Well Made

In 2012, Tuft & Needle co-founder JT Marino set out to fix the broken bed industry. The digitally native brand began by shipping mattresses in boxes with a focus on consumer experience. In their first six years, JT and his co-founder Daehee Park bootstrapped the company to $170M in sales, then in September 2018, they merged with the largest U.S. mattress manufacturer, Serta Simmons Bedding. Now, as Chief Strategy Officer at Serta, JT has the challenge of retrofitting and dismantling existing systems at the traditional retailer. JT is doubling down to accelerate Tuft & Needle’s offline growth and guide Serta’s operations into the future, creating the lasting change Tuft & Needle had originally set out to achieve. On this episode, JT talks about teaming up with their competitors to fundamentally transform the retail industry. Tuft & Needle didn’t take outside capital but pitched to VCs four times. Hear how pitching taught JT and Daehee how to build an operating plan, forecast and manage finances