In a City That Doesn’t Sleep, He Built a Brand Around Rest
In fast-paced Hong Kong, David built a sleep brand inspired by his mom’s insomnia and his own restless nights. What began as a quiet product test is now a growing global business — built slow, clear, and strong, without sacrificing rest.
How a Hong Kong founder turned a quiet product into a growing global brand
David grew up in a household where sleep never came easy. His mom struggled with insomnia for years. Lights stayed on later. Mornings felt heavier. Everyone adjusted, but no one ever got used to it.
He was a light sleeper too. Over time, he realized how a broken night seeped into everything, how you think, how you move, how you show up the next day. But like most people, he just lived with it.
After university in the UK, David returned to Hong Kong and tried to follow the script: solid jobs, remote flexibility, good teams.
But something always felt off. Progress was slow. Decision making lagged. Ideas hit politics before they hit production. Even when the pay was fine, the work felt… distant.
He didn’t have a plan B. But he had a growing sense that he wasn’t meant to be managed.
One night, scrolling online, he came across a YouTube ad, one of those generic videos about building an ecommerce brand that most people click past. He didn’t.
By the end, he wasn’t thinking about ecommerce. He was thinking about sleep.
His mom.
His own light sleep.
And the time a decent sleep mask helped him finally rest on a long-haul flight.
No big innovation. Just a small product that worked.
Based in Hong Kong, with Shenzhen across the border, he had unusual access. He ordered more than 20 different sleep masks from local factories. Some let light seep in at the edges. Others slipped when he turned. Most weren’t designed for people who move a lot in their sleep.
One stood out. He tweaked the design, customized the fit, and placed a small order.
No PR. No paid ads. Just one product - quietly launched as The Sleep Oasis.
He didn’t expect much.
Maybe a few orders. Maybe some feedback. Enough to know whether it helped someone, even just one person.
At first, there was nothing.
Then he started giving away masks at wellness events around the city. No hard selling. Just a clean offer: try it, use it, let me know what you think.
Some of those testers were health coaches. A few had already tried premium masks from established brands.
It came when the orders started coming in.
One a day. Then two. Then three. Then days where the orders didn’t stop.
There were no marketing tricks. No spikes. No viral moments. Just consistent, organic demand.
That’s when he stopped calling it a side project.
A few weeks later, a customer from the US sent a message.
He had bought the mask, compared it to his $100 Manta Sleep Mask, one of the most established premium brands and said David’s was better.
He didn’t post it. Didn’t screenshot it. Just sat with it for a moment.
This was a stranger.
A paying customer.
Someone who had other options and still chose his.
It wasn’t the message that changed him.
It was the realization behind it: this works. And if it works, it deserves real attention.
He didn’t treat sleep as a tradeoff. He never had.
It was part of how he functioned, and now, it shaped how he built.
Eight and a half to nine hours a night. Swimming, walking, training a few times a week.
“I worked at a health-tech company once,” he said. “The founders barely slept. It made no sense.”
He wasn’t trying to avoid pressure. He just wanted a different kind of pace.
That clarity shaped everything else.
Customer replies? Still his job.
Content and product descriptions? Sketched with AI, then rewritten with care.
Web development? Handled by a trusted freelancer.
Email flows? Run by someone who understood the tone and the pace.
Early mistakes taught him what to avoid.
One agency launched Cantonese ads to random US states.
One SEO “expert” spammed backlinks that hurt more than helped.
He learned to do the work first, then delegate. No shortcuts.
Today, The Sleep Oasis receives daily orders from Hong Kong, the US, and Australia.
The product line is expanding carefully. A massage device with red light and heat therapy is gaining traction, especially in Western markets where massages are expensive and less accessible.
The urge to scale is always there. He could 10x output with Shenzhen supply chains and flip on more channels tomorrow.
But he’s cautious, not out of fear, but philosophy.
He’s seen brands that outgrow themselves too fast:
Growth, he’s learned, isn’t about pace. It’s about staying in rhythm.
He didn’t build The Sleep Oasis to go big. He built it to solve something real. To test an idea that mattered to him.
And to prove that you can build slow, clear, and strong, and still make it work.
You can grow without burning out.
And yes, you can sleep.
