Repositioning a sleep brand for growth
The short versionA smart sleep ring had loyal users and almost no growth, because people saw a gadget. I repositioned it around how customers actually feel, gave it a look to match, and replaced an €8M wish with an honest €4–5M plan built to test before spending.
- Context
- A smart sleep-ring startup with loyal beta users, early clinical results and an €8M first-year revenue target. A strategy assignment I completed for Toptal, presented as a pitch to leadership.
- My role
- Sole strategist: research, positioning, brand look, go-to-market, business case and the pitch itself.
- The challenge
- Strong product, weak growth, and an €8M first-year revenue target.
- The idea
- Stop presenting it as a better tracker. Present it as what users already said they felt: better days.
- What I delivered
- A positioning and tagline, a brand look, a 12-month plan in three phases, an honest business case (€4–5M, not €8M), ten KPIs, a risk plan and one clear ask: approve two months of testing.
The challenge
Somna makes a smart ring that reads your heart rate, breathing and movement through the night and adjusts the sounds you hear in real time. It doesn't just measure sleep. It changes it.
The basics were strong. Beta users stayed and used it often. They referred friends without being asked. Early clinical partners saw better sleep quality, and one clinic pilot was close to a multiyear deal.
But almost nobody outside that circle was buying, and the company wanted €8M in its first year.
The brand insight
Everything that was working came from the product. Everything that wasn't came from how the story was told.
The company led with science: sleep data, accuracy, clinical language. Its own customers never talked like that. They talked about how they felt and how they performed the next day.
Clinical credibility earns trust. It doesn't create desire.
So this wasn't a product problem or a budget problem. It was a perception problem: people saw a gadget, and the brand gave them no reason to see anything else. That's the cheapest kind of problem to fix.
Key decisions
- Chose one audience to test first.
Ambitious professionals in demanding jobs, late 20s to 40s, who already wear a health tracker. A message for everyone lands with no one. The tension I expect them to feel: "I do everything right and still wake up exhausted."
- Mapped where the product can win.
Two questions: does a product measure the night or change it, and does it rest on clinical proof or wellness appeal? Trackers only measure. Masks and sound apps act, but aren't personal. Somna is the only one that changes the night and has clinical backing.
- Wrote the positioning, in a deliberate order.
Benefit first, then how it works, then the proof. Customers lead with how they feel, so the brand should too. Science comes last, where it earns trust instead of competing for attention.
- Planned the go-to-market around trust.
Clinics to build credibility, customers and independent sleep voices to build reach, and paid ads only as a small, capped test.
- Built an honest business case.
€8M would need about 27,000 buyers in year one. On the budget available, about 15,500 is realistic. So I recommended planning for €4–5M, and showed exactly what would have to be true to reach €8M.
Scaling paid adsEarly ads were too small to trust. Run a small, capped test first.A second audienceA brand grows by saying one thing clearly. Add audiences once the first responds.A science-first headlineClinical results are the proof, not the promise.Bulk sales to businessesIt could make clinician recommendations look commercial.
How the brand shows up
Strategy only matters if people can see it. In the deck, I gave the brand a look that matches the promise: the calm of night, the energy of the morning after.
Somna:
Sleep better.
Bring your best.
The tagline leads with the benefit. The night sky and rising moon say rest; the gold says the day ahead.
For ambitious professionals who give everything to the work they love, Somna listens to your body as you sleep and adjusts the sounds you hear in real time, so you sleep better and bring your best to the day ahead. Backed by early clinical results.
Recreated from the pitch deck I designed for Toptal
Night, not numbers
Deep night tones and a rising moon instead of charts and sleep scores. It feels like rest, not a lab report.
Calm and confident
Benefit first, science last. It talks the way customers already talk about it.
Trusted places first
Clinics, customer referrals and independent sleep voices before any paid ads.
The map below shows why this position is open: no one else changes the night and has clinical backing.
Clinical monitors
Accurate, but they only report.
Somna
Adapts to you in real time, backed by early clinical results.
Wearables and apps
Only show you your data.
Wellness products
Act on the night, but aren't personal.
The business case
I'd rather tell a CEO the truth on slide ten than have the plan fail in month six. All of these are assumptions, and Phase 1 exists to test them.
What I'd do next
- Learn, months 0–2: interview 15–20 beta users, test the message and two intro offers, close the clinic deal, set an awareness baseline. Ends with a go or no-go.
- Build, months 2–6: check every claim against the clinical results, start referrals and email, invite independent sleep voices, give partners a guide.
- Grow, months 6–12: scale only what worked, add paid media where tests passed, widen partnerships across Western Europe.
The ask was deliberately small: approve Phase 1. Two months, low cost, and it decides how much to spend after.
What this shows about how I work
- Diagnosis before tactics. I found the real problem before suggesting a single channel.
- I build brands from the customer's words. The positioning came from how users already described the product.
- I make the strategy visible. The brand's look carries the same promise as its words.
- I make choices and say them out loud. One audience, one message, four routes held back on purpose.
- I'm honest about numbers. I pushed back on the target and showed what it would take.