Hello Inc. was a San Francisco-based technology company that made sleep-tracking devices and a sleep-tracking app to help monitor and improve sleep. The company was founded in August 2012 and shut down in June 2017.
History
Hello was founded on August 28, 2012 by James Proud. In June 2015, Hello raised $40 million in a financing round from Temasek Holdings and was valued between $250 million and $300 million at the time of the funding. Hello had also raised $10.5 million in a previous financing round according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sense
Hello originally conceived a wearable sleep tracker that the user would wear to bed, but the idea was scrapped in favour of a bedside device and a "Sleep Pill" sensor. Hello released their first sleep tracker Sense on February 24, 2015, after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2014, which raised $2.4 million. 21,000 units of Sense were sold during its launch. The Sense product includes a bedside device shaped like a ball and a "Sleep Pill" that tracks a user's sleep by clipping onto a pillow. The Sleep Pill does not need to be recharged and has a replaceable battery that lasts one year. Sense also works with two Sleep Pills, which makes each pill more accurate. The Sleep Pill also tracks temperature, light sound and allergen particle data. The bedside Sense device can tell its user whether sleeping conditions are ideal or not via Red, Green or Yellow lights. Custom "Smart Alarms" are built into the Sense application and play up to 30 minutes before a user's requested wakeup time via the bedside Sense device. Sense can also play sounds such as rainfall and white noise to help the user fall asleep. Sense came in two colours: White and Charcoal. The design of the bedside Sense device was inspired by that of the Beijing National Stadium, where the 2008 Summer Olympics were held. Sense gives the user a score every night based on the conditions of the bedroom and how well the user slept as well as provide suggestions on how to improve the user's sleep. On November 1, 2016, Hello released Sense with Voice, a voice enabled version of the Sense sleep tracker.
Shut down
While trying to look for a buyer, CEO James Proud announced on June 12, 2017 in a blog post on Medium that Hello would be shutting down. Hello also laid off most of their employees on the day they announced their shut down and were in talks with Fitbit for them to acquire the company. Although Hello shut down in June 2017, the company's website, Hello.is, remained up until January 2018.
