Power Players

'Sleep box' Mark Zuckerberg invented launched on Kickstarter, raised more than $100,000 so far

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Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan attend the 7th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center on November 4, 2018 in Mountain View, California.
Taylor Hill | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

When Mark Zuckerberg throws out an idea for a business, it doesn't take long for an entrepreneur to turn it into a reality.

In April, the Facebook CEO shared that he built his wife, Priscilla Chan, a device he called a "sleep box," a wooden box that sits on the bedside table and emits a soft light between the hours of 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., when it's time to go get theit kids. That way Chan doesn't have to constantly wake up and check the time on her phone.

Zuckerberg said "a bunch" of his friends seemed interested in having one, so he posted his creation on Facebook "in case another entrepreneur wants to run with this and build sleep boxes for more people," he said.

Greg Hovannisyan did just that — he and a team engineers and builders developed a prototype for Zuckerberg's sleep box and launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production in June.

By May 18, Hovannisyan had a prototype, on June 13 he launched the Kickstarter campaign and with 27 days left it has already raised $108,000, more than 21 times its $5,000 goal.

The Zucklight, currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter.
Zucklight

In fact, two hours after launching on Kickstarter, the project was fully funded, a spokesperson for the company tells CNBC Make It. Hovannisyan has also received partnership offers from "various" distributors, according to the spokesperson, who declined to disclose specifics.

Hovannisyan hosted an online question-and-answer session about Zucklight on the popular product innovation discussion platform Product Hunt on July 3 and it was the No. 1 product of the day, which is a ranking determined by community votes.

Hovannisyan and the founding team are Armenian, so the Zucklight is being developed by team of engineers in Armenia. The company's headquarters, meanwhile, are in New Jersey.

Early bird pricing for the basic Zucklight is $29, which is more than half off the expected $60 retail price, according to the Kickstarter campaign. Early bird pricing for the Zucklight Plus, which includes wireless charging, is $39, which is more than half off the expected retail price of $80. The Zucklight Pro, which has wireless as well as environmental sensors to measure the level of humidity, carbon dioxide and temperature in the room as well as alerts, is available to early bird backers for $47 and is expected to retail at $100.

TWEET: Idea from Mark Zuckerberg: A sleep box

The Zucklight comes in light oak, mahogany or white aspen and customers can select the color and brightness for the light with a related app. The color of the light can be programmed to change as time progresses, so it can glow green at 6 a.m. and red at 7 a.m., for example, according to a video accompanying the campaign.

As of Tuesday, 1,951 backers have contributed $108,313.

Prior to launching Zucklight, Hovannisyan has invested in IT and specifically security technology. In 2006, he started a technology security and networking company which does work for, among other customers, government offices, according to his bio on Kickstarter.

But Hovannisyan has no relationship with Zuckerberg. "Mark [Zuckerberg] is not affiliated with Zucklight in any way. We loved his idea, developed it even more and brought it to life," Hovannisyan said.

Facebook did not respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.

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