Li Donghao, a graduate of Peking University's Yuanpei College, collaborated with AI in his spare time and single-handedly completed the smart ring project AIVELA Ring Pro within 14 months, raising $860,000 through crowdfunding and achieving profitability.

Author: Su Zihua

Source: GeekPark

This was originally an ordinary startup story that many would easily overlook.

In 2025, a smart ring called the AIVELA Ring Pro raised approximately $860,000 on Kickstarter. In today’s landscape, where projects routinely raise millions or even tens of millions of dollars, this figure is unremarkable.

But what if this was a solo project with no full-time employees—not even the founder was full-time—and the project was still profitable? Wouldn’t that be different?

Moreover, if the founder was originally an outsider in the smart ring industry and, during after-work hours, directed AI to conduct competitive analysis, product design, and project management—ultimately raising product quality standards within 14 months to launch a high-barrier technology product that is now in mass production and among the most powerful in the industry—wouldn’t that be even more remarkable?

Li Donghao, founder of AIVELA, graduated from the Yuanpei College at Peking University and holds a master’s degree from Cornell University. He originally studied biology and was previously a co-founder of the electric bicycle company Urtopia.

He told GeekPark that the reason he decided to pursue the smart ring project solo was, "Purely a personal hobby—I didn't want to spend company money." Thus, in May and June 2024, Li Donghao began the project on his own during his free time.

In April this year, Li Donghao decided to leave Urtopia to establish a new company focused on developing the AIVELA brand.

AIVELA's first-generation product, the AIVELA Ring Pro—the world's first interactive smart ring | Image source: AIVELA official website

There are two main reasons. One is more commercial: he personally feels that the smart ring category has "crossed the chasm," moving from an early adopter tech niche into rapid mainstream adoption. To date, the first-generation AIVELA product has surpassed 10,000 units pledged globally, raising over ten million RMB. “This is the biggest opportunity in consumer electronics since TWS earbuds.”

Another more heartfelt one: “How do you spend these ten years between forty and fifty?” he said. “During the New Year, I reflected on how the past twenty years of chasing success had left me unhealthy. Now, is it possible to become healthier through a second startup—and help many others like me become healthier too, in a way that doesn’t go against human nature?”

He jokingly calls himself a "waste of space"—he wants to be healthy, but doesn’t want to torture himself. So, he’s building an AI wearable brand that’s “not about hustle”: no pressure to be disciplined, no scoring system. “Comparing yourself to everyone else? Boring.”

Li Donghao set up his office in Shekou—a location in Shenzhen that isn’t known as a tech innovation hub, surrounded by sea on three sides with a winding, flat coastline—because it’s convenient for cycling. This choice aligns closely with his product philosophy.

Recently, AIVELA completed its seed funding round of several million dollars, led by Linear Capital, with follow-on investment from Fengling Capital and additional participation from industry partners including URTOPIA. The company is now building its team and advancing the development of its second-generation product for global expansion.

Going back to the original question, how did he manage to co-found a solid, rapidly growing company with AI—one that integrates both software and hardware?

01 How a "Super Individual" Can Organize a Smart Hardware Production Line

The story begins in 2023. That year, early-stage venture funds were largely pulling back, and Li Donghao was struggling to secure the next round of funding for Urtopia, which had only been in operation for two years—so much so that he suffered from chronic insomnia.

He tried everything—bright lights, music, aromatherapy, melatonin—but never slept pills, because “it’s not that bad yet.” He needs a health monitoring device to figure out what’s really going on.

After trying several options, the smart ring recommended by a friend, Oura Ring, turned out to be the most suitable. I used it for over half a year, and later, after my company secured funding, my sleep issues resolved—“the root cause was simply too much stress.”

But after using it, I found two problems: “You’re scoring me all day long—I already can’t sleep, and then I wake up to a low score. If this goes on long-term, the psychological damage outweighs the benefits.” He joked, “If I weren’t a science student, I’d actually study my own sleep—emotionally, I’d have stopped wearing it long ago.”

Also, the ring is too thick to wear on the middle finger—I can only wear it on the pinky, and it’s uncomfortable.

Then make one yourself. But how do you start?

At the beginning of 2024, there were no practical AI agents in the field. His approach was to first make ChatGPT his first product manager. After purchasing and testing each smart ring, he would create spreadsheets, record data, observe, and experience the product, then feed all the information back to ChatGPT to analyze its strengths and weaknesses and identify algorithmic directions. He engaged in iterative conversations with it.

He visited supply chains across Shenzhen and the Yangtze River Delta, testing over twenty rings and covering all product technology solutions on the market. He had ChatGPT generate a detailed product analysis report.

I had ChatGPT analyze all our competitors, then discussed with it: we’re now developing a new product that must match the top industry standards and avoid the pitfalls these competitors have encountered. We defined the product’s performance metrics and used this specification to approach manufacturers and solution providers.

One person with one computer accomplished the workload of a former product team. With the product definition in place, the next step was project management. He first used ChatGPT to break the project into seven or eight sub-projects, then partnered with reliable collaborators for each sub-project and signed contracts.

He created a group chat with about a dozen friends—designers, graphic designers, video editors, front-end and back-end developers, UI/UX specialists—loosely organized, all contractors.

These are all the heroes from Shenzhen—everyone has their own full-time job, and I brought them together in a group.

For every subproject, Li Donghao discusses the pace, collaboration agreements, and timelines with ChatGPT. “For Project A and Contractor A, what are the goals? What are their strengths? How should we draft the agreement? What should the schedule look like? For example, when should we launch the crowdfunding in September 2025, and which drafts must be completed by which month? I have detailed conversations with ChatGPT, then create my own Gantt charts to manage the projects.”

