The product: SleepPhones
Headquarters: Bellefonte, Pa.
In 2007, Wei-Shin Lai, a family physician, was having trouble sleeping, especially after she came back home from emergency calls."I couldn't take a sleeping pill because I needed to be aware for the next call and even though I was tired, I couldn't relax my mind," she said. Eventually, someone recommended she listen to soothing music on headphones.
But the headphones were uncomfortable. That is until her husband covered both speakers in cloth and then inserted them into a headband. "Once we came upon that idea, we realized it might help a lot of people sleep, including some of my patients who take sleeping pills," said Lai.
From there, Lai and her husband, Jason, spent about $10,000 of their own money creating a prototype and launching their company, AcousticSheep, LLC. In 2009, they worked with the Penn State Small Business Development Center on their business model. It was a good move. Sales in 2010 were about $600,000 and projections for this year are expected to be $1 million.
"I think people are starting to realize just how important sleep is," said Lai. "Previously it was work-work-work, but I think people are starting to realize that to live a holistic lifestyle it's really important to sleep well."
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