Wow, 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.