This chap took his company from Zero to $180m in just 2.5 years

London being one of the world’s ultimate networking and socialising destinations, I was fortunate to participate in a celebratory dinner with “man of the moment”, Kuba Wieczorek.

It wasn’t noticeable that he essentially hadn’t slept in 4 days. Kuba and his colleagues had just pulled off the fastest Start-Up-to-IPO in the history of the London market. His company didn’t even exist 2.5 years ago and was about to list on the stock market later that week at a valuation of $180m. In the two days prior to the dinner, he and his team did 33 media interviews in the UK. His product – mattresses!

Have a focus, stick to your message, be brave and do things differently

Talking to Kuba I got his 5 magic ingredients for growing Eve Sleep, the online mattress delivery service, out of nowhere so quickly.

1. Casting: Hire the right people. One of his most important hires was someone to focus on the product itself and nothing but the product. Equally, quickly chuck out the wrong ones.
2. Vision: He wanted to turn mattresses into something that is cool and talked about. He did so by moving away from selling a mattress and, instead, celebrating the benefits of quality sleeping and how it affects your life.
3. Brand is everything: Your brand is more than a logo, it’s everything the company does. Watch the Simon Sinek videos on YouTube (TED and others) to learn about the “What, Why and How” of a brand.
4. Everything is media: Turn all actions and product parts into media material. Eve Sleep turned the packaging of its mattresses into a piece of beauty which generated millions and millions worth of free PR in conventional media and social media.
5. Don’t get sidetracked: Have a focus, stick to your message, be brave and do things differently. E.g., they did long-copy advertising on the London tube, which all the “experts” advised against.

It was delightful to see someone who also has a clever wife and four children pull off such a feat. I wondered WTF I have done with MY last 2.5 years, but luckily I am not yet too old to catch up. I’ll work double hard from tomorrow onwards.

Once again, this was a dinner where the lead speaker of the table did not object to anyone sharing notes with the wider public.

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