3 ms·

As a founder in the health-tech space (sleep-tech/neuro-tech in particular), I think it's more than just related to health-insurance. My take is it isn't just

As a founder in the health-tech space (sleep-tech/neuro-tech in particular), I think it's more than just related to health-insurance. My take is it isn't just the tech side of health that is scammy. In sleep and neuro, we see all sorts of products which make outrageous claims that they say are backed by "science" from leading research organizations, but when you go looking for the research, there is nothing there! I think sometimes people want to believe their own BS. I wonder how often the people selling/peddling their wares believe what they are saying, or just don't care. We're being very cautious in our GTM to make sure we build a lasting and trusted company at https://soundmind.co https://soundmind.co

mountainriver 5y ago
This is cool!
robg 5y ago
What are you using to benchmark sleep quality?
- pedalpete 5y ago
  We're beginning by focusing just on slow-wave oscillations, and we can directly measure the impact we are having on those through the EEG in our headband - what was the response to a stimmed SWO vs a non-stim/sham SWO. We're starting here because there is a large volume of good research in stimulating SWOs. Does that answer your question? I've just sent you a Linkedin request if you'd like to discuss further.
  - elkos 5y ago
    As a sleep tech please don't hesitate to refer people to do a sleep study in a lab setting. Sleep labs especially in universal healthcare setting like the one I work on are there to assist patient healthcare outcomes.
    - pedalpete 5y ago
      Absolutely, our target markets don't overlap much (in the early stages) so people who are coming to us for specific issues, we will be recommending to sleep labs. However, built into how we are going to market, it is doubtful we will have many people who are looking for solutions to their sleep problems. Ignore our current landing page, that is a broad generalization, we will update to be much more specific when the time is right.
vimy 5y ago
Is this a Zeo replacement? I miss having access to an at home EEG headband.
- pedalpete 5y ago
  Kinda, we're not just measuring sleep, we use auditory stim to improve deep sleep. We're not sure how much data we'll be giving to users, as we don't believe most people benefit from more info about sleep. At the same time, we are discussing internally giving access to the full data suite for users who do need it. For example, we're working with some researchers, and have interest from air force, etc. who want the full data. Do you have thoughts on what you loved about having the info from Zeo? Do you use another tracker now? I use Oura as well as our headband to compare how good our classification is, but I don't find the data itself valuable.
  - icelancer 5y ago
    Interesting tech. I help run a business that works with a lot of professional athletes who are interested in improving their sleep quality. We do a lot of the data analysis using various wearables and methods in our middleware; we'd be interested in all the data to evaluate impact and in A:B tests (like we already do with other interventions). I'll reach out to you via Linkedin unless you drop your email here.
  - vimy 5y ago
    I was tracking how many times I woke up at night, how fast I fell asleep and how much deep sleep I got. Not nearly enough for my age as it turned out. Used the data to find out what could improve my sleep. (Exercising in the morning or evening, no big meals before bedtime, etc). Quantified self basically. I currently use the sleepcycle app. Not nearly as useful as an actual EEG headband. Maybe consider also giving full access to people like me? Like a dev mode or something.
    - pedalpete 5y ago
      The non-EEG devices are getting pretty good at that data, your phone next to your bed, not so much... EEG is probably overkill for most people, but it is the only way to detect SWO, and other parts of sleep we want to manipulate via sound. Plus, having a band on your head with bone conduction gives us an easy way to get sound stim to you. We'll have something in the future which is more generalized to a larger audience, but we're focused on a few groups that need what we're doing atm.

mountainriver 5y ago

This is cool!

robg 5y ago

What are you using to benchmark sleep quality?

pedalpete 5y ago
We're beginning by focusing just on slow-wave oscillations, and we can directly measure the impact we are having on those through the EEG in our headband - what was the response to a stimmed SWO vs a non-stim/sham SWO. We're starting here because there is a large volume of good research in stimulating SWOs. Does that answer your question? I've just sent you a Linkedin request if you'd like to discuss further.
- elkos 5y ago
  As a sleep tech please don't hesitate to refer people to do a sleep study in a lab setting. Sleep labs especially in universal healthcare setting like the one I work on are there to assist patient healthcare outcomes.
  - pedalpete 5y ago
    Absolutely, our target markets don't overlap much (in the early stages) so people who are coming to us for specific issues, we will be recommending to sleep labs. However, built into how we are going to market, it is doubtful we will have many people who are looking for solutions to their sleep problems. Ignore our current landing page, that is a broad generalization, we will update to be much more specific when the time is right.

vimy 5y ago

Is this a Zeo replacement? I miss having access to an at home EEG headband.

pedalpete 5y ago
Kinda, we're not just measuring sleep, we use auditory stim to improve deep sleep. We're not sure how much data we'll be giving to users, as we don't believe most people benefit from more info about sleep. At the same time, we are discussing internally giving access to the full data suite for users who do need it. For example, we're working with some researchers, and have interest from air force, etc. who want the full data. Do you have thoughts on what you loved about having the info from Zeo? Do you use another tracker now? I use Oura as well as our headband to compare how good our classification is, but I don't find the data itself valuable.
- icelancer 5y ago
  Interesting tech. I help run a business that works with a lot of professional athletes who are interested in improving their sleep quality. We do a lot of the data analysis using various wearables and methods in our middleware; we'd be interested in all the data to evaluate impact and in A:B tests (like we already do with other interventions). I'll reach out to you via Linkedin unless you drop your email here.
- vimy 5y ago
  I was tracking how many times I woke up at night, how fast I fell asleep and how much deep sleep I got. Not nearly enough for my age as it turned out. Used the data to find out what could improve my sleep. (Exercising in the morning or evening, no big meals before bedtime, etc). Quantified self basically. I currently use the sleepcycle app. Not nearly as useful as an actual EEG headband. Maybe consider also giving full access to people like me? Like a dev mode or something.
  - pedalpete 5y ago
    The non-EEG devices are getting pretty good at that data, your phone next to your bed, not so much... EEG is probably overkill for most people, but it is the only way to detect SWO, and other parts of sleep we want to manipulate via sound. Plus, having a band on your head with bone conduction gives us an easy way to get sound stim to you. We'll have something in the future which is more generalized to a larger audience, but we're focused on a few groups that need what we're doing atm.