In conversation with Harshil Salot - Co Founder at The Sleep Company
The Sleep Company is a comfort products company that plans to revolutionize the way people Sleep and sit by leveraging its patented
"Smart Grid" technology. We spoke to Harshil Salot, Co-Founder to find out more about the development of mattress industry in India,
new-age technology and their future plans
1. What motivated you to launch your brand for the Indian
market?
Founded in 2019, the company’s inception was based on our realisation
that, while we all spend an average of 26 years (or 2,27,760 hours) of our life
on a mattress, there was very little innovation that went into elevating
that experience further. This idea further took seed, when as new parents at
the time, we were struggling to get a good night’s sleep, curtailing our
energy and ability to function at our most efficient throughout the day. This
started our quest for the perfect mattress in a market that last saw significant
innovation back in the 1960s when memory foam was invented. We travelled
across the world to meet with scientists and technicians in the field of sleep
and material science to find an appropriate solution. The Sleep Company
products are the result of extensive R&D and collaboration with ex-DRDO
material scientist Dr. Tripathi, who invented the Super Stretchy SmartGRID.
2. During your research, what were some of the biggest
findings when it came to the mattress industry in India.
During our research for a quality mattress that encompassed all aspects
i.e. ergonomic comfort, durability and versatility we were shocked to find
how far behind India was vs. other countries when it came to smart sleep
solutions. What we came to find was that in a market where consumer
preferences had evolved tenfold, we were still banking on the almost
six-decade old foam and memory foam mattresses. The Indian mattress
market for years has been split between an unorganised and organised
market place, with unbranded products monopolising the space purely on
the basis of price point. However, with information at their fingertips, today
consumers are more quality-conscious, aware and looking for products that
provide a very distinct value-proposition. Furthermore, life style products like
an ergonomically supportive mattress is no longer viewed as a luxury but as
an investment in an overall healthier lifestyle. This means that today’s
customers are willing to research, compare and make informed decisions
based on factors beyond price point like - customer experience, product
material and technology
Technology is a very crucial element here and what we realized was that
while it has changed every life experience, there was one that seemingly had
remained untouched - sleep. This gap is where The Sleep Company wanted
to change and bridge, with our patented SmartGRID technology.
3. The Smart Grid Technology, tell us a
little more about it.
Crafted with Sleep Science at its foundation, The
Sleep Company produces, manufactures and
owns the patent to Asia’s first and only
comfort-tech solution - the SmartGRID mattress.
Created with a super-stretchy smart polymer, the
SmartGRID technology was created in collaboration
with ex-DRDO material scientist Dr. Tripathi,
and features a signature grid-based design.
Backed wholly by science
The Sleep Company’s SmartGRID tech is a
revolutionary innovation that, with its innovative
design and composition enables;-
- Superior ergonomics: intelligently designed to
ensure that it is soft in certain places like your hips
and shoulders while firm in places where it should
be like your back, giving you advanced levels of
posture support
- Motion isolation: cancels out any kind of
disturbance caused by the person sleeping
next to you. Enjoy movement-free, zero
partner disturbance
- Temperature control: The cooling fabric quilted premium
softcover comes with 2500 air channels that don’t trap body
heat like a memory foam mattress. It allows for optimum airflow
not only adds to the bounciness but also helps in regulating
temperature
- Extreme durability: doesn’t sag or sink like other foam, latex,
or memory mattresses. The ultra-elastic material will ensure
that you experience zero sagging
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4. What kind of technology partners do you
work with, and how do you leverage technology
to enhance your product
The Sleep Company offers a premium product, based on
cutting-edge developments in the field of material science and
sleep science which came to be after years of meticulous
research. Made of a super-stretchy polymer, the patented
SmartGRID technology was devised in collaboration with ex-DRDO material scientist Dr. Tripathi. The Sleep Company products are
manufactured in Mumbai while the raw materials are sourced
from Japan to ensure quality and durability.
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5. Please tell us about your G2M Strategy
The Sleep Company is a digitally native comfort technology
company. Augmenting our accessibility and providing
better value for premium products, we decided to
eliminate the middleman and with it the ineficiencies in
the supply chain. This has helped us improve the shopping
experience, creating an opportunity for a greater value
proposition by removing retailer and distributor margins.
