Sleepyhead alumnus featured in Forbes India

Mathew Joseph (MA Advertising and Marketing, 2009) shares how he took on the needs of digital-native Millennials and Gen Z to develop his own direct to customer brand.

As the marketing director of Duroflex, the second-largest mattress brand in India, Mathew brought excitement back into mattress sales when he rolled out his Sleepyhead brand and ‘bed in a box’ concept and sold it to customers. The new product and strategy were based on consumer insights and was a new departure for the parent company’s approach.

“For Anshul Jain, taking a leap of faith made sense. The managing director at Lighthouse bought the box and the Sleepyhead story even before the product was officially rolled out. The reason was simple: The team. “When we invest, the most important thing is the team,” she says. 

Though Duroflex was a legacy brand…..The icing on the cake was a differentiated product.

There was another differentiation, though. Joseph had ensured that Sleepyhead stayed lean in cash burn as well. Coming from a business family meant building and running the business in a traditional way. What this means is not letting the bottom line balloon. Joseph explains. If gross contribution after customer acquisition cost is positive, he points out, it means that one is building a sustainable business because the cost after that is primarily overheads and depreciation. “As long as I am running a brand with a gross contribution positive after my customer acquisition costs, I am okay,” he says.”

Read the full article in Forbes India

Image: Mathew Joseph, CEO & co-founder, Sleepyhead. Photographer: Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India