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Sleepbox
- itmag 14y agoI'm more interested in a portable version.
- markshead 14y agoLike this? http://www.golittleguy.com/teardrops/ http://www.golittleguy.com/teardrops/
- Qwertious 14y agoAs am I. The issue is, how much space would the unfolded thing be, how would you ensure it's soundproof, and would you be able to carry it around normally? Presumably it'd be something that expands, maybe self-expanding. It wouldn't exactly be secure (someone would likely be able to cut through it) but it'd be easy enough to make it so if someone does so, it sets off some sort of alarm (to stop people cutting the thing open, and taking your stuff while you're sleeping). I think the obvious thing would be to integrate it with a backpack (with the backpack itself expandable in size, probably), and have only the bed/matress there (so it's not very tall, even when expanded).)
- itmag 14y agoKickstarter? :)
- dools 14y agoPlease: every restaurant install one of these. How many times have I finished a meal and just wanted to lie down for 15 minutes??
- skue 14y agoYou can't wait to drive her home first?
- damian2000 14y agoI think it would have a good market in replacing shared hostel/dorm room accommodation for backpackers.
- jvdh 14y agoIf these are a reasonably soundproof, they would be awesome in airports.
- state 14y agoAs an architect by training I find it really exciting to see something like this. The business of architecture is an incredible mess. Although I see a lot of big challenges in getting this to work well it's a great way to make a positive intervention in spaces that are often quite negative. Architects think about this kind of stuff all the time, but they rarely implement it. All that being said these things look really overwrought, made from a strange collection of materials, and seem unlikely to be as clean as they should be. The rounded corners are driving me crazy.
- Numberwang 14y agoYeah, that's so architecture 2.0. We've moved on.
- evoxed 14y ago/How interesting... a fellow Cooper architect (and one who appreciates circuits) on HN!
- robert00700 14y agoMaybe it's my experience of living in central London but I can certainly think of many 'demographics' that would be interested in soundproof bedrooms on the street...
- TimStaley 14y agoBut who's going to change and wash the sheets? Especially if it's being rented out by the hour. Will there be a full laundry after each and every user?
- mmahemoff 14y agoThey could work towards automating it by dispensing fresh sheets for each guest and somehow improving the ease of changing them. (I'm sure there's better ways than changing sheets and covers tediously by hands. I mean a simple thing for example would be to automatically raise the mattress from the base.)
- gbog 14y agocould have sheets made of many very thin skins and remove one for each client.
- Someone 14y agoThis is not a new idea. http://www.yotel.com http://www.yotel.com seems a direct competitor. Also, in the extreme we have the Japanese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel.
- ekianjo 14y agoCapsule hotels are not available in Japan airports, as far as I know...
- jawns 14y agoEven if the pod is somewhat automated (e.g. linens are somehow changed without human intervention), you're not going to be able to get around the fact that you'll need someone to collect the dirty linens once in a while and replenish. And really, the tired business executive is the ideal customer ... but you're probably more likely to get a bunch of less-than-ideal customers whose actions inside the pod are going to require a more extensive cleanup. I have a feeling that even if the company has come up with some innovative ways to address these problems, I'm pretty sure the public perception of the pods will be negative, because you're naturally going to assume that the pods have been occupied by people doing unsavory things. It's going to be perceived as the generally gross Porta-Potty of the accommodations industry. One of the nice things about hotels and hostels and other places that are staffed 24/7 is that if someone lights up a cigarette in a nonsmoking room, or starts trashing the hotel room, there's someone on hand to address the problem. Here, I can only assume, the pods would only be sporadically monitored. I think a better solution to problem of tired executives with minimal needs for amenities is in the pod hotels that you can find in the biggest metro areas. They're somewhat similar to these pods in design, but because they're located in hotel structures, they are staffed and the linens are changed, rooms cleaned, etc. by humans: http://www.thepodhotel.com/ http://www.thepodhotel.com/
- arturadib 14y agoOh c'mon, this is brilliant, and solves a huge pain problem for lots of people (myself included). You don't have to have perfect solutions to edge customer cases in order to be successful (e.g. Zipcar, AirBnB, eBay, etc), and you can always iterate on the solutions. The airport/station staff can do the daily cleaning and replenishing. Also, they can give you a grace period of 5 mins to reject the pod if there's a problem with it (smoking, unsanitary, etc).
- skue 14y ago> You don't have to have perfect solutions to edge customer cases and you can always iterate on the solutions. This isn't a high tech startup. These units would be placed in very public places, so initial impressions would have an enormous impact on their subsequent success (or failure). Imagine the worst things someone could do within one of these units and then ask yourself how you would discretely clean that within a public space. The previous poster is right: Given their semi-public/semi-private nature and the fact that they include beds, there's no way in the world these units wouldn't be used by mischievous travelers. The media would have a field day with this - and not just the news: TV sitcoms and certain nighttime dramas would be racing to be the first to be the first to include a pod episode. It's hard to see the units not turn into a running joke that no concourse operator would want to be associated with.
- beedogs 14y agolooks cool, but the website is kinda meh. that currency picture on the bottom is super-pixellated.
- sktrdie 14y agoThe biggest issue with this is, how do you keep it clean? I wouldn't want to sleep somewhere that wasn't kept clean. Sure you sleep on train seats that are publicly shared with hundreds of different people daily. But here we're talking about actual beds, with pillows and sheets - I wouldn't want to put my face on a pillow that I knew was used previously by someone else without being properly cleaned.
- bmuon 14y agoI foresee as much use for short naps as for quickies.
- Jimmie 14y agoKeeping these things clean would be very hard. Perhaps a better target market than single-night-guests is medium-term-guests. I could see myself renting one of these things for a month in a city I visit on holiday.
- dgallagher 14y agoHow do they hedge against bed bugs? That's a solvable problem. I still love the idea.
- ovechtrick 14y agoSometimes I really need to be alone to recharge (introverts, anyone??). And it's not possible to do it in a busy place. There are plenty of times I've been in an airport and would love to just be alone. This would be perfect.
- mikecane 14y agoWow. That's going to wind up to be the filthiest box in NYC. Word will spread among the homeless and drug addicts. Need a quick place to shoot up? There's the Sleepbox. Given the state of public restrooms in NYC, you're also just asking for bodily fluids everywhere. This is not a business in America. It's a money sink and an exercise in frustration. And if you think you can "limit" who uses it, good luck fending off all the lawsuits that will tell you otherwise.
- stevenleeg 14y agoThat's why it would be stupid to stick this on a street. In places like airports or offices, where drug addicts are going to be significantly less numerous, something like this makes a lot more sense.
- mikecane 14y agoHomeless and Living at the Airport http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91097959 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9109795...
- rmc 14y agoLimiting it to only people with a credit card would be an easy thing to do. It's also a common way to discriminate.
- Nav_Panel 14y agoVery true. Plus, the price appears to be a tad out of range for many who might be inclined to trash the place. A back alley would be more cost effective. The drug users who could afford to use the room would probably be discreet about the whole thing and wouldn't cause too much mess.
- rdl 14y agoPlus, if it's airside at an airport, everyone's ID has been checked and a lot of video exists, plus there's a pretty high bar to entry (buying a plane ticket), so the riff-raff is likely not there.
- exit 14y agodid anyone else think this was a bufferbox parody?
- veidr 14y agoIn Japan we have long had 'coffin hotels' (or 'capsule hotels', pre-Neuromancer). We also have love hotels, which are expressly designed to be rented for two hours at a time to do whatever nasty, sticky business you can convince somebody to do with you. The changing the linens and whatnot are solved problems. (Some businessman-oriented places have a sealed plastic bag of bedclothes hung in the room... you have to do the work of putting them on, but the upside is you know they're clean.) Getting the price down to where I want to rent one to just take a decent nap during my layover (maybe $25? $40 at most?) is the key thing. As compared to 'my date and I need a space to get intimate for 2 hours' (~$85... okay fine $100... What! ARE YOU SERIOUS $175? THAT'S... OKAY FINE!) I for one am rooting for them to succeed before my next international connecting flight, though.
- w1ntermute 14y agoThe problem is that you can't just implement the Japanese system in the US. The Japanese are much more respectful of other people's/business's property than Americans and are much less likely to be using drugs (and although prostitution is widespread, the prostitute/john won't trash the place). That's why completely automated vending machine-style systems, such as those used by capsule hotels and many love hotels, are feasible in Japan. The success of a similar system in the US will hinge on whether the increased costs from running it in America will keep things profitable. The best solution I can see at the moment is to accept only credit cards and then charge heavy fines/institute a ban for trashing the place.
- rabidsnail 14y agoHeavy fines get difficult when the buyer can deny the charges. Chargebacks are very expensive for the merchant; not only are there penalty charges on top of the refund ($25 seems to be typical) but credit card processors will refuse to do business with you if you get enough of them.
