Jean Gregoire

I’m Jean. I’ve been coding since I was twelve.

I studied engineering at Mines Paris, then did a PhD in computer science, then a postdoc at MIT in Boston. While I was at MIT, my fiancée was in Paris — six hours of time difference and an ocean between us. I built her a small wooden box with a pixel heart that spun whenever she sent me a note. That was the first Lovebox. I had no plan beyond making her smile.

Everyone around me loved it and wanted the same for their own loved ones. So I put the project on Kickstarter in 2017. 2,881 backers said yes, and Lovebox became a company. Ten years later: 300,000+ devices shipped, 40+ countries, 26 million notes sent through the box, $30M+ in cumulative revenue. On shelves at MoMA Design Store, UncommonGoods, Nature & Découvertes.

I’m now launching two more products this year.

KEEP — a connected bamboo keychain that carries one note from someone who loves you. NFC-powered, no battery, no WiFi, no feed. The most minimalist piece of tech I’ve ever built. Kickstarter, June 2026.

Makea — an interactive AI toy for kids, designed to grow their creativity, focus and love of reading. A real departure from anything I’ve built before. More on that coming soon.

On Lovebox and KEEP, I work with my long-time business partner Victor, who handles day-to-day operations and digital marketing from Lyon. Makea is a solo project — I’m building it on my own.

What’s different the second time around is the cost structure. Lovebox was built the old way — I raised a seed round, hired a team, paid the toll. KEEP and Makea are being built without raising a dollar. A ~$300/month AI stack — Claude Code, Nano Banana, a few others — is doing what used to take a six-person team.

I’m not going to tell you AI does the work. The work is still the work. But AI is not replacing creators. It’s replacing the capital required to start being one.

I do the whole stack myself — hardware specs, firmware, app, marketing, finance, packaging, ads, copy. I love orchestrating everything, empowered by Claude Code.

I’m based in Rio de Janeiro since early 2026. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. Shipping to the rest of it — with a particular focus on the US, the market I know best, France as a strong second, and South America on my radar as soon as I build a stronger knowledge of the particularities here.

This blog is where I write about how I actually build. The bits I think might be useful to anyone trying to ship a small physical product without necessarily raising capital.