EP 399: $1m+ Mattresses Sold using Toptal.com with Adam Tishman of HelixSleep

Adam Tishman, cofounder of Helix Sleep. His company gives every customer a custom-made mattress that is even more affordable then retail brands. With several options, customers can come up with hundreds of different combinations to build their perfect, individualized mattress. Learn about Helix Sleep’s goals to continue expanding and to provide the best customer experience. Famous Five:   Favorite Book? – Made to Stick What CEO do you follow? — Jeff Gross Favorite online tool? — Moat.com Do you get 8 hours of sleep?—About 7. If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — Learn about customer lifetime value and customer acquisition. Take risks earlier.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:25 – Nathan introduces Adam 01:45 – Helix Sleep 01:55 – Custom-made mattresses 02:20 – The price is always the same for the consumer 02:50 – Costs to produce are up to $500 in the mattress industry 03:50 – Net margin 04:20 – Growth of the business 04:35 – Founded a year ago 04:45 – Thousands of mattresses already sold 05:10 – Acquisition 05:40 – Podcasts and radio 06:30 – Really successful in the mattress industry 07:05 – A business model that they can scale 08:10 – A simple game, with one product 08:30 – They use their revenue to fuel growth 09:50 – Capital 10:10 – Seed round just under $1M 10:45 – Team of 16 11:00 – First year revenue was lower than their monthly revenue now 11:55 – The technology 12:10 – An algorithm to make the customized mattresses 12:25 – Coding is outsourced 13:10 – The process for finding a developer on Toptal 14:25 – Everyone is pre-screened 14:50 – Legally, you still own the code 15:20 – More affordable 16:10 – Why they chose Toptal 17:00 – Churn is not a focus for this type of business 17:40 – Focus on building the brand 17:55 – The customer experience 18:14 – Hundreds of skews 19:35 – Goals for 2016 20:35 – helixsleep.com, blog.helixsleep.com, and Adam Tishman on LinkedIn or [email protected] 23:00 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Find a way to provide high-quality products at a more affordable price. Take risks earlier, and jump up the business ladder. Come up with a business model that can be scaled.   Resources Mentioned: Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Moat.com – Adam’s favorite online tool to see how he compares to his competitors Toptal – A platform for finding freelancers Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives