How to Sleep Better Using a Sleep Robot
The Sigma Squared Society unites and empowers the world’s most ambitious entrepreneurs under 26 to rethink broken industries and tackle society’s greatest challenges. Julian, one of those change-makers, developed a sleep robot that’s actively helping you experience the soothing effects of breathing to relax, clear your mind and sleep better.
Julian started building Somnox while still at university by putting his engineering skills to use to tackle an issue that a family member was struggling with — insomnia. Within just a few years, the university project developed into an international business employing 27 employees which will turn into 40 within the next few months. Julian and his co-founders created a sleep robot that helps you fall and stay asleep by adjusting to your breathing and slowing it down. So far they have helped 15,000 people (including Peter Diamandis!) with their sleeping problems and are now focusing on expanding to the UK and US. His entrepreneurial journey has been a great lesson on the power of rest and the power of a community of like-minded people.
How do you describe Somnox to someone who’s never heard of it before?
We’re in the business of sleep — we help people improve sleep. Many people have sleeping problems and they take sleeping pills to solve this. We offer a more natural approach with our sleep robot that slows down your breathing. And by slowing down your breathing, you can slow down your nervous system, making it easier to fall and stay asleep. That’s what we do. At scale.
Where did the idea come from?
It started while we were still at university, at the Delft University of Technology. I was a robotics engineer. A family member was an insomniac. I saw her suffer from the effects of sleep deprivation and also noticed the limited solutions that were available to her, and I wanted to make sure that I use my skills as a robotics engineer to create a robot that would help my family member with their sleep problems. That’s how it started.
We did a lot of research, read a lot of literature in regards to sleep and potential solutions. We found out that breathing is a very powerful way to directly influence your heart rate, and nervous system and that by breathing slowly and in a particular manner, you can help people fall asleep without the need for any medication. Our invention helps you breathe in the right way. It’s like a teddy bear that you hold onto. It physically breathes, up and down, so you can feel it (like a baby on your chest) and the sensors will be able to detect your respiration rates and your sleep stages, and upon that data, it will have a particular breathing rhythm that is tailored to you.
When I found out that the first prototype worked for my family member, we started to turn it into a business — otherwise, it would’ve been just a university project that ended up in the basement.
We decided to launch it in YES!Delft (a well-known dutch accelerator) to transform ourselves from engineers to entrepreneurs. Our founding team remained the same after all these years.
How did you find the transition from an engineer to an entrepreneur?
I think it’s very suitable to be an engineer entrepreneur. The way of thinking is systematic. You’re rational and you see things as a formula that needs to be solved, and business, in the end, is a system and you want to optimise it on all ends. It was an advantage to be an engineer. There were challenges in regards to how to raise money, how to hire and fire people, and how to talk to customers. A lot of business skills had to be obtained. It really was learning by doing and we loved doing it because it was such an energetic experience. At YES!Delft, we were surrounded by many entrepreneurs and that was really inspiring. A community — also like the one we have at Sigma Squared — is very valuable, it can help and inspire you, both personally and professionally.
What have you achieved so far?
We sold 15,000 robots so far, so there are 15,000 people out there that we’ve helped sleep.
Our mission is to help 100 million people by 2030, so there’s a lot to be done to get to that point. We’re definitely not where we want to be yet, but it was a good start.
Our main focus is on the direct-to-consumer business, but we also have some B2B customers, like hotels or care institutions for people with dementia that use it too. Lufthansa offered the Somnox Sleep Robot in their in-flight magazine.
What channels have worked best for you?
We had to experiment a lot. Initially, we thought that we could use distributors like Media Market or Harrods and Selfridges. We were all available there, but it didn’t work at all and it was a very expensive mistake. Because of Covid, we found out that managing our sales channels all by ourselves is the best way to do it. It enables us to have all the data, the relationship with the customer, and the story that we want to tell.
What markets are you currently present in and which ones would be the next ones?
We want to go to the UK and the US again but do it better this time. We’ve recently raised a new investment round that enables us to have a local approach in these countries. This means that rather than having a distributor that does everything for you, we would be there physically, doing our own customer service, marketing, and our own fulfilment centres. That’s what we’re pursuing now, in both countries. There are a lot of people with sleep problems and this time, we want to do it right.
What was one of the hardest moments for you?
In the beginning, when we were running a Kickstarter campaign which enabled us to get the initial funding. People pre-ordered the robots with the understanding that they would receive them within seven months from the time they pre-ordered. This ended up becoming 15 months. We completely underestimated the cost and the effort involved in manufacturing a device. We had a lot of angry customers and only had a few months of runway — we were pretty much heading towards bankruptcy. That was tough as it seemed that everything was against us.
In the end, we did solve it, but it was a very emotionally draining experience. We ended up raising a financial loan, which was a bridge to get over the ‘valley of death’. It was a burden on my social life, health, everything… I gave my whole soul to this company.
How do you take care of yourself now?
Obviously, for us, it’s prioritising sleep. My eight hours of sleep are really, really precious. I will never work late at night, I have a bedtime routine with no screens, and I do a lot of journaling, where I put everything on my mind on paper. Every night, I go to sleep at 10 pm and wake up at 6 am. That’s been hugely helpful. I do a lot of breathing exercises too, like the ones by Wim Hof. These are the main things: sleep, breathwork, and journaling.
I recently read that ‘stress + rest is growth’, and I couldn’t agree more. Prioritising rest will add up to your growth.
And lastly — community. Talk about things with others! It can be lonely at the top. Talking to your fellow sufferers can be quite comforting, to know that you’re not the only one experiencing those issues.
Any advice to young entrepreneurs who want to get started but don’t know how?
The classic one — just got for it! 99% of people have great ideas, but there’s only 1% of people will have great ideas and execute on them. Execution is simply what a lot of people don’t do. If you pursue an idea, really believe in it, and execute it excellently, you will be successful. Just going for it is a very important step.
Don’t underestimate people, in a good and in a bad way. Be very careful who you hire. Every decision you make should be answered with a “hell yeah” — don’t settle for mediocrity, as in the long term it will set you back.
Focus. Relentless focus on delivering value for your customer and not being distracted by opportunities that do not add to that one single goal. In our case, it’s helping people sleep. Say ‘no’ more often.
How did your journey at Sigma Squared begin?
Through YES!Delft, I befriended other entrepreneurs that were members of this community and I was intrigued. I decided to join based on their recommendation. Since then, we’ve had a lot of events. I once hosted a meetup during the summer where everyone was sharing their life stories. It was so cool to have this almost emotional experience of sharing your ups and downs in the Dutch Sigma Squared community. You connect on a very deep emotional level — it’s like an accessible mentor network. And we do a lot of entertaining activities and share a lot of fun with each other.
Julian Jagtenberg is an active member of the Dutch Sigma Squared chapter since 2020. You can follow him on LinkedIn here.
