A mother from Lawrence Township has transformed a simple parenting hack into a thriving business generating five figures per month. Julia Holden, 34, is the founder of Sleepy Hat — a baby hat with an attached eye covering designed to help infants fall asleep faster.
In February 2024, Holden and her husband noticed that their newborn son, Maxime, would fall asleep more quickly when his eyes were gently covered with a burp cloth. Unable to find a comfortable and secure product on the market, Holden decided to create one herself.
Using nearly $16,000 from her personal savings, she designed and developed Sleepy Hat while working full-time as a senior relationship manager at an advertising company. At the time, she was earning $95,000 per year. She worked on the business in short 20-minute windows between breastfeeding sessions, with no outside funding and no formal team.
The website launched in September 2024 but initially generated minimal sales. After listing the product on The Grommet, sales slowly began to increase. By the end of 2024, the company had made just under $2,000 in total revenue.
Growth accelerated in 2025. Holden joined Amazon as a third-party seller in August, and her posts on TikTok started gaining significant traction, with some videos earning hundreds of thousands of views. Parents connected in the comments, sharing stories about their “FOMO babies” who struggled to sleep during walks, car rides, or outings.
Since June 2025, Sleepy Hat has generated five-figure monthly revenue. The company earned over $90,000 in December and more than $69,000 in January. The business is now profitable.
In October 2025, Holden made the bold decision to quit her job and focus on Sleepy Hat full-time. Most profits have been reinvested into the business, including hiring two part-time contractors and bringing on an advisor with a small equity stake.
Holden paid herself just $2,500 in 2025 and is currently living off personal savings and her husband’s income. He works as an assistant director at Princeton University.
Despite working 30 to 60 hours per week, Holden says the flexibility of entrepreneurship allows her to spend more quality time with her now 2-year-old child.
“I’m still stressed, but for a more meaningful reason,” she said. “It feels more important. It’s much more satisfying.”
Looking ahead, Holden aims to steadily increase her salary and hopes to earn a six-figure income from Sleepy Hat next year — surpassing what she made at her corporate job.
Her journey highlights how a personal parenting challenge can evolve into a profitable and scalable business through persistence, creativity, and calculated risk-taking.