In 2013, Philip Krim, Jeff Chapin,Luke Sherman, Gabriel
Flateman, and Neil Parikh met at a coworking space in
New York City.They got to talking about sleep,partly
because sleep seemed to be on people's minds and
partly because they kept seeing people fall asleep in
beanbag chairs.Designing the Mattress and the Redesigning of
the Mattress Buying Process
At this point the group moved forward on two fronts:
Designing the Casper mattress and redesigning the
mattress buying process and the experience resulting
from it. The tagline for the company, as mentioned earlier,
was "One Perfect Mattress." The founders say the tagline,
and what it implies, directed their efforts in both areas. Designing the Casper Mattress
The design of the mattress was informed by the earlier
interviews. One thing the interviews revealed is that
people don't actually want the variety of choices that are
offered to them. If you think about hotels,for example,
most have a single mattress that the majority of guests are
happy with. So they decided to remove the complication
of choice and build a single mattress. To be successful,
they knew the mattress had to meet two tests:it had
to be comfortable for everyone and the aesthetics had
to be acceptable to everyone. They built prototypes to
showtopotentialusers,testing differentmaterialsand
different levels of firmness. They even built several king
and queen-sized mattresses that had different levels of
firmness on each side of the mattress so the user could
compare the levels of firmness side-by-side. Through




the testing they were able to arrive at a mattress design
would be stylish yet simple.It would dress up a room,but
that most people liked. They then built prototypes of this
would not clash with the decor or furniture. specific design and tested them again with a group of beta
The nearby table sums up Casper's redesign of the
testers, iterating on the additional feedback they received. mattress buying experience. Redesigning the Mattress Buying Experience
Casper's Redesign of the Mattress Buying Experience
What People Don't
The team also focused heavily on the mattress buying
Like about the
experience. Through earlier customer interviews and
Mattress Buying
their own experiences, they knew that there were at
Experience
Casper's Redesign
least five things people didn't like about the mattress
buyingexperience:too manychoices,toomanyprice
Too many choices
Casper sells a single mattress in
points,toomanypushysalespeople,toomuchbuyers
six different sizes.The company
remorse, and mattresses that are difficult to handle and
tagline is "One Perfect Mattress."If you'd like to
see one of the videos,go to YouTube and type in "Casper
mattressunboxing."You'll find many examplesto pick
from. Finally, Casper did conventional advertising and PR.
Alongwith thesefactors, Casper's approach worked
Its big bet-that people would accept the fact that it sold
a single mattress and would buy mattresses online-
resonated. The company reportedly sold $30 million worth
of mattresses in its first 14 months. Other estimates report
sales of $100 million in 2015 and $200 million in 2016. Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
From the beginning, Casper saw itself as a sleep products
company rather than a mattress company. As soon as
it launched, it started prototyping and testing additional
sleep-related products. It added pillows and sheets in
early 2016.Truetoform,it offers a single pillow,priced
at $75.The Casper pillow,like the mattress, has a 100
night guarantee. There are also limited choices for the
sheets.In late summer 2016, Casper launched its fourth
product-The Casper Dog Mattress. According to
Casper, the company spent 11 months conducting canine
sleep studies, consulting with dog psychologists and
building prototypes. The result is a dog mattress that sells
for $125 and promises "to create a sleep environment
that caters to dogs' natural behaviors."The dog mattress
reflects the somewhat whimsical nature of Casper and
its founders.Second,about half the




people who bought a Casper mattress talked to someone
in-house, via the toll free number displayed prominently
on the company's website.They would ask questions
like "Do I need a box spring?" (No). Casper used the
occasions to leam about its customers,and kept in touch. Third,atrendstartedearlyon,whichwasn'tplanned,of
people posting Casper mattress "unboxing" videos online.Casper would sell a single mattress.