The launch took place in Quebec in September 2020, a market with a North American and European mindset open to innovation. Success was immediate. Numerous radio, television personalities and journalists tested the product and published enthusiastic reviews: for them, it worked—they slept better. In less than two years, more than 50,000 devices were sold in Quebec, a meteoric rise for a small family business.

But this success is unsettling. A single media outlet dismissed it as a scientifically unfounded dream, while refusing to test the product. Some sleep researchers are publicly complaining about this new approach that has disrupted the established order. This is the burden of any innovation. This biased nine-minute report calls into question Helight®'s credibility, wrongly suggesting that the company is fraudulent. The consequences are devastating: the company loses 40 points of sale and sees its revenue cut by two-thirds.

Refusing to be defeated, Helight® chose to cross borders and reinvent itself in the United States. Thanks to the vision and determination of its New York-based CEO, Denise De Baun, a former protégé of Calvin Klein, the brand not only survived but thrived. Helight gained the trust of doctors, athletes, and major sports leagues, and its light now shines in more than 40 countries.