I Make $1M/Month From Bed | Starter Story

Colin McIntosh, founder of Sheets & Giggles, was fired twice and laid off once before he started his own company. "No last week's pay, have to buy back your laptop, lose your healthcare," he recalls. That experience of being "super done working for other people" pushed him to build a direct-to-consumer bedding brand that hit $1.2 million in sales in a single month by November 2020, roughly 25 months after shipping its first box. The company now sells sheets, comforters, pillows, mattress protectors, and even mattresses, doing about 80-90% of sales through its own Shopify site and the rest through Amazon.

Business Model First, Product Second

McIntosh did not start with a problem he wanted to solve. He started by writing a business model before he knew what the product would be. His logic: rather than searching for a novel problem, founders should look for "founder-market fit" — a business that aligns with their existing skills and passions. "I think business model first, product second, or at least tweak your product to make sure it fits really well into the business model," he says. He argues that people overvalue the need for a "blisteringly intelligent, novel, never before seen idea." Instead, he recommends asking: "What am I best in the world at?" That question, combined with a clear financial model and a brand identity map, forms the foundation. He built these three d