decisions, Hu says.

Though she started her professional career with Accenture and Reuters, she is no stranger to start-ups or entrepreneurships.

Lisa Hu

She was the first US employee of a British company that worked with augmented reality and computer vision in the early AI days, then created a platform that connected the supply and demand sides of veterinary medicine.

She met her husband, and had a child, in San Francisco. Both East Coast natives, they were ready to come back. They’ve settled in Westport, and love it.

“The space, the people, my daughter’s CCDC pre-school, the beauty, the beaches, the safety — everything is great, and super-convenient,” she says.

“I’m meeting lots of people. And I’m excited to meet more.”

The Real Feel is, Hu says, “the first real way to track Americans’ moods each day.” It uses a visual heatmap and AI capabilities to break down sentiment across gender, age, race, political party and other demographics.

Each week, the platform generates data reports. That allows customers to make predictive analyses, based on macro trends, consumer behaviors and preferences.

Marketers can understand customer segments, Hu says. Banks can correlate feelings with the stock market. Governments can understand how citizens feel. Other target audiences include tech firms and media organizations.

That, of course, is how Real Feel is monetized: by selling both the online reports and raw data.

Real Feel screenshot.

The methodology blends simple random sampling (sourced from panel vendor partners), while Real Feel members provide first-party data by answering weekly questions.

Combining both sources ensures a representative sample across general demographic groups, Hu says.

The questions are general. They are not on the lines of “How do you feel about the election?”

In the beginning, the data is like an early season batting average: It’s volatile, because there are so few at-bats.

With time — and more data points — it becomes much more accurate.

In other words: It’s more than a feeling.

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