Tuft & Needle：无风险投资的床垫初创公司，销售额达1.7亿美元，与舒达席梦思合并

做的是什么生意

A direct-to-consumer mattress e-commerce brand selling one well-reviewed bed-in-a-box model at a fixed, transparent price with free shipping and returns.

启动资金：$6,000 in the founders' own money to build out the platform in 2012

起因

After a bad experience buying his first adult mattress, Penn State engineering graduate JT Marino and college friend Daehee Park launched the Tuft & Needle beta site in June 2012, then built the full platform with $6,000 of their own money over the following months.

经过

One product and near-zero marketing spend forced word of mouth and direct customer feedback to do the selling; the founders stayed deliberately lean. Digiday reported the company did $170M in 2017 sales without funding, and by mid-2018 it had eight US stores and was approaching roughly $200M in annual revenue.

结果

In August 2018 Tuft & Needle signed a definitive agreement to merge with Serta Simmons Bedding, completing in September 2018: Marino joined SSB as chief strategy officer, Park stayed on as an adviser, and the Tuft & Needle brand continued to operate independently inside the larger company's portfolio.

可借鉴之处

一个乏味的品类无需风险投资也能取胜：一个定价透明的产品通过口碑传播，支撑了九位数的增长，而竞争对手则花费数百万追逐风投和投放广告。