Side Project · 2025
From a friend's party to a boutique lighting brand.
“This isn't a prop. This is a product.”
Act 01
I've been a DJ for years. But music alone never felt like enough.
I was always watching the light. The atmosphere. How a space feels. So I started exploring: WLED, ESP32, WS2813 strips, panels. Built setups at home, wired DMX, started controlling LEDs from a MIDI controller.
It started as a hobby. But I kept noticing the same pattern:
Wherever I walk into a space, I want to change how it feels.
DJing is playing with the energy of a dance floor. Light is playing with the energy of a room. Same game, different medium.
Act 02
2025. Friends throwing a party. They asked if I could DJ and handle the lighting.
I said yes. So I built. The first Galaxy — a circular ambient lamp, LEDs that react to music, WLED firmware, ESP32, a day of soldering. During my set that night it sat at the center of the room.
Then I saw something unexpected. People stopped. Came closer. Took photos. Waited for the drop just to watch how the light responded. They were experiencing the light as if it were alive.
“This isn't a prop. This is a product.”
I went home and within 72 hours started building Lümus.
Act 03
More than a decade in media — CS, then Project Management, then Product at Applicaster, BabyFirst, Channel 10. Years of DJing in parallel. Hardware curiosity surfacing occasionally.
Each identity alone wasn't a product. Together, suddenly, it was.
Something else shifted the axis: vibe coding. AI tools (Lovable, Claude, Cursor) made building digital assets — which until now required a dev team — accessible to me as a PM. No dependencies. No translation.
So I did everything they taught me as a PM, but this time for myself:
Act 04
Lümus today:
I'm not building Lümus because I have to. I'm building it because I didn't know how not to.
Not a lamp. A premium audio-reactive light sculpture that sits between home décor, music visualization, and mood lighting. The full brand experience is live.
Live Now
Brand site, product story, 6 modes, waitlist. Built with Lovable + Claude. Full PM thinking as a product artifact.
6
Modes
5
Personas
3
Tiers
Pre-launch
Stage
Not effects. Not presets. Designed experiences — each named for a state, not a color.
LEDs dance with the beat, responding to frequency bands in real time. The room moves with the music.
Slow breath cycles. Soft color drift. No randomness. A light that breathes with you.
Warm static light, minimal movement. Optimized for focus without visual distraction.
Gradual dawn simulation. Starts deep warm red, blooms to golden white. A good morning.
Smart home integration. Responds to your calendar, location, and daily habits.
Full Home Assistant + DMX integration. Performance rig for DJs and installers.
Different surfaces, same root: they care how their space feels and they'll pay for craft.
Not priced like a LED lamp. Positioned as an art object — emotional, musical, handmade.
Founder Edition
₪950–1,200
First batch of 10–15 units. Founder-level access.
Premium
₪1,200–1,600
Limited Midburn Edition with bespoke finishing.
Studio / DJ
₪1,600–2,400
Performance-grade. Built for artists and installers.
WLED is the platform. Lümus is the layer above it — the UX, the brand, the experience design, the curated modes.
ESP32 + WLED firmware
Wi-Fi + Bluetooth microcontroller. WLED as the open-source LED platform with 100+ effects base.
WS2813 strip · 300 LEDs
5m @ 60 LEDs/m with dual-signal backup. Main light body.
16×16 LED panel · 256 px
Matrix panel for diffuse fill. Creates depth and cloud-like nebula effect.
Halo backlight channel
Independent rear ring. Not decoration — a second product layer that changes how the object reads in a room.
Tier 1 — Ambient Mic
Simple microphone module. Good for home. Picks up room sound — quick setup, no cables.
Tier 2 — I2S Digital Mic
INMP441/ICS-43434 digital microphone. Better beat detection, less noise floor bleeding.
Tier 3 — Line-In via I2S
Direct audio input. Cleanest signal. Designed for DJs and studio monitors. Studio Edition only.
Diffusion system: layered acrylic + interior cloud diffusion. The diffusion isn't cosmetic — it's what determines whether the object reads as premium or DIY.
Built solo. PM thinking, hardware instinct, DJ taste, AI tools. Four skill sets that didn't make sense separately — and then suddenly did.
PM
Defined personas, modes, pricing strategy, unit economics, growth scenarios. Full PM Brain in Obsidian — hypotheses, competitors, retention, activation.
DJ
The taste layer. Knowing what makes a room feel right. Understanding why audio reactivity quality matters more than feature count.
Maker
ESP32, WLED, soldering, DMX wiring, diffusion optics. Built the first prototype in a day. Iterating on the second.
AI Builder
Brand site built with Lovable + Claude. Portfolio page built with Claude Code. PRD and pitch deck generated and refined with Claude and ChatGPT.
Pre-Launch · Founder Batch Open
The full brand, product story, and waitlist at lumus.gilkopel.com