Dovetail Essentials, a Georgia-based startup that aims to make traveling with children easier, announced the launch of its first product: SlumberPod. The patent-pending product is a quick-assembly privacy pod that helps babies/toddlers (and their parents!) get a good night’s sleep—especially important when sharing a room with others (e.g., hotel room).

The launch includes a Kickstarter campaign running through August 23 with the first units to ship as early as August and special Day One discounts.

“The idea for SlumberPod came from many sleepless nights with our first daughter trying to share a room while visiting family or staying in a hotel,” said Katy Mallory, co-founder of SlumberPod. “She was a great sleeper at home, but there in the same room together, she’d see us across the room and be up all night long. It was miserable.” Afterward, Mallory searched for a product that would help and didn’t find anything that fit the bill.

SlumberPod is the first portable, privacy sleep nook that allows babies to sleep in their safe and familiar playard (travel crib) with room to sit up or stand up inside. The bottomless privacy pod completely encloses most standard playards or travel cribs and is:

• Mom-invented

• Dark inside – creating an optimal sleep environment

• Safe – passes applicable consumer product safety tests, uses sturdy aluminum poles

• Tall enough for most three-year-olds to stand up inside (56 inches tall, 50 inches long, 36 inches wide)

• Bottomless – designed to enclose a standard-sized travel crib or playard (sold separately)

• Lightweight and compact (fits inside carry-on luggage) – includes travel bag

• Quick and easy to set up and dissemble

• Made of breathable fabric

• Equipped with a pouch for a baby monitor

• Outfitted with ventilation windows

While doing market research, co-founders and mother-daughter duo, Mallory and Lou Childs, found that many a baby or toddler have struggled to sleep well when sharing the room with others — especially when out of their normal routine, such as when traveling. SlumberPod is also a great solution to have on hand for naps in bright or unfamiliar places.

“In order to rest well while traveling, parents are resorting to shelling out additional money for an adjoining hotel room or suite, hiding out in the hallway or on the balcony while their baby goes to sleep, cobbling together unsafe sleep nooks or putting their baby in the bathroom,” said Childs. “While staying with family, it’s can be disruptive to an entire family when a little one wants to ‘party in the middle of the night’ after seeing others in the room.”

In a survey Mallory and Childs conducted, 85 percent of the 600 respondents said they have children who sleep well at home but don’t sleep as well away from home. Many parents admitted they avoid traveling with their small children out of fear of everyone sleeping poorly. In beta testing, SlumberPod beta testers found that the product helps by creating nearly total darkness and privacy.

“Not only are we creating a product that we believe will help countless families, it’s a dream to co-invent a product and launch a company with my mom,” Mallory shared. Childs added: “Katy and I work so well together, and both care tremendously about building a company that makes an impact.”

They are grateful for two private angel investors in Columbus, Georgia — Russ Carreker and Steve Taylor — who believe in them and their product, as well as Jeff Vinson of Ridgeway Outdoors, a valuable advisor and equity partner of Dovetail Essentials, and countless others who have helped them on their journey.

The SlumberPod Kickstarter campaign offers a variety of sponsor levels. “Day One Early Bird” backers can get a SlumberPod unit for $90 plus shipping — a 30 percent discount off the anticipated retail price. Other backing options range from $5 to $330 and include a SlumberPod-branded koozie, a SlumberPod-branded bundle (one pod, one koozie, one picnic blanket, and one collapsible cooler), and packs containing two or three SlumberPods.