Hatch is in one in three homes with a baby or a small child, is profitable, and says it does not need to raise more venture money.
Almost every other sleep tracker is worn on the wrist or the finger and hands the user a nightly number. Hatch put the sensor inside a bedside clock and refuses to publish a score at all.
"Getting good sleep is not a data problem. It is really a behavior problem."
Ann Crady Weiss has been building sleep devices at Hatch since 2014, moved the company from nurseries into adult bedrooms in 2020, and says this is her second turn as founder and chief executive of a venture-backed company.
I listened to the full segment so you can skip it.
Here are the 8 takeaways that matter.
👤 Guest: Ann Crady Weiss, chief executive of Hatch, the sleep-device company she has been building since 2014 and, by her own account, her second venture-backed company as founder and chief executive
🎙️ Hosts: Tim Stenovec and Kristine Aquino, who anchor Bloomberg Businessweek Daily, the afternoon program this interview was recorded for
📰 Published: 1 September 2026 on Bloomberg Talks
🔴 YouTube | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 11 min
Key Takeaways
A sleep tracker that deliberately refuses to give the user a score Her example is a score of 68, which she said tells a sleeper nothing they can act on
The sensor sits in the bedside clock rather than on the body Nothing to wear and nothing to charge; it reads respiration rate and movement from the nightstand
Hatch is in one in three homes with a baby or a small child, and the adult market is the growth story
The company is profitable and says it does not need more venture money Takeover approaches come in, but there are no definitive plans for a sale or a listing
The sleep data is free and the subscription sells the bedtime audio instead
A company without AI in its name is still running its data through AI
1. Sleep is a behavior problem
Tim Stenovec opened on the hardware question rather than the product: on a day when a $5 trillion company was getting a new chief executive, how does an independent company stand out in a business where hardware is hard to make.
Crady Weiss answered with the category rather than the device, and put the problem in behavior rather than measurement. "Getting good sleep is not a data problem. It is really a behavior problem." The product follows from that: a bedside device meant to help a user create and keep a sleep routine, not a monitor
She said the focus on the behavioral side of sleep is what separates Hatch, and that a sleep scientist would name the same thing as the biggest struggle people have with sleep
2. No wearable, no charging
Kristine Aquino put the contrast to her directly, noting that other trackers are worn — wristwatches, and the ring she said she had on her own finger — while a Hatch device is not attached to the sleeper at all.
The Hatch Sleep Clock keeps the bedtime audio and the sunrise alarm and adds a sensor inside the housing. "So you don't have to wear anything. You don't have to charge anything. And in the morning, we will tell you how you slept."
The sensing is contactless and reads two signals. "It works with no contact on the body and it senses your respiration rate and also your movement and we can algorithmically translate that into how you slept."
The output pairs two data sets: how the person slept, and what they did — when they went to bed, when they actually fell asleep, what bedtime content they listened to, how many times they hit snooze
Stenovec held one of the new devices up on air and asked where the sensor was, then asked how the clock knows it is reading him and not his partner Crady Weiss said it picks up the first thing it sees, and that she and her husband each keep one on their own nightstand The hosts drew out the consequence: two sleepers need two clocks, one each
3. Why there is no sleep score
Refusing to publish a score is a deliberate product decision, not a gap. "We really don't believe in a sleep score. And we don't publish a sleep score. And that's very intentional."
She used a worked example against it: told she had scored 68 the night before, she would not know what to do with the number, and it would leave her feeling bad and none the wiser
Her analogy for a bare number with no instruction attached. "It's kind of like if you gave someone a scale and expected them to lose weight."
The alternative she described is coaching on both the sleep data and the behavior data, on the argument that a routine someone enjoys is a routine they keep doing
4. One in 3 homes, now adults
Stenovec described his own household — Hatch came in as a sound machine and a light that changes color, and his son learned he can get out of bed when the light turns a certain shade — and asked what else is in the pipeline now that the company is in adults' bedrooms.
