Mattress - Publications - Faculty & Research

01 Sep 2015
News

Data-Driven Diligence

Illustration by QuickHoney On the surface, there is seemingly nothing sexy about a startup that sells foam mattresses online. But in January 2014, David Coats (MBA 1992) and Trevor Kienzle (MBA 1991) made a significant seed-round... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs

24 Jan 2018
Blog Post

10 Reasons Why HBS Peek Weekend was worth the trip across the pond - a british perspective

small group study session; we attended class. The energy around the room was invigorating with at least 80% of the contributions coming from members of the class. We tackled five case studies during Peek which all varied from a mattress... View Details

01 Jul 2019
Research & Ideas

The Airbnb Lesson for Startups? Success Takes More Than Technology

off offering just a room—somebody who had a vacant room with an air mattress who would provide some hospitality, maybe a hot meal in the morning. That was it. Over time, the company started saying, “Well, you can rent just the room, but... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost; Travel; Tourism

01 Mar 2017
News

Case Study: Moment in the Sun

“connected wellness,” with the lamp as the starting point and shown as a sleep aid rather than smart lighting. Ario can assess co-branding the device with players that have established a value proposition around sleep or wellness (e.g., View Details

Keywords: Dan Morrell

10 May 2017
Research & Ideas

Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups

Nanda cites Airbnb. “You might think it was not going to work to put money into a firm that rents out mattress space on the floor. But then it turns out it actually does, and Airbnb becomes a super-valuable company,” he says. “Airbnb... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Banking; Financial Services; Information Technology

01 Mar 2018
News

Making Sense of the Modern Startup

he was teaching in first-year Finance in the early 1980s. People, opportunity, context, and deal, changing iteratively over time. Sahlman cites a contemporary example: the Casper “bed-in-a-box” foam mattress company that launched in 2014.... View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank (PMD 51, 1986)

01 Jun 2024
News

Conducting Business

In 2015 I moved from New York City to Madison, Connecticut, where I met, quite by chance, Ginny Vancil and her brother, Richard. I thought, How many Vancils can there be in the world? I asked if they knew Richard “Dick” Vancil, who was my first professor for my first... View Details

Keywords: Michael Farmer (MBA 1971); illustration by Lucinda Rogers; Business Schools & Computer & Management Training; Educational Services

09 Dec 2021
News

Higher Returns

months later, Amazon pledged $2 billion to the climate crisis. You had Wayfair employees refusing to work because they didn't want their company to sell mattresses to the government, who was planning on using them at their detention... View Details

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