Image by Ed Brennen Senior computer science major Owen O'Brien created the Love Letter device as a way to make sending text messages and photos more personal.
Billions of text messages are sent around the world each day — most read and quickly forgotten.
Senior computer science major Owen O’Brien is trying to make them more meaningful.
O’Brien is the founder of Love Letter, a WiFi-connected, palm-sized mailbox that delivers text messages and photos to a color screen. When a message arrives, a small red flag rises on the device, signaling it’s ready to be read.
“I wanted the experience of receiving a message to feel separate from the phone,” the Beverly native says. “Your phone does everything. This brings back a more meaningful connection.”
Users send messages through a companion mobile app that are then received on the standalone device, creating what O’Brien says is a more personal, distraction-free experience.
“It’s just a cool way to show someone you’re thinking about them,” says O’Brien, who sends messages to his grandmother with the device.
O’Brien came up with the idea in the summer after his sophomore year, during an internship as a research and development test engineer at medical technology company Smith+Nephew. He and his girlfriend found it difficult to stay connected during busy workdays, prompting him to build a prototype that could receive messages and photos.
What started as a personal project quickly gained traction. After posting videos online, O’Brien realized others were drawn to a more intentional way to communicate with loved ones.
Image by Ed Brennen Owen O'Brien is recorded by a friend after his DifferenceMaker won the top prize at the $50,000 Idea Challenge in 2025. O'Brien credits the DifferenceMaker program with helping him hone his entrepreneurial skills.
O’Brien developed his entrepreneurial skills through the DifferenceMaker program, where his team’s smart pet bed won the top prize at the $50,000 Idea Challenge.
“I learned a lot about presenting myself and proving that an idea is good and has validation,” he says.
Learning to embrace failure has also been part of the process. O’Brien’s first crowdfunding attempt for Love Letter fell short, bringing in only about $400. Instead of walking away, he used the experience to refine the product and his strategy — gathering feedback and improving the design before relaunching successfully.
“That failure taught me everything,” he says. “You need to build an audience first and really understand what people want.”
Launching Love Letter has required O’Brien to learn a variety of skills. He taught himself circuit board design, navigated Federal Communications Commission compliance requirements and developed both the device’s firmware and the mobile app.
O’Brien spent “hundreds of hours” in the Lawrence Lin MakerSpace, where he prototyped early versions of the device and assembled his first batch of orders.
“I was in there all the time,” O’Brien says. “You can make something on a computer and then turn it into reality. They give you all the tools and support — things I didn’t have at home. You just have to show you want to learn.”
Now, O’Brien is focused on scaling the company after graduation. He’s working toward a goal of producing 200 units per month, often printing shipping labels on campus and dropping off orders between classes.
“This is what I want to do,” he says. “I love creating things. It’s hard, but it’s so rewarding.”