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Casper has re-imagined mattress-buying, making $100 million in the process
The mattress industry is seeing an awakening, led by a 'sleep startup' with a radical approach
Good sleep increases productivity - that was the subject of a conversation some years ago among four men at a co-working space in New York. That was a starting point that eventually led to the launch of an online mattress company Casper in 2014, with one of them - Philip Krim, as the CEO.
The startup clocked a whopping $1 million in revenue in the first 28 days of business, $100m in its first full year (2015) and is on track to do $200m this year. It famously did $1m worth of business in its first 28 days. It raised $1.85m in VC funding before it had sold a single mattress, It claims to have been profitable from the moment it made its first sale.
What does it do differently?
For starters, Casper only sells one type of mattress (in four different sizes). The makers say that more styles are not required as they've created a mattress that adapts to the user.
It’s made with a carefully balanced combination of hypoallergenic latex foam, which keeps one cool and adds a bit of spring, and high-density memory foam, which provides just the right amount of pressure relief.
Secondly, the company conveniently packs their mattresses in a small box and ships them directly to customers, giving them 100 days to commit to the purchase.
In an earlier interview, co-founder and COO Neil Parikh has claimed,"It’s far and away the best sleep surface." He adds, "We are obsessively interested in every part of the process. We invested in more than 200 prototypes and a/b tested them. We design the cotton fabrics that go into the mattress cover, and we design the cut and sew patterns. ‘We don’t just spray fire retardants [onto the foam mattress] like everyone else, we actually redesigned the chemistry of the foam so that you don’t need them."