Alum dreams big with AI-powered mattress cover

Harry Gestetner (BSM ’22) wants to help you hack your sleep.

“My goal is to increase the number of minutes the world sleeps each night,” Gestetner says. “And I want to make it happen through Orion.”

Orion, Gestetner’s company, makes AI-powered mattress covers that leverage a user’s biometrics to create the ideal conditions for a good night’s rest. The key, Gestetner says, is thermoregulation.  

“Maintaining an appropriate body temperature can boost deep sleep, increase REM and reduce wakeups,” he says. “There’s a lot of data showing that we can hack these processes and give you a better night’s sleep.”

For Gestetner, who is originally from London but moved to Los Angeles during high school, Orion’s mattress covers are part of a larger project at the intersection of health, wellness, and AI. 

“We’re in the midst of a consumer health revolution,” he says. “For the first time in human history we’re able to take our health into our own hands, particularly with the help of AI. I think in the next five to 10 years we are going to hit an inflection point where AI is so powerful that it can add years to your life.”

This isn’t the first time Gestetner has attempted to shake up the status quo in a burgeoning industry. As an undergraduate at Tulane, he founded Fanfix, a content monetization platform that transformed the creator economy. 

“There was this whole new generation of creators with no way to make money,” Gestetner says. “Fanfix became the monetization layer that allows creators to profit from their content by selling subscriptions.”

As content creators began embracing subscription-based income models, Fanfix’s value skyrocketed, and in 2022, when he was just 21 years old, Gestetner sold the company to creator-commerce agency SuperOrdinary for a reported $65 million. 

Looking back, Gestetner says Fanfix was nourished and his ideas tested during his time at Freeman. While earning his degree, he was closely involved with the Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, participating in the center’s Pitch Friday Competition, which gives Tulane entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their startups and win up to $30,000. He also took part in Rob Lalka’s Student Venture Accelerator, which lets student entrepreneurs develop and launch their own business ventures. 

“Harry came to the Student Venture Accelerator having launched Fanfix just days earlier, so we were able to work through business decisions in real time,” recalls Lalka, professor of practice in management and executive director of the Lepage Center. “It wasn’t abstract for him. He was fundraising, devising growth strategies and eventually developing an exit plan as the business evolved. He brought a rare combination to the class — the relentless hustle you need to build something paired with genuine intellectual curiosity and a love of learning.”  

Gestetner also leveraged the city’s startup ecosystem, including alumni investors and mentors and advisors who were able to give him new ideas and honest feedback. 

“Harry was building alongside other hungry founders, which counters the isolation that sinks a lot of early ventures,” Lalka says. “And he was tapping into our network of investors and operators without having to relocate to Silicon Valley.”

Gestetner recalls his Freeman mentors going above and beyond to ensure he had the resources he needed to build the business. 

“Rob even gave me an office to use when I was running my company,” he says. “I’m forever indebted and grateful for that.” 

After Fanfix was acquired by SuperOrdinary, Gestetner joined the company as Chief Digital Officer and helped grow the business to $350 million in annual revenue. 

But success came at a price. 

“I was working like a dog and neglecting every other area of my life,” he says. “I was sleeping terribly, and eventually I got an inner ear condition which incapacitated me. I realized that as a founder, I needed to start taking my performance seriously.”

Gestetner stepped down from his role with SuperOrdinary in April 2025 and thus began his journey into wellness.

Working with a slate of sleep doctors and product engineers, Gestetner developed a smart mattress cover fitted with sensors that track a user’s heart and respiration rates, temperature and sleep patterns.  

Then, with prototype in hand, he assumed the role of guinea pig, interrupting his own sleep every night during the 18-month testing period to take screen recordings, log bugs and write error reports. 

Now Gestetner rests easy knowing he’s helping others improve their wellness.  

“It’s truly satisfying to hear from customers who, after years of not sleeping, are able to get rest,” he says. 

“We had a cancer patient tell us that chemotherapy caused them to lose the ability to regulate temperature, but the Orion has greatly improved their sleep. We’ve also had women with menopause tell us they use our hot flash mode and are finally able to sleep through the night. Even top athletes like Celtics guard Derrick White use Orion so they can maintain peak performance.”

Although he graduated four years ago, Gestetner still benefits from Tulane’s supportive network. In 2025, Orion received seed funding from 1834 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Evan Nicoll (BSM ’12, MBA ’16) that focuses on strengthening Louisiana’s economy. 

“It’s been a joy to watch Tulane alums, students and investors come together to build businesses and improve our local entrepreneurial ecosystem,” Lalka says of the investment. 

At just 25 years old, Gestetner has no plans to slow down, and he’s encouraging others to take advantage of this pivotal technological moment.  

“Freeman students are at a massive advantage compared to older founders because they’re AI native,” he says. “We’re in the middle of an AI revolution, and this is the greatest time in human history to build a startup.”

The rewards, he says, are worth it. 

“You get this level of freedom and excitement from taking a risk and building something from nothing,” he says. “It’s completely unparalleled, and it’s the best feeling in the world.”