Honored with the Governor's 2014 ImPAct Award in Export
It is with great pleasure that I announce, Wei-Shin Lai, MD, inventor of SleepPhones® headphones and owner of AcousticSheep LLC, as the winner of her second Governor's ImPAct Award! This is a back to back win for Dr. Lai, who won last year's 2013 ImPAct Award for Entrepreneurship.
The ImPAct Awards give Pennsylvania's Governor, Tom Corbett the opportunity to recognize local companies and entrepreneurs who are investing in Pennsylvania and creating jobs in their communities. The Export ImPAct award is specifically "given to a company that has significantly increased its export sales and the number of new foreign markets it sells to since 2011."
Dr. Lai has definitely accomplished the requirements for winning the Export award in terms of both sales and employment. AcousticSheep has doubled in business every year since its inception, and now sells to over 50 different countries. They employ 18 workers in various positions and recently held the Grand Opening of their new warehouse and office location in Erie, PA. Growth has been tremendous!
In case you don't know the story of how SleepPhones came about, let me fill you in. One night, after a 3 AM phone call from the emergency room, Dr. Lai had so much trouble falling back to sleep that she decided she had to do something.
Her husband, CTO Jason Wolfe, suggested she listen to relaxing music, which was a nice idea, but there were no headphones on the market comfortable enough to sleep in. Together, they put their skills to work and designed the first set of SleepPhones®, a comfortable, innovative headphone solution designed to help people fall asleep — without medication.
For some time after that, Dr. Lai would come home after work to sew headbands while her husband soldered the speakers at the kitchen table. By 2007, they created a website and sold the first 500 sets of SleepPhones® headphones.
"We receive so many testimonials explaining how SleepPhones® help our customers' quality of life, saving marriages and even helping some come off sleeping pills after years," said Dr. Lai. "With the influx of extremely positive feedback, we know we are doing something right."
RunPhones® headphones were added to the product line in 2008, by popular demand from SleepPhones® customers who wanted a lightweight version for working out.
To find out more information about SleepPhones® and RunPhones® please visit us at www.SleepPhones.com or www.runphones.com
To congratulate Dr. Lai, you can send her a message via Twitter @sleepphones or @runphones and on Facebook under SleepPhones — Pajamas for your ears or Runphones.