Entrepreneur Craig Dubitsky ’87 partnered with actor Robert Downey Jr. to create a new brand with a social mission.
University of Rochester alumnus and entrepreneur Craig Dubitsky ’87 has teamed up with actor Robert Downey Jr. to build a brand with a social mission.
The brand is Happy and its first product is coffee. Happy partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to aid in the group’s efforts to destigmatize mental illness and encourage freer conversation about mental health. Happy’s single-serve pods are sourced through Rainforest Alliance–certified farms, and the products come with a QR code linking to the NAMI website and its mental health resources. NAMI was granted an equity stake in the company.
Dubitsky cofounded Eos skin and body-care products and the oral-care company Hello products, which was acquired by Colgate-Palmolive in 2020. Happy is designed to help consumers “rediscover the magic in the everyday,” Dubitsky says. As he told Inc. magazine at the time of the company’s launch, “I love this idea of turning commodities—something that’s generally widely available and does something—a little bit more desirable and interesting.
This story originally appeared in the 2024 issue of Rochester Review, the magazine of the University of Rochester.
