

Smart Bed Startup Luna Joins YC S15, Has Raised $1.3M in Private Funding - katm
http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/17/luna-joins-y-combinator/

======
franceschetti
Hi everyone! This is Matteo, co-founder of Luna. Happy to answer any questions
and hear your feedback and comments about what we are building.

~~~
david_shaw
Hey there Matteo, thanks for taking questions from the crowd.

I'm somewhat of a sleep technology enthusiast, mostly because I've always had
trouble sleeping (and getting reliable metrics on my sleep). I created a web
site called [http://sleepyti.me](http://sleepyti.me) a few years ago to help
me wake up refreshed -- which works pretty well -- and that's what led me to
this question.

Does your "sleep cycle" technology detect movement to wake the user up
(similar to my Jawbone UP's "smart alarm,") or does it actually calculate the
cycles based on time asleep? Or something else entirely?

I'm not sure if one method is better than the other (heart-rate and/or REM
detection would _really_ be best), but I'm interested in the approach you guys
took.

Thanks in advance, and awesome work on your product!

~~~
franceschetti
Hi David,

We have heard about sleepyti.me from so many of our backers that use it or
have used it in the past. It's an awesome and easy-to-use solution. Would love
to chat 1-1 about sleep technology and what you have learned so far.

The way Luna works right now is through piezo sensors that pick up presence in
bed, movement, heart and breathing rate and we use this information to
determine your sleep phase quite more accurately than most of the products in
the market - specially when compared to accelerometer-based solutions.

The detection of sleep phases is used for several of our features - from sleep
tracking to the smart alarm.

Thanks for your feedback! M

------
rezashirazian
I don't use my bed just for sleeping. My bed is sometimes my desk, my closet
or my couch. I work, watch tv and sometimes just hang out on my bed. I wonder
how Luna would work for someone like me.

It would be a shame to have the lights turned off every-time I lie down on the
bed. Or have my coffee maker brew a fresh batch just because I picked up my
laundry from the bed in the morning.

~~~
marvy
Option one: turn off those features? Option 2: Set things up so they only
activate in the right time window?? (Not sure if that's possible, but sounds
like it should be.)

~~~
franceschetti
Sure you can set triggers as you prefer and need. Everything is customizable
to your routine. If you don't have a very clear pattern in your routine you
might want to skip certain integrations and trigger events only for the
moments when you actually fall asleep or wake up (which Luna can detect) vs.
getting in or out of bed. And also set a time window for them.

------
rdl
I love the idea here, and the market. I've tried a lot of the current products
from other vendors, and haven't been completely happy, mainly due to
mechanical issues (Beddit falls off my bed, Im not going to wear a wristband,
and Zeo, my favorite, with the EEG, is out of business...)

I think it's still waiting for the 'iPod' \-- hopefully this is it.

~~~
franceschetti
We hope so too! That is how Luna got started. I have problems to sleep and I
used many other products before and encountered similar mechanical problems
and I would just forget to use them. That is how we decided on a more seamless
form factor that could 'live' with you forever and you wouldn't have to do
anything.

Hope it helps! I will look forward to your user feedback in the future.

-M

------
helfire
I have SleepIQ from sleepnumber, was $299 add on for lifetime subscription.
It's interesting but fairly limited. They do have an undocumented API (
[https://github.com/erichelgeson/sleepiq](https://github.com/erichelgeson/sleepiq)
). I could hookup something to poll the API and fire events
(sleep/away/restless/etc) but it'd be nice if it was a push vs pull and hook
it into existing SmartThings hub or something.

It'll be interesting to watch this as the little and big companies are
entering this market at about the same time.

~~~
franceschetti
Sleep IQ is definitely the most similar product in the market. We admire what
they have done and believe we can take it a step further with more advanced
technology and also a product that can fit any mattress regardless of the
brand.

The integration with SmartThings is a good point and we hope to see more
competitor products moving in this direction as the smart home ecosystem
continues to grow. We just announced our integration with SmartThings recently
and have already heard from many customers that want to see us integration
with Wink next.

------
falsestprophet
I can think of at least one thing some people do in their beds that would be
awkward to have recorded for posterity.