- w1ntermute 14y agoHow about a video camera inside the "box"? Or would that be too invasive for most people? Maybe you could just take "before" and "after" pictures?
- help1 14y agoPlease try "Settings -> Show advanced settings -> Web Content" in Google Chrome and set the font size to "Very large". Then visit your page again. gz
- eric_bullington 14y agoCool idea, but website needs significant work. For example, the font changes from sans serif to serif mid-page, for no explicable reason. I'm assuming you'll require a credit card to use, which should cut down on a lot of the unsavory activities people are discussing.
- damian2000 14y ago"Single, double and triple Sleepbox units are available at prices starting at EUR 7,000 ($8600). With an average annual income of USD 30,000 per unit, investments pay back in six to nine months, the company says." From: http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/sleepbox-helps-travelers-catch-40-winks/ http://www.springwise.com/lifestyle_leisure/sleepbox-helps-t...
- cstross 14y agoAssuming a 100% load factor, and assuming someone is on hand to change the linen and keep it clean. Being more realistic, it might be cash-flow positive from the start and turn a profit after the first year, if you put it somewhere popular and get the cleaning/maintenance routine nailed down with decent cost control in place.
- m0nastic 14y agoI hope something like this takes off, mostly because I'd buy one for my apartment. A few years back I spent many weeks trying to figure out how to purchase and get shipped one of the Japanese capsule hotel units to my apartment. I found a manufacturer (whose website was entirely in Japanese) and eventually was able to figure out that it wasn't really feasible (getting one of the units shipped to the U.S. was a nightmare, and the units are generally meant to be purchased in bulk), which made me sad. I fully concede that I'm a weirdo, but I've dreamed about sleeping in a little cocoon module for most of my life (I spent a lot of my childhood wishing I was on a submarine, I'm a-ok with enclosed spaces).
- Kliment 14y agoBuild one! It's not that hard, hardware stores will cut materials for you, and your local hackerspace will help with design and technical stuff. And it will have the extra sweetness of being your own hard work.
- pavel_lishin 14y agoI wonder what it would take to turn this into a business, and what the demand would be.
- UnoriginalGuy 14y agoIf you're a weirdo then I am one too. I kind of want the sleeping thing from the movie Daredevil (tiny capsule where he sleeps in water so he can hear nothing). I could build one myself but I always live with people who might treat me like I was insane. But essentially a completely sound-proof little capsule where you can go in, close the door, set the temperature whatever you wish (18 degrees!), and then sleep without light or sound waking you.
- msh 14y agoThat would kind of be a security problem, you can hear fire alarms or smell smoke. But I like the idea.
- sodelate 14y agobuy one if i can't afford a house in the modern city
- SonicSoul 14y agoas much as i'd like this to be a reality there are some valid concerns on comments here. Possible ways that this could work: - Make it subscription based with the regular credit card deposit liability. Any type of damage to the equipment would be accountable to the person who stayed there. - There would need to be persons responsible for maintaining these units 24 hrs a day. That person could be responsible for units in one space, or an area depending on use frequency. The unit would not be available until serviced after every use. - Make the unit more transparent. Use tinted glass instead of opaque walls. Tinted enough to block out bright light, but not opaque so that inhabitant(s) are not free to do whatever they want. this is just a more comfortable way to nap/relax and not an actual hotel.
- sodelate 14y agobuy one if i can't afford a house in the modern city
- ajlburke 14y agoI saw similar booths in the Munich airport a few years ago, where they were called "NapCab". I had had a rough overnight flight and a messy transfer in Heathrow, a six hour layover in Munich, and of course server problems came up while I was in the air - so a small private room with calm lighting, power, and an internet connection was a godsend. It worked with a credit card and cost (IIRC) about 15 euros per hour (10 euros/hr in the evening). There was a touch-screen for setting lighting, audio environment, and a wake-up alarm. It also had a bottle opener and a bottle of water. When you're finished, I gather that janitorial staff are notified and the NapCab is cleaned up and restocked for the next person. Their website doesn't seem to be active anymore, so maybe the company didn't succeed - but here's a not-very-good picture of what mine looked like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26099052@N03/4733241817/in/set-72157624231703347 http://www.flickr.com/photos/26099052@N03/4733241817/in/set-...
