“Not everyone wakes up one day and says, 'I don't like my sheets, I'm going to make a companyScott Tannen, co-founder and CEO of Boll & Branchshows entrepreneur. Yet for Scott and his wife, Missy Tannen, co-founder and chief product officer of the couple's luxury bedding and home goods company, that's exactly how the story began.
Image credit: Courtesy of Boll & Branch
A decade ago, when the Tannens traded in their queen bed for a king and began their search for sheets, they were bewildered by all the choices in MArKet – apparently none of them had evolved for a long time.
In general, the bedding industry turned cotton into a generic material that could be labeled and sold privately, Missy says, noting that “there really wasn't market leaders or brands people couldn't wait to own.” Many other categories, from phones to bags and beyond, boasted products with household names—why not sheets?
So in 2014, the Tannens started their luxury bedding business: Boll & Branch, named for the parts of the cotton plant that support its fibers.
Image credit: Courtesy of Boll & Branch
Scott, who had brand marketing experience at Nabisco, took a page from the playbook of a very successful brand: Oreo. “Oreo cookies are undeniably delicious,” he explains, “yet they've been around for over 100 years. They've barely changed because they don't need to. They're perfect. So the marketing of that product was to stay on top. – with a customer in mind and knowing that every promise you make to the customer, you have a product to back it up.”
“I couldn't get enough of understanding the basic length of cotton fibers.”
Boll & Branch had to create a product that was “undoubtedly better in every possible measure” compared to the competition. This started an intense research phasewhich involved asking many people about their sheet preferences. Missy's passion for the product was also key: She studied math and science in college and loves to know how things are made. At Boll & Branch, that meant a deep dive into materials and product manufacturing.
“I couldn't get enough of understanding the basic length of the cotton fibers, like how long each little fluffy piece was, how that then translates into yarn size, how thin or thick it is, then you build it, weave it and set the warp, the vertical threads, the pop-up weft, the balancing of the fabric, the finishing of the fabric, the process it goes through,” explains Missy.
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Missy was determined to develop a product that was soft, breathable and improved with every wash – “Real Gold Fabrics”.
So she experimented with other options on the market: She would buy a bunch of pillowcases, take them apart, label the insides with a Sharpie (“so you can't cheat”) and holding one of the fresh pillowcases while washing. another 20 times. She went through that process with nearly three dozen pillow sets, which she bought from mills around the world, and collect feedback from family and friends. By the end of it, she had decided that organic cotton “was the best” for Boll & Branch's Signature fabric.
The discovery led to the Signature Hemmed sheet set and a variety of other products, including pillows, blankets and comforters. Signature fabric is stable and boasts Fair Trade and other certifications, as well as other fabrics the brand has expanded to include, such as percale and flannel.
Image credit: Courtesy of Boll & Branch
Taking inspiration from nature, Boll & Branch's color palette is “fresh, clean, relaxing and peaceful”. “All of our colors have a little touch of gray,” says Missy, “like a little dust to them. Each one is unique to us, (and) that dust takes the edge off.”
“I used myself to the point where I look back and say, 'Oh my god, what was I doing?'
At first, the Tannens got the better of them directly to the consumer Brand (DTC), wary of potential strings attached to venture capital. “Initially (we financed the company) with debt and loans,” Scott recalls, “and I used myself to the point where I look back and say, 'Oh my god, what was I doing? I have three small children at home. “Fortunately, it worked.”
However, Boll & Branch's financial journey was not without its ups and downs. In the early days, one accounting the mistake cost the company $1 million. It was a simple mistake that would have been caught 99 out of 100 times, Scott says, but it wasn't. Despite the loss, he took it as a lesson learned — understanding what went wrong with the defense and how to avoid it in the future.
Boll & Branch continued to grow and eventually raised money from investors. These days, the brand no longer has to worry about making a sale. Boll & Branch boasts more than $200 million in annual revenue, eight brick-and-mortar locations (with plans to open eight more next year), and can be found at major retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's.
The brand makes about a third of its sales between Thanksgiving and mid-December, and this holiday season has already been “chaos in the best possible way.”
“We've written off our goals for (the holiday season),” Scott says. “We were expecting a strong cyber weekend and it was wild. Now we have volumes that we didn't expect, so I need warehouse workers quickly. We have to work around the clock because we have to get our products to customers in I'm actually taking out inventory that I might have to sell in January e) sUccess it creates a lot of complexity”.
Image credit: Courtesy of Boll & Branch
“If you're still critical of every task, you probably haven't done a good enough job of building a team.”
Nowadays, Scott calls each step of the brand's evolution a “reinvention.” As a business that sees hundreds of millions in annual sales, $1 million ideas don't carry the same weight they once did; Boll & Branch needs $10 million in ideas for it achieve growth now, he says.
Boll & Branch's success stems from its commitment to maintaining its culture and values and hiring the best people to do the job, then getting out of the way to let them do it. “Many companies will struggle to ever get out of this the initiation phase (because) founders never realize that, yes, they were critical in starting something, but how critical they are of every task is not the same as before,” explains Scott. “If you're still critical of every task, you probably don't have did a pretty good job of building a team.”
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In fact, some of Scott's top advice for entrepreneurs boils down to: a business leader is only as good as the people they surround themselves with. “I'm not the most talented person in this company by a mile,” he says, “and I think that's a sign of a great company when I can say that.”
“You don't have to know everything on the first day.”
Now, as the Tannens consider the brand's future, the co-founders are excited to maintain their “hospitality-first mindset” and continue to meet customers where they are, curating some standout experiences that are only possible in person.
For example, every customer in the store, whether buying a set of sheets or tons of products, has the option of a bed design. “We'll go to your house and set it up for you,” explains Missy, “work it out (and) make sure you like it. Add whatever you need. Just making the customer so surprised and delighted.”
Image credit: Courtesy of Boll & Branch
Boll & Branch has come a long way since its inception – and so have the co-founders, who took a chance on an industry they didn't know much about but were committed to making it significantly better.
For aspiring entrepreneurs who want to take their leap of faith and build an industry-changing brand, Missy emphasizes the value of pushing past imposter syndrome. “You don't have to know everything on the first day,” she says. “You learn so much along the way, and I think if we had figured out all the things we didn't know, we would never have started.”