About Leesa

One of the fastest-growing brands in the direct to consumer mattress category, Leesa is a mission-driven B-corp company that drove over $80 million in revenue in their second year, and could drive as much $200 million in revenue in 2018.

Products and Pricing

The Virginia-Beach-based brand offers two models of mattresses, along with sleep-related products like frames and bedding. With new exposure and distribution through retail partnerships with Pottery Barn and West Elm, consumers can try the mattress before they buy it, giving Leesa a leg up on many of their direct to consumer competitors.

The Leesa Mattress (10″ thickness and 3 layers of memory foam; $525 – $1,195 on their website), and The Sapira Mattress (11″ thick and 5 layers, mixing foam and spring support; $995 – $1,795 on their website). Like many of their competitors, this direct to consumer brand has expanded their offerings to include several sleep-related products: bed frames, foundations, pillows, blankets, sheets, and more.

Leesa’s pricing puts them slightly toward the more expensive range of the No Middleman favorites, but the $125 off coupon (running on the day of our review) would put them on the more affordable end of the spectrum, so it appears that this brand is using a discounting strategy and ultimately aiming for a low-cost positioning.

However, high quality is certainly a benefit of the mattress, with the company website currently showing over 12,000 five-star ratings from consumers. Addtionally, their price may be driven higher by their charitable programs, which involve both inventory donations and employee hours.

Service and Returns

Customer service appears to be excellent, with a full range of options (online chat, phone support, direct email support) and a responsive Facebook presence.

Leesa also offers the 100-day risk-free trial that has become standing in the direct to consumer mattress industry, allowing you to return the mattress within 100 days if dissatisfied.

Retail availability is a huge advantage for Leesa in the world of direct to consumer mattress sales. The partnership with Pottery Barn and West Elm makes Leesa mattresses available to try out (and purchase) in hundreds of stores nationwide, and purchasing the mattress at one of their retail partners comes with the same 100-day trial policy.

Betting Big on Impact

Leesa definitely is placing bets that consumers will find value in their charitable contributions. As a registered B-Corp., for every ten mattresses sold, Leesa donates one mattress to a family or individual in need, and plants ten trees. As of the date of our review, Leesa’s website said the direct to consumer mattress maker had donated 23,000 mattresses and planted 135,000 trees to date. Additionally, 100% of Leesa’s mattresses are American-made.

A July 2017 CNBC article reported that Leesa expected 2017 revenues of $150 million, following 2016 revenues of $80 million, with a team of 70 full-time employees. In 2017 the company raised $23 million in venture capital investments, from the impact/charity-focused group One Better Ventures. Leesa’s investors include Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, which is not surprising, given TOMS’ similar charitable business model.

Final Thoughts on Leesa

Leesa’s impressive growth and minimal outside investment makes us optimistic they’ll retain their focus on resisting middleman markup, and will continue to focus on delivering value in the way of high quality mattresses and purpose-driven impact. We’re watching to see if their retail partnerships are short-term in nature (used as a stepping stone to grow into their own stores, which we’d expect), or whether Leesa evolves into a longer-term traditional retail model.

At No Middleman, we don’t measure purpose-driven impact as a differentiating factor, but if Leesa continues to devote significant resources here to the extent that it affects pricing (versus retail middlemen affecting pricing), we’ll continue to make note of it, for consumers who may possibly derive value from the impact of Leesa’s missions.