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Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

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Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

#43
This is awesome.

Did you start this as a side project?

Also curious how you built the bed as well…definitely a great price and a very elegant site. Aligns well with your product.

I don’t know if we have any New Yorkers here, but Bob’s furniture (official sponsor of just about every NYC sports team) sells lower cost furniture, and you’d never know it based on their cheesy late night commercials, but they’re actually an extremely fast growing private company, and did a ton of growth in the furniture industry during the “great recession”

Kudos to you. You should setup a blog and track progress and tell the story. I’d definitely be a reader!

Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

#45
post #5

Now I'm curious about the mattress industry. I have always wondered why mattresses need salesmen and dedicated stores.

It is nice to lie down on the beds and get a sense of what you want. We went to a store for our son's mattress, but when it was time for our daughter to move out of the crib I made phone calls to a couple of big mattress suppliers. They purposefully have things like a Sleepy's specific model that only lasts a year, to make comparison shopping nearly impossible. On the phone they'll map a previous model to the current model for that year (and the big ones can do the same thing across competitors). Its much easier to call two different companies in the span of 30 minutes, when you know what you want already and get a better price than you would in the store, with less time and hassle.

Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

#46
John, thank you for this. As many have commented, I am kicking myself that I had to buy a mattress months ago and had to go through the whole bait-and-switch, renamed-same-mattress-from-store-to-store BS.

Next mattress will be from you guys --- any king-sized mattresses in your future (or is that what the twin XL)

Again -- thank you for disrupting this corrupt business

Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

#47
The site, and the bed, look great. Congratulations.

I'd be really interested to read a follow up post detailing a little more about your story, how you guys got started, challenges you faced, what you'd differently, etc...at least the details you're comfortable sharing.

Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

#49

So is this a box spring? Or more like a futon? Maybe add something on up your site that has a cross section picture?

According to the Amazon listing, it's just 3 layers of dense foam with a cotton cover. The story is interesting but the only selling point seems to be the return policy. You can get more mattress for less money from Ikea or even Amazon itself, and I wouldn't want to sleep on 5 inches of foam at any price -- it's more a mat than a mattress, and is going to be even thinner once you put your body weight on it.

Their twin is $199, and less than half the height of a normal mattress. For $139 you can get a 5-star-rated 8" foam mattress with 4" of dense foam, 2" of soft foam and 2" of memory foam, delivered tomorrow with the same certifications and 5-year warranty. [1] For $229, you can get a 12" foam mattress, which is more like a traditional full height mattress. [2]

1: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006L9QN4G/ref=oh_details_o...

2: http://www.amazon.com/Signature-Sleep-12-Inch-Memory-Mattres...

Re: Tell HN: How we bootstrapped to the #1 rated mattress on Amazon.com

#50
post #40

Do you guys have any plans for Canada?

We are available in the US only at the moment, but Canada would be the next logical expansion for distribution. That being said, we don't have a specific date on this yet as we don't want to overextend ourselves and risk the quality of our service.
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