How does a £140m floatation change you as a leader? Not at all says Eve Sleep co-founder Kuba Wieczorek: “I don’t think we’ve changed our ethos or who we are as people and founders since the float. We have the same approach and same spirit. We have the same zest for everything we do.”
Kuba and co-founder Jas Bagniewski were the latest guests to join Michael Hayman MBE on the Capital Conversation, which aired last night on London Live.
The duo spoke about their ambition to disrupt the mattress industry, the brand’s mission to make the business of sleep important and their own ‘cheeky’ attitude to business and investors.
Cousins as well as business partners, Jas and Kuba founded Eve in 2014, having cut their teeth at GroupOn and Channel 4 respectively. Some 1200 days later and the business now boasts an estimated value of £170m. So, is there a secret to running a fast growth business that the rest of us need to wake up to?
“We’re cheeky in our approach, and that’s never going to change because it’s who we are as people,” says Kuba – before he explains how investors and customers alike are enticed by the mattress firm’s tech credentials. Eve, like its competitors, boasts a millennial-friendly aesthetic in its marketing and manufacturing and offers venture capital-funded deals.
As for any Brexit-induced uncertainty, Jas rejects the suggestion there may have been sleepless nights: “We’ve been growing incredibly fast in places like France and Poland and other European markets. We’ve seen no evidence of slow down there at all.”
You can watch the full episode here.