- navs 14y agoI've been sleeping in my office a lot lately. My home environment is far too noisy. Now I would love a sleepbox but yes I question two things: hygiene and noise. Hopefully it's well ventilated and there's no bugs but oh how I'd love a showerbox attachment. Also, how well does it isolate noise? Airports are noisy places. Does it isolate low frequency as well? If it does, I'd buy one for my terrible apartment.
- muyuu 14y agoI tried "Yotel" in the Gatwick airport, it's a similar idea but it's in a dedicated area. http://www.yotel.com/Hotels/London-Gatwick/Sleep http://www.yotel.com/Hotels/London-Gatwick/Sleep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOtel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOtel
- mgkimsal 14y agoWas about to mention yotel - I loved my stay in my yotel at gatwick. Stayed in a similar 'tinyroom hotel' in Moscow last year - it wasn't as nice as Yotel. My only complaint is not really with the concept itself, it's just that I'm generally using these things, I'm nervous I'll sleep too long and miss my flight.
- aauldy 14y agoThis is bigger than my Tokyo apartment.
- corporalagumbo 14y agoyou could potentially integrate physiological sensors to monitor for occupant numbers and elevated heart and breathing rates to detect for sexual activity, then have some sort of warning, alarm and deterrence system if you were interested in preventing it from happening. or customers who use the pod for sex could automatically be billed a premium/fee (assuming credit card use). molecular sniffers might be possible to monitor for drug use. but the best strategy to ensure would probably be deploying them in limited-access environments. or perhaps fixing the roots of anti-social behaviour and mistrust in our societies.
- slurgfest 14y agoI can't wait to see the YC startups pitching plans to fix anti-social behaviour... NerveStaple (YC25) harmonizes us all to the Great Leader!
- the1 14y agoWhat's wrong with sex in the box? Why not just install camera then?
- Qwertious 14y agoI read that as "why not just pay the premiums of sex by selling a recording of them going at it, as amateur porn?".
- petegrif 14y agoI love this :)
- ranprieur 14y ago"Sleeping in public causes security, privacy and hygiene issues." This sounds like a rationalization. For me, the reasons not to sleep in public are that public spaces are designed to discourage it, and cops will wake me up. Public sleeping should be a right, but if something like Sleepbox becomes common, it will become even harder to sleep without having money.
- osxwm 14y agoHi. I recognized your name. Love this essay: http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html Are you a technology worker? I've noticed many people with critiques of civilization are into technology.
- jfoster 14y agoFor me it's definitely about the security of my belongings & personal safety. In certain places personal safety is less of a concern, but belongings are still so easy for someone to walk off with.
- learc83 14y agoMany comments seemed concerned about the public perception that these will often be used for sex. Since this is aimed at business travelers, it shouldn't be too hard to limit it to single occupancy. Just add some kind of occupancy sensor--weight distribution on the bed maybe--that alerts an employee when it detects more than one person.
- antiterra 14y agoThat sounds like a completely unwieldy solution. Is an alarm going to go off every time I lift my legs up off the bed? What if I put a heavy suitcase on the bed next to me? Would you want your company to be known for refusing to allow a nursing mother and father to sit next to each other on the bed? What about a parent and a child? Further, a hotel owner can't just barge in on a tenant. They have to believe someone is doing something illegal, disturbing other tenants or causing damage.
- learc83 14y ago>Is an alarm going to go off every time I lift my legs up off the bed? What if I put a heavy suitcase on the bed next to me? I think I could write an algorithm to filter out the vast majority of false positives. With enough pressure sensors under the mattress, and maybe passive IR it really shouldn't be too difficult (face recognition with automated deletes and no long term recording or viewing capabilities would probably be easiest, but people would find it creepy). Suitcases don't move the way people do, pressure distribution is different (also who's traveling with 100+ pound suitcases) etc... Moving your legs shouldn't be too hard to filter out either. Btw if anyone wants to pay me, I'm up for the project ;) Now that I think about it Volvo made a heartbeat sensor, I think using an acceleration to detect minute vibrations. That could work as well. >Would you want your company to be known for refusing to allow a nursing mother and father to sit next to each other on the bed? What about a parent and a child? This is only for single occupancy business travel pods, no room for 2 people, no children allowed. >Further, a hotel owner can't just barge in on a tenant. They have to believe someone is doing something illegal, disturbing other tenants or causing damage. That depends on local laws, in many places breaking house rules (having more than one occupant) is enough to allow them to enter. In any case it doesn't matter, if they have reason to believe you are breaking the rules they can keep knocking on the door until you open up.
