'I Used to Sleep Under My Desk:' How a Burnt Out Executive Changed His Ways and Now Runs a Sleep Wearables Company. A personal wake-up call led Somnee CEO Tim Rosa to transform sleep technology through neuroscience.
By Jon Bier
Key Takeaways
- Tim Rosa is the CEO of Somnee, a Berkeley, CA, neuroscience-based wearable company developing personalized neurostimulation devices that improve sleep performance and insomnia.
- He appeared on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast to discuss how a new mission in life drew him to helping people sleep better.
- Rosa shares five key lessons for startup business leaders
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Tim Rosa remembers the day he realized his true calling.
When he was the Chief Marketing Officer at Fitbit, the wearable fitness tracking device, he pored over emails, forum posts, and support logs. There, he discovered moving stories from customers—one said the product had helped him discover a heart issue, and another said it helped her reverse type two diabetes and finally get pregnant.
"I would literally be in tears reading these stories," Rosa says. "From then on, I knew my purpose was to help people by doing good and creating beautiful products and services that improve lives."
Today, Rosa is the CEO of Somnee, a pioneering neuroscience-based sleep company whose flagship product is a neurostimulation device that helps users fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and improve overall sleep quality. Rosa wants to improve lives by solving one of the most fundamental human needs: quality sleep.
Rosa is this week's guest on the One Day with Jon Bier podcast. In the interview, he talks about his journey from a run-and-gun marketing executive at ESPN, 2K Sports (launching the NBA 2K series), and Fitbit, working so hard he often slept under his desk, to discovering the value of sleep later in life and channeling that passion into Somnee.
He also imparts some valuable wisdom he's gained in business over the years.
Build brands that 'win hearts and minds'
"The most important thing is to be absolutely obsessed with understanding your customer," says Rosa.
At Somnee, that meant first digging deep into customer feedback, engagement metrics, support logs, qual/quant research, and getting to know his customers' needs on a personal and emotional level.
"By putting the customer and brand at the center of building your company, he says, you can use that as a guide to help inform your decisions."
That said, the customer only knows what they know. To be innovative as a leader and introduce pioneering new products, experiences, or features, you still need to take some calculated risks, especially as a challenger brand or category creator.
"The reality is, whether you're in a consumer business, an enterprise business, or healthcare, at the end of the day, someone on the other side wants to use your product, buy your product, consume your product," he says. "Your job is to win their heart and win their mind. Period."
Related: 5 Proven Strategies for Retaining Your Best Customers
Recognize personal struggles as potential business opportunities
When venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and UC Berkeley's sleep scientist and author of "Why We Sleep", Dr. Matt Walker, first approached Rosa about Somnee, he was dealing with serious sleep issues.
He had experimented with magnesium, CBD, and THC edibles but found no relief. Rosa looked at Somnee's website and found the company's product confusing, which frankly left him skeptical, but he decided to try the product himself for 14 days before committing to the CEO position.
"They sent me a device, and I went through the journey. In my third session, I fell asleep with the device on and was blown away by the fact that it really worked. But I felt the brand, product, website, and service needed to be elevated to reflect the incredible innovation behind the science and technology."
He realized they were onto something special. If Somnee could help someone with sleep issues like his, the rest would be history.
Embrace the power of personalization
One of the key innovations behind Somnee's technology is its focus on personalization. Rosa explains that their patented "closed loop" product uses a comfortable sleep headband with an electroencephalogram (EEG) that reads your brainwaves to understand individual patterns for optimal sleep. This is the same tech that is used in some of the world's most advanced sleep labs.
"The language of the brain is essentially electrical frequency," he explains. "We establish a baseline using the EEG sensor. Once we've done that, our AI models then apply gentle, personalized neurostimulation at the optimal frequency that's specific to you. This helps calm and prepare your brain for sleep. We reduce the time to sleep by 50% and improve overall sleep quality."
Rosa argues that this personalized closed-loop approach is the future of consumer health tech and wellness products—it's no longer just about tracking your sleep but actually fixing it.
Apply the 'Rule of 3' to simplify complex business challenges
Throughout his career, Rosa has relied on the power of thinking in threes to tackle complex problems and communicate effectively.
"I think in threes. What are the three things you will do to win?" Rosa explains.
This "Rule of 3" applies to everything from product development to customer communication. He says this helps him simplify strategies and prioritize actions.
Rosa uses this principle to stack-rank priorities and build his MVP (Minimum Viable Product). By focusing on the three most critical aspects, Rosa ensures that his team stays focused and avoids getting lost in unnecessary details.
Leverage partnerships and data to create powerful ecosystems
Drawing from his experience at Fitbit, Rosa emphasizes the importance of creating customer personas and cultivating ecosystems around your product and customer needs. He envisions Somnee eventually rolling out an API and working with other wearables and service companies to create a more comprehensive health-tracking ecosystem.
"I view wearables, human performance services, and healthcare as strategic partners," Rosa explains. "I want to help facilitate an ecosystem of partner products and services that utilize our clinical-grade data sets to help others. Good data in is good data out."
Rosa's journey from sleepless marketing executive to sleep tech innovator has been rewarding in many ways, but he says the most impactful moments have been hearing from his customers. Like Fitbit, Somnee is helping people and changing lives.
He tells the story of a Vietnam veteran suffering from Insomnia and PTSD who was addicted to sleeping pills and was only getting 3.5 hours of sleep a night. After using Somnee for 30 days, he's now up to 7 hours and has made the 15-minute Somnee session a part of his nightly bedtime routine.
Or when Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff sent Tim an email saying how much he loves Somnee because it has dramatically improved his sleep and well-being, so much so that his wife is now using Somnee as well.
"It reinforces my own purpose, which is to help people, to help them perform and to help them live a better life by putting really good products in the world that actually have an impact," Rosa says.
