It’s interesting when new start-ups like Casper, Tuft and Needle, and Leesa (to name a few) claim to have revolutionized the mattress industry by selling direct to consumers online with a mattress that is quickly and easily delivered to their home for free and has a money-back trial period. They claim to have “reinvented sleep” and to have recreated how mattress are bought, delivered, and returned. Many of these start-ups have just opened in the last year or two. So why does this seem like old news to me? Because to me, it is old news.
Healthy Foundations has been selling online since 1998 and selling its memory foam mattresses that are vacuum-compressed and delivered (free, of course) via Fed Ex for almost 10 years. Even more amazing than that is the fact that Healthy Foundations’ money-back trial is a full 365 days, not 75, 100 or 120 days. Healthy Foundations has been backing its memory foam mattress and “walking the walk” for longer than most of these companies’ combined time in business. So much for “reinventing” anything or coming up with a new business model. They have just copied something Healthy Foundations has been doing for years and is doing with a much better memory foam mattress and longer money-back guarantee. A more honest tagline for some of these companies might be:
“Hey! Look at us! We are a start-up and are spending hoards of other people’s money on our business. We have cool celebrities giving us money. Come check us out, buy a mattress from us, and hope we are still in business in 5 years when you have an issue with your mattress…”
And by the way, Casper, here’s an FYI – No mattress is perfect for everyone… If yours is, why do you need a money-back trial at all and why did you have to reconfigure your mattress and add another layer? Just a thought…