- gbog 14y agoThat's nice but for airport what about fixing the real problem, which is that it is so hard to sleep during the flight. More silent planes and hamacs could be the answer.
- zzzeek 14y agonice, but at what point can we get over associating radically new living space ideas with the design ethos of "2001 A Space Odyssey" ?
- ChuckMcM 14y agoGreat discussion, a lot of it centered around the difficulty of the clientele screwing up the place. But there are also a lot of assumptions going in which may not hold. So if you look at AirBnB, one of its 'features' is that all of the renters and sellers are pre-vetted (and yes this doesn't always work but it keeps problem people in the system low). Look at the 'clear' system for pre-screening air travelers. This sort of automated sleep spot is vulnerable to being trashed, so one solution is to create a signup process where the clients get some sort of identifying token, a key if you will, that allow them to use units. The Sleepbox folks have a cool futuristic render but they don't seem to have an actual unit. That is a red flag for me but it only means that I won't invest in one until I see one actually 'in production.' Resupply and restocking is a challenge too, but only if you want fast turn around and low employment costs. You can hire folks to turn over a unit when someone leaves and just be on site the whole time. Depending on occupancy rate and charges will determine if that is feasible. So there are lots of variables but I don't see that there are any huge barriers to implementing this sort of scheme but I do wonder if there is a working business model in there somewhere.
- saadmalik01 14y agoActually, it's already available in Moscow airports: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14514816 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14514816
- ChuckMcM 14y agoInteresting, that is dated from August of last year (1 year ago). In fact there are several articles from that time, here is another one: http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/rent-a-tiny-sleepbox-at-moscow-airport-for-sleeping.html http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/rent-a-... which has a bit more detail. But there isn't anything since then. And to me its even stranger that their homepage they don't mention the installation. So my take on that was this was a 'demo' and not a real installation. Can you tell me if there are any being commercially operated ?
- ww520 14y agoIt might just work if it's placed in a restricted "member" only area, like in an airport. After passing through security and check-in, the customer base has been vetted and pre-qualified. Travelers usually are relatively well off and well behaved, after passed through security. There're less chance of the place being trashed.
- edw519 14y agoI prefer the MVP I've been using in airports for years: - hoodie - ipod with white noise - mindfold mask (mindfold.com) - inflatable neck pillow - backpack with strap wrapped around my arm - empty gate of any soon-to-be-bankrupt airline It's already paid for, it works great (the mindfold is the secret, believe me), it weighs less that a pound, and I can use it on the plane too.
- rdl 14y agoDo you not fly enough to have lounge access?
- what 14y agoYou can pay for lounge access, it's usually around $50. But you can get free wifi, eat and drink as much as you want, grab a paper, etc. Makes up for the cost.
- rdl 14y agoYeah -- the cheapest way if you fly a lot, yet have no status or good credit cards, in many airports, is Priority Pass -- $99/yr + $27/visit. Getting the $99/yr part free from low-tier credit cards is fairly common, too. Amex Platinum (which, admittedly, is $450/yr) also gets you into a lot of lounges. Founders Card gets you lounge access through mid-tier airline status on a few airlines (especially useful for Cathay Pacific, my favorite airline in the world). I'd totally prefer a coach ticket + $50 lounge pass + + nice ipad and iphone and $500 headphones + nicer hotel room, food, car, etc. at destination, to paid first class tickets.
- tibbon 14y agoIt appears that many airports have gotten rid of lounges, or have super limited hours on them. I was flying through Philly and almost got stuck there overnight. It looked like my options were to get a ~$150/night hotel that was near the airport (no vouchers available since it was 'weather related' despite no bad weather) or just sleep in the airport. I had tried asking if there was a way I could get access to the lounge. The answers I got seemed to indicate there either wasn't one, or it wasn't open overnight, or perhaps I just couldn't pay to get access. Unsure. But I wasn't getting in a lounge either way. Thankfully, I got a flight back to Cleveland instead of CAK because the flight to Cleveland was running 2 hours behind (perfect for me) and I had a coworker pick me up there instead.
- ricardobeat 14y agoDid this thing catch on? I remember reading about it a couple years back.
- brackin 14y agoThis is a great idea if not too expensive and implemented correctly. (Clean and wakes me up for my flight). I was trying to get my fairly liberal school to put hammocks in. I had a lesson at 9am and then at 2pm, sometimes I had little to do and left and returned.
