The neuroscience-based sleep company appoints Tim Rosa to launch new products, drive growth, and unlock new consumer, employer, and healthcare channels.

StimScience, the company behind Somnee—a smart sleep headband that utilizes non-invasive, closed-loop neurostimulation for better quality sleep—has appointed former Fitbit executive Tim Rosa as its chief executive officer. 

Leveraging expertise across the health and wellness industry and with a track record in scaling companies, Rosa will guide the company through its next phase of growth. 

“There’s a lot of exciting clinical research and momentum validating the importance of sleep fitness and its impact on cognitive performance, athletic performance, mental health, general health, and even weight loss,” says Rosa in a release. “Wearables have done a great job educating consumers on their general sleep stage trends and insights. The challenge for most consumer-grade devices has been creating a closed-loop, lab-grade diagnostic in combination with a personalized therapeutic that adapts with the user and ultimately improves sleep onset, duration, and/or depth. 

“I’m excited to partner with wearables, sleep products and services, and healthcare to close that loop and improve outcomes for 100 million consumers. With StimScience, the team has pioneered and delivered lab-grade technology in a sleep headband that accurately maps and measures brainwave patterns and applies personalized tES (transcranial electrical stimulation) neurostimulation that nudges the brain to sleep.”

Rosa was recruited as CEO in November 2023 by sleep expert and Somnee’s chief sleep advisor Matthew Walker, PhD, and technology investor Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. As the consumer sleep market continues to see growth, Rosa’s immediate focus will be raising the company’s next round of funding, building brand awareness, spearheading the near-term launch of multiple new products and service enhancements, and further solidifying Somnee’s position as a pioneering leader in sleep fitness and other neurological health disorders.

“Technology is a catalyst for the positive innovation necessary to tackle the largest human challenges. We backed Somnee because the team had every component needed to bring forward clinical-grade consumer technology to change the face of sleep. Since our initial investment, this thesis is proving itself out,” says Khosla in a release. “With Tim at the helm, Somnee can now scale to bridge a foundational health gap and cement itself as an iconic brand that carries weight with consumers, the medical and sleep health communities.”

Rosa brings over 20 years of experience in consumer and enterprise marketing, business management, and launching brands, products, and services. As the former chief marketing officer at Fitbit, he was pivotal in establishing the connected health and fitness wearables category, according to a release from StimScience. Rosa scaled the company from a startup into a top 20 consumer brand, selling over 140 million devices in 100-plus countries and helping to drive the largest consumer electronics IPO in history. Rosa wrapped his seven year tenure with Fitbit’s $2.1B sale to Google. 

In the next 24 months, Rosa will build an executive leadership team, evolve the company’s product line, expand strategic partnerships, open new retail, employer, and payer channels, complete a healthcare pilot study, and elevate broader conversations around sleep fitness.

“Sleep is increasingly recognized as one of the most fundamental habits not only for our day-to-day functioning, concentration, mood, and body health but also for continued brain and body wellness as we age,” says Walker in a release. “Quality and duration of sleep impact hormone levels, obesity and diabetes, cancer immune factors, and are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. With sleep deprivation officially recognized as a public health issue, it’s crucial to continue spreading accessible education and resources, but also, new brain stimulation methods to help people prioritize and achieve a good night’s rest.”

According to a release from StimScience, Somnee is proven to cut the time it takes to fall asleep in half and dramatically improve sleep quality with 15 minutes of use. 

Photo caption: Somnee headband and app

Photo credit: StimScience