Why did an alarm app invest in a mattress company and acquire a routine app? (โฐ+๐+๐ = ?)
Alarmy's product roadmap toward morning wellness
When we made a strategic investment in the sleep specialist brand "Sam-boon-e-il" in 2021 and acquired the daily routine management service "MyRoutine" in 2022, we got a lot of questions from people around us.
"Why on earth is an alarm service investing in a mattress company and acquiring a daily management app?"
The answer to this is tied to how much an alarm service should actually be responsible for (= the scope of an alarm's responsibility). Let's take a look at the product roadmap Alarmy is planning to build.
How far does an alarm's responsibility go?
Traditionally, an alarm was simply a tool to tell you when to wake up. Having spent the last 10 years expanding the scope of an alarm's responsibility through Alarmy to actually making sure you get out of bed, we started pondering a fundamental question: "Where will the scope of an alarm's responsibility end up in the future?"
Why do we try to wake up at a set time?
Some people use alarms to wake up on time for their daily schedules like commuting, while others do it to carve out more time for themselves to read or exercise. The real reason people battle their morning drowsiness to wake up at a specific time is to start the morning the way they want.
People want to wake up to the morning they desire, meaning they ultimately have a need to experience a "successful morning." How you start your morning impacts your day, and these days stack up to become weeks, months, and years. Welcoming a successful day in great condition ends up having a massive impact on improving your quality of life.
What we consider a successful morning is "sleeping well, waking up definitively in a good condition, and starting the day with the actions you actually want to take."
We realized that to create this kind of morning, simply waking someone up effectively wasn't enough. You need to sleep well, wake up feeling refreshed, and whatever you do right after waking up has a profound impact on your morning.
In line with this, our scope of responsibility naturally expanded. [Alarmy's mission and vision]
Expanding into the sleep phase (Before falling asleep)
Expansion within Alarmy (Falling asleep, deep sleep)
To help people fall asleep faster and better, we provide sleep content (e.g., sleep music, ASMR) that aids in falling asleep and staying asleep. Currently, an MVP version is live on iOS, and we plan to continuously refine it. [The launch story of Alarmy's 'Sleep sounds']
Expansion outside of Alarmy (Sleep quality)
We can also collect sleep environment data or collaborate with partners who can directly improve sleep quality. A prime example is Sam-boon-e-il, which makes a smart mattress that adjusts its temperature based on the user's vitals and sleep state during the night. [Sam-boon-e-il smart mattress that improves sleep quality]
Expanding into the post-wake phase (Right after waking up)
Expansion within Alarmy (Morning content, morning condition management)
We have a "Today's Panel" that provides essential start-of-the-day information like the weather and your schedule right after you wake up, and a "My Morning Score" feature that checks your morning condition and offers diagnostics and prescriptions to boost it. Through these, you can check your morning condition and get advice on how to improve it.
Expansion outside of Alarmy (Morning routine, daily management)
The very first action you take after waking up is crucial for starting your day. Many people want to kick off their day with a productive morning routine, and if we can move beyond just the moment of waking up and cover the waking hours, we can help create a "successful day" as well.
In this regard, we expected that joining forces with a team that sharply solves the problems of routines and daily management would allow us to cover the entire day. We believed the "daily management app" MyRoutine team was well-equipped to solve this problem, and so we ultimately joined hands.
TL;DR: The future Alarmy envisions
The essence of an alarm, in our view, isn't just telling time, but taking responsibility for delivering a "successful morning" (redefining the concept of an alarm)
Ultimately, Alarmy's scope of responsibility covers the entire experience of sleeping, waking up, and greeting the morning
We believe alarms go beyond utility and into the wellness/healthcare domain (specifically sleep tech and mental health)
โฐ+๐+๐ = A wellness solution that creates successful mornings by changing the way you sleep and wake up