- grimgrin 14y ago"They will enjoy hotel level of security and comfort at a hostel price. Suggested night rate 60+ USD." I always thought hostels were cheaper than that, per night. Is that pretty accurate though?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- yaliceme 14y agoWow, what a pleasant surprise to see this familiar (to me) business on HN. I researched Sleepbox extensively while working to found a startup called "NapTime" that would operate napping pods in high-sleep-demand areas (same pain point, different design). Yotel, Metronaps, MinuteSuites, YeloCab, FirstClass Seats (arguably), and several other businesses are similar in concept. I worked on this startup for about 7 months with 3 other grad students (at the time) and thus have spent way too much time learning about this problem, the challenges involved in addressing it, and prior/existing attempts to do so. We directly interviewed over 100 potential customers for it, managed to track down and talk to other founders in this space, wrote a full business plan, etc. Here are some of my insights: - Far and away the #1 most commonly asked question we got was: "But won't people have sex in it?" The #2 most common (arguably a corollary) was “How will you keep them clean?” But that’s not the interesting part... the fascinating thing is that you ONLY get these questions when people are envisioning something similar to the Sleepbox (frequently mocked as “Sexbox” or “Sleazebox” in online comment sections and the like). Neither Metronaps (i.e. high-tech recliner) nor Yotel (i.e. super-compact hotel room) seem to inspire this “ick” factor. Why? My hypothesis: Imagine a spectrum from “chair-like” (zero enclosure, zero privacy) to “room-like” (total enclosure, total privacy). On the “chair” end, it doesn’t really occur to us that some stranger might have sexed on it, even if it’s totally possible. On the “room” end, we know full well that strangers probably HAVE sexed there, but it doesn’t bother us because we consider a private room to be an acceptable, non-sketchy place to do such things. It’s only at some point in the middle that the perceived “wholesomeness” of the design plummets dramatically... we are squicked by the thought that some stranger may have sexed somewhere they are not SUPPOSED to. This effect was so predictable that I started calling it the “Unwholesome Valley” (like the “Uncanny Valley,” but with a different x-axis) For NapTime, I had some ideas for how to get safely to the left, “chair” end of the Unwholesome Valley while still providing a sense of security (highly important to most people we interviewed) and making access restriction a possibility (essential if you want to make any money.) - People often think of airline travelers as the most lucrative market for a sleep pod business, because they’re always tired, they’re a captive market, and travelers are often willing to spend more money. However, there are a few major hurdles that make airports a difficult place to make money (most of these I learned from talking with a founder who had tried to do an airport version of their napping business, without success). Perhaps the most non-obvious is this: airports are empty most of the time. Most airports have four “spikes” per day when it is crowded; the rest of the time, it is almost totally deserted. Most of us perceive airports as being busy all the time; this is because we, as travelers, are only there during those spikes. Businesses who sell to airline travelers know otherwise. The “spiky” nature of airport occupancy is a particular problem for a napping pod business because 1) Most of the time, there are no customers around and 2) When you are suddenly surrounded by customers during a spike, you have limited ability to take advantage of it, because each pod only holds one person (unlike an airport coffee stand which is limited only by how quickly they can perform each transaction). However, I do believe success is possible if you account for the challenges while designing the business model and the pod itself. - Despite the technical challenges, I believe that it is better to have a “vending” model where each pod is independent and self-service, rather than a “sleep salon” model where the pods are grouped together in a lounge with an attendant. The primary reason (again, according to founder interview) is that tired people are extremely reluctant to walk ANY distance to get their nap, so you need to locate the pod exactly where the demand is (demand is spread out within the building, and so too must your pods). I would also hypothesize that tired people would prefer not to interact with a human attendant and deal with the self-consciousness of sleeping in his/her presence. Long post, I know, but this was practically my whole life for the better part of a year, so I have lots to babble about. My cofounders ended up ditching the project upon graduation despite seeming very gung-ho about founding up until that point. I put the project on ice, but I would love to pick it up again someday under the right circumstances and with the right people. Who knows... if you’re interested, contact me. I live near Mountain View.
- alkimie 14y agoThey claim: "Design and functional elements are additionally protected by patents, including European patent No 001742719, Russian Federation patent RU2010501345, and US patent (pending)." I did a few minutes searching at the WIPO website because this really does seem like old art, and I was wondering if they simply did design patents. I could not find public documents on either the EP or Russian patents.