Charlie Taylor, Co-Founder of Ozlo Sleep — Why his team left Bose to build Ozlo Sleep and how they quickly gained key relationships, finding traction in a new sleep ecosystem.
Charlie Taylor, Co-Founder of Ozlo Sleep — When Bose discontinued its cult-favorite Sleepbuds in 2020, a passionate cohort of users was left in the lurch. For many, these earplug/headphone hybrid weren’t a gadget—they were a nightly lifeline. Taylor shares why he left Bose to co-found Ozlo, and how they quickly gained key relationships, and found immediate traction growing a new Sleep ecosystem.
Taylor shares how the team resurrected the Sleepbuds under a new banner, transforming a discontinued product into a sleep technology brand with a clear mission: “We help you sleep.”
Most co-founders or CMOs will gloss over this statement, but Taylor says focus matters a great deal. His co-founders, former Bose colleagues, saw a unique opportunity not just to revive a product, but to build a company and ecosystem rooted in a cultural shift around sleep. “We’re not this world-famous audio brand who invented noise canceling,” Taylor explained. “We’re now our own thing. And we saw sleep as the one opportunity that… is having a moment.”
Reclaiming a Discontinued Legacy
The roots of Ozlo Sleep lie in a product once deemed non-core by Bose—a decision Taylor said came down to strategic misalignment, not lack of belief. “It doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t believe in the product,” he said of Bose. Today, he has a deep love for Bose.
The turning point came when Taylor and his co-founders left Bose and secured a deal to acquire the rights to the Sleepbuds line. “We had made the decision that we would potentially do our own thing in sleep and were able to convince [Bose] that, hey, this is the right home for these assets.”
The decision wasn’t just opportunistic. It was personal. One of his co-founders at Ozlo led the Sleepbuds product and knew it had cult-like potential. “It was really his brainchild. He saw how life-changing it could be.” That emotional connection to the product mirrored what customers were already feeling. “This was a product that…helped them sleep with their partner again. That type of passion you really can’t make up.”
A great communication pivot and re-capture
Despite a strong technical foundation and trademark ownership of “Sleepbuds,” Ozlo launched with no external brand recognition, no marketing muscle, and zero celebrity connections. But their strategy was genius. Even though they couldn’t use the Bose name, they could use that trust and love for Sleepbuds from past users and a few key journalists.
They realized up front, the deeply emotional cult-like following of the Sleepbuds product under the Bose banner was an advantage. “We had this really distinct advantage” Taylor said, referring to journalists who had used the original product. “We were able to get in touch with them and give them early product.”
The cult-like following of the product from Bose, to their surprise, transferred when handled with care and respect.
“We decided to go to Kickstarter” Taylor said, “Not to raise money, but to build buzz.” Despite limited email lists and no pre-launch deposits, the campaign raised over $1.5 million, fueled by early press coverage and word of mouth.
Ozlo has since landed on Time Magazine’s Best Inventions list and earned organic endorsements from influencers like Gwyneth Paltrow.
Narrowing Focus Leads to Wider Opportunity
From the outset, Ozlo Sleep resisted the temptation to turn their Sleepbuds into another do-it-all wearable. Instead, they chose to go deep, not wide. “We are thinner still than anyone on the market,” Taylor noted. “That means you have to take a lot of things out that you might otherwise do.”
Taylor mentioned how many folks love the Ozlo Sleepbuds, and therefore they want to see the company expand into other categories. Saying no to potential market opportunities, as tempting as they may be, has led to their growth however.
Among those omitted features: microphones, phone call support, and workout tracking—sacrifices that served a singular purpose. “If your goal is to maximize sleep, you have to really go single-purpose,” he said. “It has to last all night with the audio, which means you have to pull back and do other things.”
Taylor’s team continues to turn down seemingly attractive expansion paths. “It’s the siren call,” Taylor said. “But it doesn’t help our core mission.”
Even as some users complain about the lack of workout support, Taylor is resolute. “It’s not built for working out,” he maintains. “These are different decisions that you would make.” Instead of adding tangential features, Ozlo Sleep is focused on “expanding vertically” within the sleep category. “If we were to go horizontal, it’s a different product. This product has to be hyper-focused on sleep.”
Taylor credits that discipline and focus for Ozlo’s ability to “cut through a lot of the noise” despite being a small brand. “Everything that we do is on our sleep customer and not the potential of some boogeyman customer out there.”
Messaging Around Deeply Personal Tech
Ozlo’s communication strategy reflects the sensitivity of its product category. Sleep is deeply personal and often emotional—a fact Taylor confronts daily. “We have a customer base that is really, really passionate,” he said. “I was on the phone yesterday… this woman’s problem wasn’t ‘I need to repair the product.’ Her problem was, ‘I cannot sleep.’”
That depth of user connection informs every touchpoint. “We always want to underpromise and overdeliver,” Taylor said. Adding another layer, the company also has to be careful to navigate the legal gray areas of wellness and health especially as they look into new areas. “To help with things like tinnitus, using audio in a clinical way,” he said. That long-term vision keeps Ozlo’s messaging clear and measured.
Final Thoughts
Ozlo’s story is a case study in focus-driven innovation—one that underscores the power of purpose-built products in an age of feature overload. From reviving a discontinued favorite to building a cult following through empathetic design and disciplined messaging, Charlie Taylor and his team show that success doesn’t always require scale—it requires clarity.
As Taylor put it: “If I can help you sleep, I can be your most important thing in the day.”
