Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

sleepio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 72 posts

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#11

Post by splatzone »

phames wrote: post #8
splatzone wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome. I have to say, this is very impressive. Is there a free trial or anything available? I would love to try it out but, alas, I'm a skint student. Especially since it's the start of the academic year I can imagine this going down well with my student friends - maybe some kind of discount would make it more enticing. Either way, this looks awesome and clearly the result of a lot of hard work. The Boots partnersh…

Thanks so much! We did have a free trial, but we're trying it without...and since we're so close to launch we need to coordinate with what Boots is offering. Out of interest what sort of price do you think you (and your friends) would expect to pay for this, based on what you've seen?

Well I'd be willing to pay £25-ish or maybe a bit more. I don't know if the fact I'm Scottish skews that at all :P

The Boots thing is very interesting. Are you willing to share how that came about? I'll need to nip in today and have a wee look.

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#12

Post by phames »

[deleted] wrote: post #10

[deleted]

Ha! Top one is the best - not sure how effective that would be in getting anyone to sleep though...

It's a tricky question - there's no solid data on the awareness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy but it lends credibility to those who do know it. In our (quick and dirty) research it seems that a majority of our main initial target (middle aged women) have heard about it but don't know what it is...

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#14

Post by phames »

brackin wrote: post #9

Incredible homepage and introduction but I'd love a 7-day trial to see if it's for me.

Thanks. Yes we initially had a 7 day trial but are now trying it without. The challenge is how to manage expectations from that trial - you need to stick with the programme to see a positive effect (like a weightloss programme), and despite our explanations mot people expect to see some instant results in that first week. We were hoping the 'Try it now' might give people enough of a taste of what the user experience is...but we'll give it some thought afresh.

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#17

Post by phames »

rane wrote: post #15

Is there a free alternative using the same methodology? Sounds interesting, but £49.99 is way too much for me right now.

Well, the techniques are out there in the literature, but it's how they are tailored to your own situation - and more importantly how you actually deliver positive behaviour change, rather than just info - that's the real challenge that we're trying to address at a price less than the £600 you'd need to pay for a course of face to face therapy.

We're going to try a lower price point ongoing subs model to avoid that initial barrier; the assumption initially was that we need to front-load the value, since we're curing people!!

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#19

Post by phames »

jordn wrote: post #16

This looks great! Can you tell us some more about how you managed to get into a large national pharmacy chain like boots?

It took A-G-E-S. Since we have bootstrapped for the last 3 years (only just took some seed money) we don't have the cash to pay our way in like most suppliers. Back then I had already got Prof Espie on board (he and I are the co-Founders) after his techniques had cured my insomnia. Since he is a world-leading expert the Boots Innovation Centre attended one of his seminars, and that prompted the first conversation, whilst we were still at planning stage. But since then it's been a very long road, talking to literally hundreds of people and outlasting team after team of buyers and marketing folk...the only approach with someone like Boots is to build a partnership, but that takes time if you don't have money.

Re: Show HN: Sleepio - how I cured my insomnia, turned into software.

#20

Post by phames »

splatzone wrote: post #11
phames wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much! We did have a free trial, but we're trying it without...and since we're so close to launch we need to coordinate with what Boots is offering. Out of interest what sort of price do you think you (and your friends) would expect to pay for this, based on what you've seen?

Well I'd be willing to pay £25-ish or maybe a bit more. I don't know if the fact I'm Scottish skews that at all :P The Boots thing is very interesting. Are you willing to share how that came about? I'll need to nip in today and have a wee look.

Thanks. I'm a big believer in using physical retail to explain (and confer value on) digital products. See above - the Boots deal took years of time and effort.

£25? More than I was expecting!

Post reply on HN