In the production phase, Li Donghao partnered with a top-tier consumer electronics manufacturer, and the two sides quickly reached an agreement:

Li Donghao is responsible for product definition and market, while the other party handles solution implementation and manufacturing, jointly developing the product.

“It was all me, using only 30% of my spare time,” he said. “The whole process was a lot of fun.”

Then, the crowdfunding came.

Launched on Kickstarter in 2025, raised $860,000 in crowdfunding, and secured 6,000 orders. For a solo project, this is a huge success—and it brings a "bad" news: he now has to shed the "super individual" label.

He had to hire his first full-time real employee: a customer service representative.

02 Bridging the Gap

After the product launched on Kickstarter, users flooded in: When will it ship? What if I can't connect? What if the size is wrong?

Li Donghao faced a barrage of questions from thousands of people alone. His first instinct was to bring in AI—he set up an automated response system using Cursor to handle repetitive inquiries.

But he soon realized that users could tell—“It lacks humanity.”

He hired a friend as a part-time customer service representative, but as sales volume increased, the part-time staff could no longer keep up. In November 2025, he hired a full-time customer service representative.

“So it’s no longer OPC (Super Individual),” he said. It was the first time since launching his project that he had truly hired someone.

From co-creating with an AI, to forming teams to get things done, to collaborating on factory floors, to launching products globally, to hitting roadblocks with AI customer service—Li Donghao pushed the “super individual building hardware” model to its limits and discovered its boundaries.

Greater changes occurred on the market side.

Oura's shipment volume increased from 850,000 units in 2023 to 4 million units in 2025, quintupling in two years. According to data disclosed in October 2025, cumulative sales since its 2015 launch have exceeded 5.5 million units, with more than half of those sold in the past year. The growth curve has begun to steepen significantly.

AIVELA's shipping momentum was also rapid, making Li Donghao acutely aware that this sector had crossed the chasm and was entering a phase of mass consumer adoption.

The core feature of the Gen One Ring is "control plus health"—using the ring to turn pages and scroll through short videos, while simultaneously monitoring sleep. This feature was popular on Kickstarter because crowdfunding users seek "something new."

But in the mass market, Li Donghao believes that such customization becomes a burden: “Most people don’t have the ability to configure Bluetooth protocols themselves.” What mainstream users want is simple: attractive design, slim and lightweight, accurate data, and long battery life.

Therefore, the second-generation ring eliminated control functions and focused primarily on sleep, basic health metrics, and activity tracking. It also enlisted Bvlgari’s designer to handle its exterior design. Additionally, a smart band was planned to cater to different usage scenarios—again, with exterior design entrusted to a top-tier jewelry brand designer.

Based on the sample images shown by Li Donghao to GeekPark, this could indeed become the most stylish AI wearable device on the market.

Compared to the rest of the world? Not interesting.

The product philosophy is also where he strongly diverges from the mainstream.

Traditional health products follow a "suffering narrative": faster, stronger, more disciplined, using rankings and scores to push you to change. Li Donghao rejects this logic.

“I don’t want to compare a user to all of humanity,” he said. “I care about whether they’re better off than before and whether there are major risks, like the possibility of sudden death.”

He candidly admitted he’s not the type who enjoys discipline—getting up at five a.m. every day to run ten kilometers and posting his pace on social media. “I like cycling, but I prefer e-bikes.”

Based on my own needs, I believe there are millions, even tens of millions of people like me who are not being served by WHOOP and Oura.

The people he wants to serve are those who want to live healthier but don’t want to force themselves into strict discipline; who want to become healthier but don’t want to feel anxious from being scored by health products; who want to improve their lives but don’t want to become mindless checklists.

In his vision, the AI agents built by AIVELA are like "unconditionally supportive advisors"—non-judgmental, unscored, and never humiliating.

“You haven’t slept well for three days in a row—I won’t tell you that your sleep is terrible. Instead, I’ll say, ‘Bro, haven’t you been getting enough rest lately?’” he said. “If you mention you’re watching the World Cup, then I know you don’t need to worry right now—I’ll just remind you to catch up on sleep a few days later.”

In summary, it’s comfortable to wear, stylish, emotionally intelligent, laid-back, and unobtrusive.

Li Donghao didn’t tell investors stories about changing the world or “revolutionizing and disrupting the industry”—that’s not his style; he has “no such grand ambitions.”

He said: “Affecting one million people is a bit too little—it’s more than that; affecting one hundred million is something Apple would do. Over the next ten years, if we can get ten million users to become healthier—live longer, sleep better, lose a bit of weight—I think that would be an act of immense merit.”

The AI sector is now saturated with grand narratives and FOMO-driven formulas—quantitative rankings, anxiety-inducing tactics, and outputs of superiority—these have almost become the "standard answers" for startups.

In the AI race where everyone is fiercely competing, AIVELA, which embraces the philosophy of "not competing," stands out as remarkably light and effortless.

Li Donghao, a graduate of Peking University’s Yuanpei College, used his spare time to collaborate with AI and independently complete the AIVELA Ring Pro smart ring project in 14 months. The project raised $860,000 through crowdfunding and achieved profitability. A former co-founder of Urtopia, Li launched the initiative as a “pure personal hobby,” dedicating only 30% of his spare time, while using ChatGPT to conduct competitive analysis, define product specifications, and manage the project—all in partnership with top-tier manufacturers. Launched on Kickstarter in April 2025, the project secured $860,000 in funding, 6,000 orders, and has since shipped over 10,000 units globally, generating more than ten million yuan in revenue. Li advocates a “non-competitive” AI wearables philosophy, rejecting score-driven metrics and anxiety-inducing features, and is committed to creating emotionally intelligent health devices that are unobtrusive and supportive. He recently completed a multimillion-dollar seed round and plans to launch a second-generation product and a smart bracelet.