What happens when a British entrepreneur who knows nothing about programming decides to solve his own snoring problem? He creates one of the most popular sleep apps in the world, discovers a passion for physics, and launches a business dedicated to helping people get a better night’s sleep. That’s the story of Jules Goldberg, our latest guest on Trending Forward, the YouTube series I host with my friend Dan Gaul, co-founder of Digital Trends.
We invited Jules to talk about SnoreLab, his popular smartphone app that helps people understand and manage their snoring. What followed was a fast-paced, funny, and surprisingly fascinating conversation about sleep, entrepreneurship, smartphones, and the science of sound waves. Along the way, we learned some useful things about getting a better night’s sleep. And we discovered that Jules is one of those rare entrepreneurs who seems to be having the time of his life doing what he loves.
It started with an argument in the bedroom
Back in 2011, Jules’s wife complained that his snoring was keeping her awake. Like millions of other people accused of snoring, Jules denied it. He didn’t think he snored, and there was no easy way to prove otherwise.
He assumed there must be an app that could record and measure snoring. After all, there was already an app for practically everything. But this was still relatively early in the smartphone revolution, and he couldn’t find a decent one. That’s when inspiration struck. Why not create an app that recorded snoring, measured its intensity, and helped people determine whether different remedies actually worked?
There was only one problem. Jules had never written a line of code.
His first idea was to spend the money he and his wife had saved for a house on hiring a developer. She quickly vetoed that proposal. If he wanted to pursue his crazy idea, he’d have to do it himself. So Jules taught himself to program, learning Apple’s Objective-C language and figuring out how to record and analyze sound. Remarkably, he produced a working version of SnoreLab in about 10 months.
Remember, this was long before ChatGPT and AI coding assistants. Jules had to figure things out the old-fashioned way. The app worked. And when Jules listened to his own nighttime recordings, he discovered something shocking.
His wife was right. He snored. Badly.
Your smartphone can tell you things you don’t want to know
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was Jules’s explanation of why measuring snoring can be so valuable. After all, SnoreLab doesn’t actually stop you from snoring. It records what happens while you’re asleep, measures the severity of your snoring, and lets you track changes over time. That might sound relatively simple, but it’s incredibly useful. Most of us have no idea what happens during the third of our lives we spend sleeping. Unless somebody complains about our snoring, we may never realize there’s a problem.
“We started thinking of SnoreLab as a kind of bathroom scale for snoring. A scale doesn’t make you lose weight, but it tells you whether you have a problem and helps you measure progress. SnoreLab performs a similar function. It also helps you test solutions.”
Jules explained that snoring can result from obstructions in different parts of the airway. Consequently, something that works wonderfully for one person might do absolutely nothing for another. For example, one of the more surprising discoveries from SnoreLab’s users involved wedge-shaped pillows. Originally popular for reducing acid reflux, these pillows elevate the upper body.
An early tester reported that sleeping on a wedge had dramatically reduced his snoring. Jules added the remedy to SnoreLab, where user reports have continued to suggest that it can work well for some people.
Other solutions include sleeping on your side, dental appliances that reposition the jaw, and CPAP machines. Jules eventually began using a CPAP machine himself after his breathing problems became more serious. The important point is that there isn’t one universal cure.
Snoring isn’t always just annoying
Our conversation also turned to sleep apnea, a potentially serious condition involving repeated interruptions or reductions in breathing during sleep. Dan and I were particularly interested in how people can recognize a problem and begin doing something about it.
Jules explained that sleep apnea doesn’t always fit the popular stereotype of an overweight person who snores thunderously and periodically stops breathing altogether. Some people experience subtler restrictions in airflow that can disrupt sleep and leave them exhausted during the day.
Jules experienced this himself.
He was also careful to explain the limitations of smartphone technology. SnoreLab is a wellness tool, not a substitute for medical testing or a definitive diagnosis of sleep apnea. But it can provide information that helps people recognize potential problems and have more productive conversations with their doctors. That’s a meaningful distinction. The first step toward sleeping better may simply be discovering what’s happening while you’re asleep.
Now things get really interesting
About halfway through our conversation, Jules demonstrated something that seemed almost like science fiction. He has developed a technology that uses high-frequency sound waves emitted by an ordinary smartphone to detect movement. As Jules moved his hand in front of his phone, the app tracked the movement by measuring changes in the reflected sound waves. No camera. No wearable sensor. Just the phone’s built-in speaker and microphone.
The practical application is fascinating.
The technology, which Jules has incorporated into another app called Sleepwave, can detect body movements and even the subtle movement of a person’s chest while breathing. That information can potentially improve sleep tracking without requiring people to wear smartwatches or other devices to bed.
Jules has also developed a smart alarm that monitors movement and tries to wake you during a period of natural wakefulness rather than at an arbitrary instant. The idea is to make waking up a little less unpleasant. As we discussed, there are plenty of people who don’t particularly want to wear a watch to bed, especially when they already have a perfectly capable smartphone on the nightstand. Sleepwave’s marketing slogan captures the idea nicely: “Wear nothing to bed.” Naturally, that prompted some entertaining discussion.
An entrepreneur who followed his curiosity
What I found especially appealing about Jules was his enthusiasm. He studied economics and initially pursued work that didn’t particularly excite him. Creating SnoreLab allowed him to rediscover his youthful fascination with mathematics, physics, and engineering. He also built the business without outside investors, financing his subsequent research and development with revenue from SnoreLab.
That freedom has allowed him to pursue ideas that might have been difficult to justify to venture capitalists demanding a quick return. He has spent years experimenting with sound waves, motion detection, and the limits of ordinary smartphone hardware.
At one point, Jules became so enthusiastic explaining the underlying physics that we had to interrupt and ask the question every technology entrepreneur eventually needs to answer: So what? What can people actually do with this? He had plenty of answers.
Toward the end of our conversation, we even started speculating about whether sound waves might someday help relieve nasal congestion. Jules laughed and revealed that he already holds a patent related to the idea. Apparently, it’s hard to come up with something he hasn’t thought about.
Watch the full conversation on Trending Forward
We covered an enormous amount of ground in our conversation with Jules Goldberg, from marital disputes over snoring to the future of smartphone-based health technology. But what made this episode especially enjoyable wasn’t just the technology. It was Jules himself: curious, inventive, enthusiastic, and clearly delighted to be working on problems that affect millions of people.
There are also plenty of useful takeaways for anyone who snores, sleeps beside someone who snores, or simply wants to understand how to get a better night’s rest. And if you’re interested in entrepreneurship, Jules offers a terrific example of what can happen when someone identifies a problem, teaches himself the skills to solve it, and keeps following his curiosity.
Watch our full conversation with Jules Goldberg on Trending Forward on YouTube. It’s entertaining, informative, and might even help you—or someone you sleep with—get a better night’s sleep.