I hope you did not buy at 10 Dollars
Nope!
What was your motivation to invest into Owlet?
Could you describe their business model with your own words?
Whenever I cannot describe the business model of a company, I won't invest into his stock.
Honestly, no clue about their business model.
But I seriously believe in their products, and I have three specific examples.
First, had a high risk pregnancy, which requires going in for half an hour of monitoring twice a week for months on end, as well as an ultrasound once a week. It's a huge inconvenience not only for me, but also from a medical standpoint takes up a room for a good period of time. I kept telling friends and family that in the future, this would be monitored at home which would not only be more convenient for everyone and allow that hospital space to be used for other purposes, but would also literally reduce stillbirth rates. It was drilled into me that if I feel any decrease in fetal movement, to come in right away. Usually by that time the fetus is already in distress, and it can be either too late to save them or they can have an oxygen deprivation injury that impacts them the rest of their lives. I cannot tell how much anxiety goes into monitoring your baby's movements, because babies are not constantly active in the womb. Is he just sleeping or is he dying? That's the game I played with myself about 3x daily.
Owlet had a belly band to monitor fetal movements at home in the beta testing phase back in June 2021. I don't know what happened with that, I applied to be a tester but got an automated response that all spaces were taken. But I'm not seeing any other company currently working on a product like this, and it is
desperately wanted. If they manage to bring it to market with approval, it would be a massive game changer. Once you have one high risk pregnancy, all others after that are typically considered high risk, which means from about 20 weeks to delivery (often 38 weeks or so) you're going in for the monitoring. It's a huge drain on our health care system and seriously inconvenient, and questionably effective since once the baby is in distress you have minutes, not hours or days until your next monitoring appointment.
Second, their Smart Sock, which was their flagship product. I am in a *lot* of parent groups and everyone who tried the Smart Sock 3 were huge fans. The main reason others didn't was simply cost and from hearing bad things about false alarms (that was the previous generations of the product). People were so desperate for it that charities were buying them for folks who needed them but couldn't afford them.
We did not initially get the smart sock. My baby had a birth injury that deprived him of oxygen long enough to cause brain and multiorgan injuries. He had hypothermic cooling, a high oscillating ventilator, his kidneys completely shut down, seizures, a stroke, the whole nine yards. They offered to remove life support. It was bad.
He's doing amazing now, though. <3
Anyway, during his NICU stay he had desats, where his oxygen dipped too low, which are common for nearly all NICU babies but his were more dramatic than usual, going down to 40's and 50's dozens of times a day. After 5 weeks we got to take home our miracle baby, they said he didn't need O2 monitoring anymore. Instead, they gave us infant CPR classes.
As a parent, you watch your baby turn blue over and over again, you see that it can happen while they're literally on your lap and if you happen to be in conversation you don't realize it until the alarms are blaring and you look down and they're blue. You have the option to buy a device at home that would alert you if that happens. Wouldn't you get it?
But it's not just NICU parents who want it. I'm in sleep groups where parents desperate to sleep are agonizing over safe sleep guidelines because their baby is only sleeping well on their stomach, or with the heat turned up, or in bed with them. That was us, too. It sure gave us peace of mind to know it would alert if his O2 dipped.
Not only that, but the third product, the Smart Sock Plus, was for kids up to age 5. When that came out it was being shared all over my brain injury groups. Some kids with brain injury have seizures that show up with desats or elevated heart rate. Others are so severe they can't communicate, and an elevated heartrate is a useful indicator they're uncomfortable. Still other simply worry about a seizure happening when they're out of the room and their kid happens to be suffocating themselves during it based on how they fell. The simple "peace of mind" aspect goes way beyond babyhood for these parents, and Owlet was jumping in to fill that need/desire.
I just don't see any other company blazing this trail yet, so since Owlet has the biggest head start, I feel they have the best shot of dominating the market on these products. The moment the Smart Sock was taken off market there were petitions circling my mom groups for the FDA to grant temporary approval to bring it back, because of how important it was for parents to monitor their baby's wellbeing. Most products do not have this level of customer demand!
Owlet just released the "Dream Sock", which is basically their Smart Sock with a different app geared more towards sleep tracking. This is a wise business move because a *lot* of moms in my group said they ultimately just used the Smart Sock for sleep tracking. It tracks light and deep sleep cycles, but the Dream Sock goes a bit beyond to monitor wakings and give recommendations. They're getting pushback at the moment because people want the Smart Sock, but they will still get some buyers for the Dream Sock once the dust settles.
Also. The FDA approval process for medical devices is way easier compared to drugs. They might only need to do one fairly small study. Of course they first tried for premarket approval, which is basically telling the FDA "hey you don't need us to prove it to you because this device is essentially the same as this other device you already approved that's already on the market." That's the fastest way. But even though this way might take longer, it shouldn't be super drawn out.
I'd say at the end of all this they'll come out with an even better Smart Sock 4. The Smart Sock 3, which we still have and use, does have some drawbacks. The main issue I see is they need to have different alarm parameters and customer education about what the numbers mean, which definitely requires it to be classified a medical device. One person claimed her baby was blue and the Owlet wasn't alarming, and the issue is oxygen levels could be at 81% continuously and it would be very bad, but a temporary dip to the 80's might occasionally happen and as long as it shoots back up again then it's no big deal. I learned way more than I ever wanted to about this during my NICU stays, and as such I am able to use the device while recognizing its limitations. They need to make it a bit more foolproof for the average customer, IMO.
So, I know nothing about this company's business model, but the types of products they're releasing show me that they know their market and are making smart business moves.
Although I am glad I bought my current place when I did even though I thought it was a lot for what it is... location, location, location though.
