Hello

About Hello

Hello Inc. operated in the consumer electronics and wellness technology market, focusing on sleep tracking. The company was founded in San Francisco on August 28, 2012, by James Proud, who was part of the inaugural class of Thiel Fellows. This fellowship, created by Peter Thiel, provides grants to young entrepreneurs to drop out of college and build new things. Proud, a London native who began programming at age nine, skipped university to join the fellowship, which was instrumental in his move to Silicon Valley.

Hello's flagship product was Sense, a system designed to monitor sleep patterns without requiring the user to wear a device. The business model centered on the direct sale of this hardware to consumers through its website, a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, and later through major retailers like Target and Best Buy. The company's initial funding included a notable $2.4 million raised from over 19,000 backers on Kickstarter, which far surpassed its $100,000 goal. This was followed by institutional funding rounds, including a $40 million Series B in 2015 led by Temasek, which valued the company between $250 million and $300 million.

The Sense system consisted of two main components: a bedside orb and a small sensor called the "Sleep Pill". The orb, placed on a nightstand, was equipped with multiple sensors to monitor the bedroom's environment, including temperature, humidity, ambient light, sound, and airborne particulates like dust and pollen. The Sleep Pill, a small device containing a 6-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, clipped onto the user's pillow to track movement throughout the night, sending data wirelessly to the orb. This data was synthesized by a companion mobile app for iOS and Android, which provided users with a daily "sleep score" out of 100, detailed timelines of their sleep cycles (light, deep, REM), and insights into environmental disturbances. The system also featured a smart alarm that aimed to wake users during a light sleep phase and could play soothing sounds to aid sleep. Despite its promising start, Hello faced significant financial instability, intense market competition, and a failed acquisition deal with Fitbit, leading the company to shut down its operations in June 2017.