"I thought I had a sleep problem. I actually had a phone problem."
About
us.
During COVID, I was running a boutique fitness business that had opened just two months before everything shut down. Like a lot of people, I was feeling the pressure of uncertainty, whilst also trying to keep a newly created business alive. Long days, late nights, and the feeling of never really switching off became normal.
One night my wife said, “You look exhausted. We need to do something.” She was right. I was drained, distracted, and not showing up the way I wanted to. I’d be in bed emailing, messaging and scrolling, then wake up and do the same thing again before I’d even left the bed.
I assumed the issue was sleep, so we did what most people do. Created a wind down routine. Hot showers. Magnesium. Reading. It helped, but what surprised me most, was that the biggest change didn’t come from better sleep habits, it came from stepping away from my phone. That space from late night scrolling and messaging and the same first thing, made me calmer in the evening, and clearer in the morning.
That was the beginning of kip.
At first, kip was meant to be a sleep brand, built around the idea of disconnecting to unwind and sleep better. Our first product, the kip tag, came from that thinking. But as I researched and spoke to people, it became obvious that sleep was only part of the story. Phones were showing up everywhere: in bed, at work, in conversations, and in moments that were meant to be lived, not half-scrolled.
The turning point came in a gym. Every bench was taken, not by people training, but by people sitting on their phones. It frustrated me at first, then it genuinely saddened me. Not because phones are bad, but because something felt out of balance.
Phones are powerful tools. Social media has value. Connection matters. But our relationship with our devices has drifted, and most of us know it, can feel it, but have quietly accepted it as the norm. But I refused to accept it, and that's when my mission for kip became clear.
kip exists to help restore our balance, without shame or judgement. It is there to support the creation of small, intentional moments of disconnection that allows more presence, more clarity, and more space for the people and things that actually matter. It’s about creating the space for our life beyond the phone.
Thanks for being here,
Shaun
Put your phone to kip. Block distracting apps in a single tap.