Harbor is building a better baby monitor and an army of night nannies

Like most good startup stories, Harbor began life as a product of disappointment. Kevin Lavelle, the co-founder and CEO of innovative clothing company Mizzen and Main, couldn’t find a baby monitor to suit his needs. He and his wife, Jen, had homed in on Nanit, a popular product renowned for its AI smarts and and breathing detection.

“We built Harbor because we were frustrated with products that overpromised and underdelivered when it came to safety and usability,” Lavelle says. In particular, he cites and instance in which Nanit’s app crashed on him. He woke up the next morning the find that the monitor hadn’t done its job overnight.

Lavelle started Harbor in August 2022 with former Stratis Chief Innovation Officer Charlie Hill, who now serves as the new firm’s chief product officer.

The Harbor hardware’s major selling point is that it doesn’t rely on apps or an internet connection, which introduces its own pain points. Instead, the system consists of a 2K camera that produces its own Wi-Fi signal, allowing it to connect directly to the 10-inch tablet it’s bundled with.

Leave a Comment