How AirTulip Improves Sleep Quality and Eases Allergies with Clean Air

Imagine waking up feeling truly refreshed, breathing air that is 1,000 times cleaner than what traditional purifiers can offer. That’s the promise of AirTulip, a revolutionary air purification system designed to elevate sleep quality, ease allergies, and optimize recovery. In this interview, co-founder Arjen de Jong shares how he founded AirTulip with Raoul Valstar, the science that sets their product apart, and why clean air is the missing link to better health.

AirTulip Inception

SBS – What inspired you to create AirTulip, and how did you identify the need for this type of product?

Arjen – I have a PhD in aerodynamics and aerospace engineering. I also come from an entrepreneurial family that has already made industrial clean rooms with controlled air. I thought it would be amazing to put that knowledge into another industry and improve people’s lives. 

The big trigger point was the pandemic when we all had to self-isolate. The research has confirmed that there was a much more spread of COVID indoors than outside since air circulates in particles. That made me think — if you can control the airflow in a certain way, you can make it so that it doesn’t carry these particles. In clean rooms, you can achieve a laminar downdraft, a type of flow different from weather patterns. It’s like syrup or honey; it’s all flowing in the same direction. So, if you have something like a fly stuck on the honey, it would just be carried around. But how do we make this air work like honey? We made portable clean room devices. During the pandemic, those helped bars and restaurants in New York City and, later on, clinics. 

The big challenge was creating awareness for our products post-pandemic — because clean air is not only good against the transmission of viruses but also benefits many people with allergies or asthma. The air is not visible, but there’s a lot of dirt in it, and it impacts your life, longevity, sleep, and performance. So, we pivoted to a bed headboard because, for eight hours, you’re in this one zone, so that’s where we can create a clean air cocoon.

Standing Out 

SBS – What makes your product different from the other air purifiers on the market?

Arjen – A really good question! This boils back to the numbers. Other air purifiers may state their filter will make the air in your room 99.9% clean. That’s great. But then, one inch or two from the nozzle, it mixes again with the room air. So, when you measure air quality in a room, an air purifier helps decrease particles, but they never go to 0. In some industries, like the semiconductor industry, where we used to work, one particle can kill a whole microchip machine if it gets to a certain critical component. So, you need to make sure that your product works properly.

In air purifiers and HVAC, nobody’s measuring what’s happening in the room. After an hour of use, an air purifier may cut 50% of the particles in the room or 70% after a couple of hours. Then it plateaus because particles are being generated by your skin or coming through the crevices in the door or windows. Using an air purifier is like diluting wine with water, but wine is also poured in, so you never get the 0. Instead, we use flow control as the basis for AirTulip. 

From our experience building clean rooms, we knew we needed to straighten the flow out in layers so that one did not mix with the other. As a demonstration, we had a big room filled with smoke from a smoke generator in the corner. However, where we had our headboard, there was no smoke. It was like a hole in the air, where the smoke did not reach.

Sleep Improvement

SBS – How do you think this kind of product can improve someone’s sleep?

Arjen – It made a huge impact on the sleep. We’ve started prototyping very early and working with different people. We noticed that people with asthma had a very strong result, better peak flow, and they used less medicine. People with allergies have also benefited because they didn’t have any triggers (allergens) for eight hours, whereas, normally, it doesn’t matter if you’re indoors or outdoors — allergens will mix in. Our test subjects used a lot of trackers, like WHOOP bracelets or Oura rings, and we saw the effect there. They slept better. For us, measuring is knowing.

Common Misconceptions about Air Purifiers

SBS – What are some misconceptions that people have about air purifiers?

Arjen – Many people are skeptical about air purifiers, and I get it because many of our customers previously had one in every corner of their home. There are two camps of people — one says air purifiers don’t do anything for them, and others say the opposite. Those who use air purifiers think the air in their room is clean, but the answer is that it isn’t. 

Particles in the air are not visible, and you usually can’t feel them. Think of it as air pollution or radiation. You won’t feel radiation right away, but if you were to get an X-ray every hour, you’d notice it after five years. If you don’t see or feel something, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Usually, people with acute diseases almost immediately notice the effects of an air purifier, while others maybe don’t, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t help. It makes an impact over time. There are ways to measure it, and there are studies about it. We also have our independent research. Our biggest challenge was to generate awareness and educate people that AirTulip is different from other air purifiers. 

By the way, I’m not at all against “normal” air purifiers. I love them and urge people to start using them. Given the recent LA wildfires, I recommend people use air purifiers and get air scrubbers in addition.

Measuring Success

SBS – How do you test the success of your products with the customers?

Arjen – We typically ask beforehand if people have any issues, like allergies or asthma, and check in with them after purchasing. We also ask whether they have any data from the wearables they use. People across the board have told us they sleep deeper and feel better. Their snoring detection is down. They use less medicine. 

We want to deepen that collaboration, so we’re now looking to partner with wearable device companies. We would like to supply the customer with those devices so they can track their improvements themselves. We haven’t rolled this out yet, but that’s one of the things we want to do. 

We ran a Kickstarter pre-sales campaign, which was also a big lesson for us. We had experience with Kickstarter through a different product from another company, but AirTulip is a really expensive product, and it is usually stressful for people to make that commitment. Since they were willing to put thousands of dollars into a Kickstarter project, it was a big indicator for us that there was a need for such a product. We even asked why those backers wanted AirTulip. 

We also tested different add-ons and features to see what people wanted. We used different colors and designs. We learned a lot from those backers (about 100 of them). They were our core pool of people, and they also provided user feedback for the 2.0 product we have launched.

Lessons Learned

SBS – What lessons did you learn about building customer trust?

Arjen – I learned a couple of things. One was my own fallacy. Because I’m an engineer and so deep in the tech, I could just say the product works, but that would not be convincing. You need to generate trust with people, work from their angle, and understand how the product impacts them. We are improving on that and now reaching out to more people, both on the influencer side and also experts — doctors and clinicians. The biggest challenge is how to gain that trust — and that’s by testing the product and getting enough people to create this spark. 

The other important lesson is about focus. Initially, we had so many different features and potential groups of customers. However, we noticed that the key group we need to look into is people who have severe breathing issues because they will notice the improvement immediately. We also noticed that people wanted longevity and performance, so we got rid of bells and whistles and got the product back to its essentials. We might get back to those other features later, but now, it’s most important that the core product works great.

Advice for Future Health Entrepreneurs

SBS – What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a health-related business?

Arjen – Make sure that you have a diverse team. For example, Raoul, my co-founder, is very structured, while I’m all over the place, so we balance well. Don’t make your team consist of five times yourself, and don’t try to find ways to support people who are not supportive of you. 

Also, reach out. That’s the most important thing. You read it in many books — get out of the cave and make it work! Don’t wait for the product to be perfect or even working— just get something out there and start communicating about that in every way possible. Hardware is sometimes harder to sell, but Kickstarter was extremely helpful. Even before that, we had a couple of tests with friends and family.

One other thing (even though I know I’m still making that mistake) is to keep reminding yourself of your goals or ask somebody else to check in with you about the progress. For example, ask a good friend to come to you in two weeks to ask how many people you have reached out to because you may get caught up in the moment and lose track of important stuff.