So how does it work? As a pair, each of you get a wristband to wear to bed and a small speaker that should be placed under your pillow. The wristband picks up your real-time heartbeat and sends it to the other person's pillow. In your own pillow, you can hear the heartbeat of your loved one, wherever in the world you each may be.

What started as a project at university, turned into the well-loved Pillow Talk product which is now used in over 70 countries across the globe.

Having won the ‘Biggest 2020 Hero’ award at Startup Magazine’s first ever Hustle Awards, we thought it was about time to check in with Founder Joanna Montgomery to see what’s new, where the startup is now, and find out about the last few years.

How has the last few years been for Little Riot?

The company has now been in existence for around 13 years. The R&D journey for Little Riot was a long one, launching in 2015 and originally shipping in 2017. In the last few years, the company has remained successful, continuing its journey facilitating human connection.

Since last speaking to Little Riot, there has been an entire global pandemic. COVID became a sink or swim situation for many startups and Little Riot managed to not only swim, but succeed due to the isolation we were all put through.

“COVID was huge for us. It was obviously unfortunate that it took a global pandemic for the world to realise the real value in what we're building and what I've been banging on about for like, seven/eight years prior. I just felt like video calls were not good enough in terms of technology that connects you with someone you love when you can't be with them,” commented Montgomery.

Pillow Talk in hospitals

When Startups last spoke to Montgomery, the company was about to start trials of Pillow Talk in hospitals, and this was completely fast tracked because of the pandemic. “We'd started doing a few pilots in children's hospitals, so connecting parents with their kids in intensive care, then obviously, during COVID, so many people were hospitalised, and nobody could have visitors. So, we saw a huge increase in hospitals using it and we accelerated the pivot more into the medical space.”

Pillow Talk as a consumer product is being used in around 70 countries worldwide, and in hospitals this is mainly focused on Europe, the US, and some in the far east. Montgomery explained: “We still get a lot of organic inbound inquiries from hospitals, and palliative care is a big one. It's really rewarding as a Founder, having worked in something for 13 years, to see it being used in situations that make so much difference to someone's life. When you see it being used in a hospital between a child in intensive care and their parents makes me feel like I could walk outside and get hit by a bus and that I’d have made my contribution to the earth.”

Montgomery’s always envisioned the product being used in a medical setting but didn’t quite know how the company could do so. “In the earlier years we were such a small company and had a small team, so developing a medical product would take so many resources and expertise that we didn't have at the time. Then we just got super lucky with the first hospital that wanted to pilot it in the Netherlands. They did the first pilot and published research, and that unlocked so many doors for us in terms of giving the product credibility and other hospitals wanting to try it before it was even launched as a medical product.”

Any challenges?

Little Riot has been on a long journey and is no longer in the hustle and bustle phase of an early startup, with business remaining at a steady pace. Montgomery has found that this era of the company took some adjusting to: “It's been quite challenging because something I've learned about myself over the last years is I really like the hard stuff. I like the building of the products, and the early stuff in a business. It's not like the day to day running of a business is boring, but it's a very different era of the business. So that’s been interesting as a Founder to land there after so many years of knowing something different.”

Luck or hard work?

Montgomery finds herself attributing a lot of her success to luck, though this level of success cannot only be down to that. Montgomery’s success was garnered through a lot of hard work.

“I was lucky. When I started, Pillow Talk was originally my university project and it went viral on the Internet, so that was lucky. Then timing wise I was quite ahead of the curve with being worried about the trajectory of technology and how we use it to communicate, and that came into fruition. Then again, COVID was sort of kind of lucky for us. And I think the other thing I've always felt is how amazing that something I came up with over 13 years ago as my university project is still relevant.”

The future

Montgomery has taken a step back from the hands-on day-to-day running of the business to pursue other ventures. “One of the things I do is I help other people manufacture products. I really love doing that because that kind of scratches that itch for me. It's like the early stages, building something and putting it out into the world,” she said. “I'm also an entrepreneur in residence for an accelerator programme in the Northeast of England called Ignite. So, they're major, early-stage startups, and that's really rewarding as well to be able to give back to people at the beginning of the journey.”

As we continue to navigate the digital age, we should follow Little Riot and cherish the significance of the heartbeat – the rhythm that unites us all.

This article originally appeared in the Sept/Oct issue of Startups Magazine. Click here to subscribe