NOWA STORY · sub-page draft for partner review. Timeline dates from the hardware plan (Jul 2026), pending sign-off. All photos and drawings are real project artifacts.
The letter Where we are Reserve
← Back to Nowa

Our story · July 2026

Built in the open.
For the families who asked.

Why Dan built Nowa, who he built it with, and exactly where it stands today. No polish, no spin.

NOWA device engineering drawing: six part line views with dimensions and the NOWA title block
The part line drawing · from the tooling package, July 2026

Why I built Nowa

The thing I want in my own house before my son is three.

Daniel Nguyen, founder of Nowa
Daniel Nguyen · Dad and Co-founder

I've been building with AI for six years. In June, my son was born. Those two facts used to feel like separate lives. They aren't anymore.

I know what AI can do. I also know what it can cost, especially to a child whose attention is still forming. Nowa comes from sitting with that tension.

Three things landed at once.

  • First: the researchers who spent forty years studying how children learn to start, focus, and follow through (Dr. Susanne Denham, Dr. Megan McClelland, Dr. Steven Kurtz, with Dr. David Mou shaping the safety framework from day one) can finally put that science into a device a six-year-old holds in one hand.
  • Second: our kids will grow up alongside AI whether anyone designs it for them or not. I'd rather someone designed for them. A closed system. No open internet. No ads. Sessions that end.
  • Third: no parent I know is looking for another screen. They're looking for a few minutes back in the morning, and the sense that they're doing right by their kid.

Nowa is the thing I want in my own house before my son is three. This June, that stopped being an idea. The deadline has a face now.

Daniel Nguyen · Dad and Co-founder, Nowa

Production update

We're building in the open.

Nothing has shipped yet, and we won't pretend otherwise. Here is exactly where things stand, step by step.

01Oct 2025✓ Done

Product locked

Consumer insight, competitive audit, and the core feature set confirmed with the advisory board. The what and the why of Nowa, settled.

Early Nowa product definition on a whiteboard
Advisory board working session
02Apr 2026✓ Done

Industrial design and CMF finalized

Appearance model, materials, and finish locked. Speaker, screen, battery, scroll wheel: every key component picked. The physical Nowa is decided.

Nowa CMF design render
Key hardware components laid out
03May–Jul 2026● We are here

Functional prototypes, in real homes

Three working prototypes built, tested, and signed off. Units are now with a small group of families: real mornings, real bedtimes, first impressions feeding the next build.

A working Nowa prototype held in one hand, screen and buttons live
A Nowa prototype standing on a living-room coffee table
The back of a Nowa prototype: speaker grille, power button, and red scroll wheel
Nowa prototypes on the factory floor in Shenzhen

Pre-production prototypes, photographed July 2026: colors, materials, buttons, and screen all functional.

04Late Jul–Aug 2026○ Coming up

EVT and DVT trials

A 50-unit engineering build starts at the end of July, then a 200-unit design-validation run. Reliability testing, and the first units out for early family review.

PHOTOS ARRIVE WITH THIS MILESTONE
05Aug–Sep 2026○ Coming up

Mass production and certification

A 2,000-unit production run, plus COPPA and ASTM F963 certification for North America. This is where Nowa becomes real at scale.

PHOTOS ARRIVE WITH THIS MILESTONE
06Sep 2026★ The finish line

First units ship to families

Express shipping to North America. Your pre-order becomes your child's first Nowa.

This page updates as each step lands. If a date moves, you'll read it here first.

Pre-order

Be part of how this gets made.

$149 $99 today. Fully refundable any time before your Nowa ships, and refunded automatically if it hasn't shipped by October 31.