Hi, I'm Daehee. I'm the co-founder of Boring Mattress Co. (boring.co) and previously co-founder of the pioneer of direct-to-consumer mattresses, Tuft & Needle (TN.com).
I started Tuft & Needle in 2012 with my college classmate JT Marino, bootstrapping the business with just $6,000 from our personal savings. We grew the brand into the most-loved mattress brand with over $200 million in annual sales. In 2018, Tuft & Needle merged with Serta. (Should note here this was not a fruitful marriage or a happy ending, unfortunately. The combined business got bankrupted by private equity in 2023, which I wrote about here).
After watching the mattress market become way too complicated even online, I launched Boring in January 2024. Our mission is to make high quality, radically simplified products in uninteresting yet over-sensationalized categories that are marketed like luxuries. By embracing what other brands won't dare to admit (the honest "boring" truth), we make mattress shopping straightforward and affordable. No tricks, no gimmicks.
I'm proud to be building Boring with Corben Leo, a top-ranked ethical hacker and the unconventionally creative mind behind the Boring brand, and Tyler Marino, a world-class product developer and first employee at Tuft & Needle.
This blog is where I share my notes on business, tech, and dabbling with cybersecurity/hacking on the side. I also write about the mattress industry on The Burning Bed and Reddit.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter/X or connect with me on LinkedIn.