Tempur-Pedic: Bobby Trussell (2018)

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 July 2020

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At age 40, Bobby Trussell's promising career in horse racing hit a dead end. With bills to pay and a family to support, he stumbled across a curious product that turned into a lifeline: squishy-squashy memory foam. He jumped at the chance to distribute Swedish memory foam pillows and mattresses to Americans. Tempur-Pedic USA began by selling to chiropractors and specialty stores, providing one of the first alternatives to spring mattresses. Today, the company is one of the largest bedding providers in the world. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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1:18.0	So over the past several very challenging months, our team has worked really hard to bring you 14 brand new episodes in a row in addition to our How I Built This Resilience series.
1:34.0	So over the July 4th holiday, we all took a little break, which means that this week we're running a repeat, but this one is such an incredible episode.
1:44.0	In fact, every time I think about Bobby Trussell and the story of Tempor Piedek, I still cannot believe it happened the way it happened.
1:52.0	And you'll see what I mean in just a few moments. This episode first ran back in October of 2018. Enjoy.
2:00.0	How did you raise the money to start this venture at all?
2:07.0	Well, that's a really good question, because I had to go back to all my basic same people who had invested with me and my other horse ventures.
2:18.0	That failed, right?
2:20.0	Yeah, that had failed and gone broke. So I had to convince them that even though we lost money in something that I knew a lot about, that we were going to make money in something that I knew nothing about.
2:31.0	Brahmin PR, it's How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
2:47.0	I'm Guy Ross, and on today's show, How Bobby Trussell made one of the most spectacular pivots ever from horse racing to memory foam,
	...

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