The baby and kid business is already the dominant one. "So when it comes to baby and kid, we are in one in three homes." She said the company has helped millions of families get their children to sleep
The adult market is where the growth is, and she called it big enough to keep growing into. She said Hatch is growing very quickly there and has lots of room left
The demand case she cited is a national one. "Six in 10 Americans are not getting enough sleep." Her prescription tracks the science she cited: sleep hygiene and a routine, rather than more measurement
5. Inbound, but no exit plans
Aquino noted that Apple and Google are investing heavily in health tracking while Hatch is smaller and more specialized, and asked whether anyone has shown takeover interest.
She confirmed approaches without characterizing any of them. "So we get lots of inbound, which we love. We always love talking to people."
Her answer to the strategic question was a founder's rule rather than a plan: stay focused on the customer and good business outcomes follow
Stenovec pressed on what the exit for the venture investors would be — a sale or a listing
The answer was neither, and she backed it with the financials. "We are growing very quickly. We're profitable." She said there are no definitive plans, and that the company will keep building and growing
Asked whether Hatch can carry on without raising again, she said the company generates its own cash. "So we don't need to raise any money. Yeah, we are cash flow positive. We actually generate cash." She left the door open to outside money to move faster than it otherwise could, while saying it is not needed
6. Free data, paid audio
Aquino asked whether the next phase of growth is the data itself and what the company can do with it.
The sleep data carries no subscription, and she gave the principle behind that. "We believe that anything that comes from your body should be included with the upfront price of the device."
What is sold instead is the audio library, under the name Hatch Plus. "We have 3,500 titles, and that is available, again, optionally for $5.99." The team produces new original bedtime audio every day, and the base device comes with some audio included
Her summary of where the data sits in the product. "So the data is necessary, but it is not sufficient."
7. Not an AI company, uses AI
Stenovec returned to the funding question from the other side: raising money as a company that is not about AI, in a market that is.
She rejected the framing rather than the premise. "So the reality is every company, every entrepreneur worth their salt is using AI. We may not have AI in our name, but we absolutely use AI."
Where it is used, on her account, is the two data sets the product already collects — the sensor readings, and the record of when a user goes to bed, how often they snooze and how often they wake
The stated purpose is to find correlation and causation in that data, which is what the coaching is built on
8. Customers pulled it to adult
Aquino closed by asking how customers are likely to evolve in the way they use the products, and how Hatch would adapt.
The move into the adult market came from the existing customers, not from a strategy document. "And our customers actually pulled us to adult." The request she reported was from parents whose children were sleeping better than they were
Adult started in 2020 with the fundamentals — light, sound and original audio content to help someone fall asleep — and the sleep data was added in this latest step
The stated goal is the whole household rather than one sleeper, built on habits people want to repeat
Bonus Insights
The segment opened with Stenovec asking his co-host how she sleeps at night, and Aquino answering that she does so with much difficulty
Stenovec disclosed that his family owns one of the older devices, and that one of his children still cannot sleep without it
He also said he had seen Crady Weiss in June at Bloomberg's technology event in San Francisco
Aquino said she wears a ring that tracks her own sleep, which is what set up the contactless question
Crady Weiss and her husband each have a device, and she said they do not compare results in the morning
She joined from Bloomberg's San Francisco bureau, and the segment closed on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
Crady Weiss's bottom line is that Hatch sells a routine rather than a measurement, and that a profitable company generating its own cash can stay independent while much larger companies spend around it.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Hatch (The sleep company founded in 2014 that Crady Weiss runs; bedside devices for children first, adults since 2020, and in one in three homes with a baby or small child on her account)
Hatch Sleep Clock (The newest device, which adds a contactless sensor reading respiration rate and movement to the bedtime audio and sunrise alarm)
Hatch Plus (The optional subscription: original bedtime audio produced daily, 3,500 titles, priced separately from the free sleep data)
Apple and Google (Named by Aquino as the big companies spending on health tracking, against which she framed Hatch as smaller and more specialized)
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