We are publishing an interview of Mr. Kabir Siddiq, CEO and Founder, SleepyCat.
About the founders
A graduate from the Indiana University, USA, with a double major in Economics and Telecommunications, Kabir started his career in Investment Banking in Mumbai. He moved on to entrepreneurship and joined his family business which was related to the furniture industry. During the same period, he won the distributorship account for traditional mattresses in Eastern India. It was During this time that he recognized the problems in the mattress industry and conceptualized the idea of SleepyCat – India 1st Mattress In A Box.
The problem they are trying to solve? Insights that led him to believe that this is a big enough problem
Being part of the mattress industry for the last few years, made Kabir realize how Shopping for a mattress is extremely troublesome. The customer, he realized, was often confused by the variety and ended up buying mattresses that they hated. He realized that mattresses were so expensive not because it was costly to manufacture it. There was a whole bunch of other things tossed in (a margin for everyone in the chain, manufacturers, distributors, dealers, retailers etc.) that inflated the price. So, he thought, why not introduce the bed-in a box model. He took advantage of the booming e-commerce love and decided to cut out the middleman – thereby reducing the overall cost of the mattress.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
SleepyCat mattresses are easily available to anyone in India. You can order it online through our website with 4 simple clicks. Just choose the size you like and we deliver it to you anywhere in India within 7-9 days in a box! We also know most of urban India that loves Amazon (where we are) in on the move.
SleepyCat mattresses are delivered right from factory to your doorstep and come with a 30 nights risk-free trial. Buying from us means you can save up to 75% on cost. And above all, we keep our customers at the forefront, so keeping them happy helps us stand out from competitor brands.
What is the revenue model? Explain your thought process.
Being direct from factory we can maintain low costs and pass the benefit to the consumer. Keep a fair margin and continue to grow our presence online without having to invest too much offline. We want to grow into different verticals and be a one-stop trust shop for people looking for honest and good quality products through a reliable brand.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
SleepyCats aims at reaching out to the millennials. Those who are looking to move away from the conventional markets and open to exploring newer technologies that make living in this fast-paced world a little easier.
We aim to target entrepreneurs, men and women who have shifted to a new city due to college or job change, newlyweds, new parents.
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
Yes, we are in the process of coming out with a premium version of the mattress. But, we can’t comment too much on that as of now. In the future SleepyCat aims to explore many avenues in the bedding industry and offer its customers with holistic experiences via on-ground activations, experience centers etc.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
We’ve just finished a year, SleepyCat just turned One. And within this short amount of time, we have delivered over 3500 mattresses. Our mattresses have traveled to 971 unique postal codes across India. We have had 14% of customers that have re-ordered. We have already donated 100 mattresses to a children shelter home and are working on donation our next set of 200 mattresses. We have delivered to major generals in Kashmir, to Dive Centres across the sea in the Andaman Islands and even Bollywood celebrities.
Being the first of its kind in India, SleepyCat aimed at disrupting the traditional mattress industry. This was a challenge in itself as buyers were not aware of the concept of a ‘Bed-In-A-Box’ and were used to buying whatever the retail market had to offer without knowing what is right for them.
We entered the market by first placing ourselves on Amazon Launchpad which gave us just the boost we needed. Slowly we built our presence of Social platforms and created our own website – sleepycat.in
Gradually, many competitor brands started to enter the market. But we kept our focus on providing the best of customer service. We made sure that we kept our customers at the forefront and maintained transparency with them at all stages. This enabled to build the trust required and create a positive presence in the market. When we are able to build greater bonds with our customers that go beyond the product itself, we know we’ve done it right 🙂
Any other information about your startup that you would like to share with us.
Watch out for our new blog page! We’ll be giving out cool tips, reads and a lot more related to our favorite topic – Sleep! 🙂
Also, since it’s our birthday month we’re running a special offer. You can use the coupon code BIRTHDAYBASH and get Rs.2000 off on every SleepyCat mattress purchased between 1st to 31st August.
Visit https://www.sleepycat.in to know more about SleepyCat.