Additionally, we introduced a 100-day free trial that added
to the appeal and provides a proof of concept for our
customers on the kind of impact the SmartGRID mattress
can have on their sleep.
Our strategy at the get-go was to channel all our efforts
towards the digital marketplace as well as our own website
and it has been an exceptional platform for us to grow brand
awareness specifically amongst browsers and casual
shoppers. This strategy proved to be incredibly successful
for us with an almost equal sales split between our website
and Amazon or Flipkart. In fact, in some instances it has
skewed more towards our own website.
6. What are some of the challenges and opportunities in the Indian Mattress Market
Our first challenge was product development. We identi- fied the problem, had a concept of the solution, all we
needed to do was determine the right equation to build
the perfect mattress that encompassed three critical
elements - ergonomic comfort, durability and versatility.
We spent years on R&D, travelling across the world from
the US to Japan, meeting with experts in sleep and material
sciences to pinpoint the exact construct and composition
of the perfect mattress. And even then it wasn’t just about composition,
but it was about finding the right people to help us to our eureka
moment. After years of searching we found Dr. Tripathi, an ex-DRDO
material scientist, who we collaborated with to successfully devise
the SmartGRID technology
From there our next step was to find the right methodology for
manufacturing. Our products are one of a kind and unique in the
Asian market. Our proposition is to bring only the best for our
consumers, so sourcing and getting the right equipment and supplies
imported from across the globe is a huge feat. However, we’ve
deployed machines for the purpose of automating the manufacturing
process to minimize human intervention.
7. India is the second most sleep-deprived nation, after Japan, how can the right mattress technology help address this issue to an extent
While sleep deprivation is largely due to life-related circumstances,
which mainly boils down to either highly demanding professions or
an unhealthy lifestyle - what we need to consider is that, if external
factors may be aggravating this seemingly passive threat - there
are environmental solutions that can help combat it or atleast alleviate it in some part
Basically, if we start to focus on the qualitative details to achieve
absolute relaxation, the quantitative elements are bound to follow
suit. To do so, optimizing our sleeping environment becomes a focal
point, starting with our comfort solutions - the chairs we sit on, the
sofas we lounge on, and of course the humble yet indispensable
mattress.
It's a simple combination of nature and nurture. So, while the nature
aspect i.e. lifestyle changes can sometimes be out of our control, the
nurture aspect - which in no small part the mattress plays a critical role
- can be elevated with smart mattresses that could aid in the mission
to combat sleep deprivation
8. How would you rate the potential of the Indian market, considering it is still largely unorganised
The mattress market ecosystem in India today has
witnessed a significant shift owing to two key factors -
consumer behaviour and the D2C movement. Consumer
behaviour has changed drastically over the last two
years or so, with value-based lifestyle products acquiring
more of an ‘essential’ status than ‘luxury’. While the D2C
model has to some extent been able to provide a more
e ective alternative to the unorganised sector which
has reigned supreme for years, by providing an
ecosystem that showcases value-driven products which
customers can evaluate, compare and make informed
decisions about.
The unorganised sector primarily dominates the Indian
mattress market, but with increasing awareness and
earning capabilities of consumers helped in the growth
of the organised industry which has grown nearly at a
CAGR of 17% in the last five years.
9. In terms of the ecosystem for the manufacturing Industry when it comes to suppliers, what is the need of the hour
This lack of uniformity in Indian markets puts an
unnecessary burden on delivery logistics.. E-com
companies have turned to optimize packaging and
shipping, there is still a huge scope for improvement in
better handling distribution. There is also a huge gap
with respect to the capacity and the assortment of raw
materials available in India and we definitely need to
gear up on this to reduce our reliance on imports from
neighboring countries.
10. Could you define some future trends for the mattress manufacturing Industry in India
The Indian mattress industry is still in its nascent stage
and is gradually moving to automation. There has
been an increased awareness with respect to consistency
in quality and ensuring the best quality product reaches
the consumer. This has also been dictated by
International customers who are now looking at
sourcing actively from India.
For more information, please visit: www.thesleepcompany.in