Adam what's your backstory?

I grew up in Yorkshire, one of four boys, with the family business at the heart of much of our lives. 'Business' was a frequent topic of conversation at family meals, and we all worked in the company during school holidays, whether for a few days or a week.

Peter Black Ltd, named after my grandfather, was a major supplier to Marks and Spencer. Initially, it was a slipper and fabric shopping bag manufacturer before being floated in 1972. During the late '70s and '80s, the business expanded into producing all types of footwear and bags. It also became the first company to import products for Marks and Spencer.  Additionally, it launched M&S into the toiletry and cosmetics markets, first by importing ranges from Italy and, once proven, by purchasing small UK manufacturing units to produce unique M&S-branded products.

I was the eldest of the next generation and was aimed at the business from an early age I spent 18 months at M&S after leaving school, working in the Slough and Kensington stores, and then as a trainee merchandiser in T56 and T59 — skirts and jackets, then joined Peter Black at the age of 21, initially for three years in our new toiletry business, before moving to London for a larger role in our footwear and bag importing business.

UK manufacturing was becoming expensive compared to products being made on the other side of the world — at the time called the 'Far East.' Peter Black began to close its UK shoe and handbag factories and relocate production to Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, and China. In 1997, I moved to Hong Kong, where we had an office, to oversee a large order book.

After two years of a helter-skelter life in Hong Kong, with over 100 flights a year around the region, I returned to the UK in time for Peter Black to undertake a 'public to private' deal. at 32, recently married, and it was time for me to leave the business and find a way to start my venture.

Fast forward to 2003: Robbie Feather and I launched Feather & Black, and over the next 10 years, we built it into a chain of 36 stores.

Feather & Black is still trading today and is now owned by Tempur Sealy and Dreams.

What does Button & Sprung do and how did you come up with the idea?

The idea for Button & Sprung was born out of how confusing and frustrating the process of buying a new bed and mattress can be. It's made even harder by most retailers: endless and confusing choices, irrelevant features and options, fake price cuts and incentives, salespeople biased by commissions, and return policies and guarantees that are riddled with catches and caveats. We wanted to change all that and offer an alternative. We aim to make the experience as easy and enjoyable as possible for our customers.

All of our staff—from our sales to logistics teams—are trained experts. No shiny-suited, hard-selling salespeople! We promise our customers a very high-quality product at a fair price. We never do sales or promotions, and we were the first brand to offer our customers a 100-night free return option—' because we want you to get the best night's sleep possible,' and our initiative will ultimately become the market norm.

We describe ourselves as 'foam-a-phobes' because foam/memory foam is bad for the planet (6 million mattresses went to landfill last year) and bad for the sleeper —made from chemicals that are known carcinogens. All of our mattresses are made with natural materials, and pocket springs and are completely recyclable.

How did you get your first 10 customers for Button and Sprung?

Our first two customer orders were from friends of Matthew's, who arrived on day one, and both placed orders.

Our first showroom was above the famous River Cafe restaurant. It wasn't difficult to lure magazine editors to our showroom with the promise of lunch afterward, securing good and regular early press for our new venture. This exposure provided the oxygen we needed and meant a steady stream of early customers.

How did you ensure your product met your customers' needs?

I come from a background in the furniture industry, having co-founded Feather & Black, so I already had a sense of what customers are looking for in a new bed and mattress. I took the launch of Button & Sprung as an opportunity to produce a simplified and refined collection with customers' needs in mind.

For instance, we only offer upholstered beds and natural, pocket-sprung mattresses (no side tables, rugs, vases, lights, etc.—we do one thing: sleep! And do it well). The products are all designed with usability in mind. For example, all of the bed frames sit flush to the mattress (so no space is lost on either side), and we only use solid flatbed bases where possible, as these provide the best support for the mattress. Our storage beds are refined in design to offer as much storage space under the bed as possible.

We believe we supply some of the best mattresses in the world, each handmade in the U.K. using only natural fillings and world-leading pocket-spring technology.

How did you reach and acquire your first 100 customers?

There are so many channels through which to push your brand, especially if you have a largely digital delivery. You can't do them all—and it's better to do one channel well than four in a minor way. We focused on magazine-led PR, generated good imagery of our products, and were regularly featured in key titles during our first year of trade.

What distribution channels did you try that didn’t work?

Billboard advertising has been an interesting experience for us. Our showroom used to be located near Fulham Broadway underground station, and since Fulham is an affluent area, we decided to run some billboard ads targeting commuters. The ad focused on our natural mattress collection. Looking back, the ad didn’t stand out enough. It was too ‘neutral’ in appearance, making it easy to miss for busy commuters. We didn’t see significant traction from that campaign, and if we were to try billboard advertising again, we’d make sure the ad was we’d make it instantly alluring.

We’ve also worked on quite a few influencer collaborations, and these can be hard to predict. Some have delivered fantastic results, with a noticeable spike in sales that we can directly trace back to the collaboration. We’ve had great experiences with influencers like Binky Felstead and Georgie Coleridge-Cole. However, other times it’s been difficult to measure the impact of the collaboration, partly because we don’t use influencer promo codes.

A bit of advice for small businesses: smaller-scale influencers, especially those whose accounts are still growing, can often be a good bet if their aesthetic aligns with your brand. We’ll typically offer them a product discount in exchange for exposure, and they often go above and beyond what's agreed. In contrast, larger influencers sometimes do the bare minimum.

Who influenced you growing up, and what advice has stuck with you?

That's an easy one—my father. He worked very hard—always in the office by 7 a.m. every day, and sometimes on Saturdays. He was very creative—had as many failures as successes, but was never frightened of having a go. Two retail brands he started are still in existence today: Freeport Leisure (the first outlet shopping center in the UK) and The Original Factory Shop (Tots). He still rings me weekly (at 6:45 a.m.) and asks how we are trading, then tells me about his latest idea for my business.

He also started a brand called The Original Yorkshire Slipper Company in the 1990s—and the product looked identical to Uggs!

Have you got any funny stories about owning a bed business?

We lent a bedroom set for a film shoot once, and after filming, the product went back on display in the showroom. The following weekend, a customer lay on the bed, absentmindedly reached over, and opened the bedside table drawer—only to be amazed to find it full of condoms. 'We loved the lifestyle accessorizing of the display,' he said.

The bed and bedside table had been used to film a sex scene featuring Ewan McGregor, and no one had thought to remove the condoms before returning the product to us.

‍What specific tools have been most helpful in growing your business?

We're set up in a way that allows us to gain as much insight from our customers as possible. We speak to most of our customers at some point in their journey, and we have a spreadsheet where we keep close tabs on how customers find us, which helps us figure out and build upon the marketing strategies that are working best. Instagram has also been a fantastic tool for showcasing our beds in our customers' bedrooms, providing achievable inspiration to potential buyers. We encourage customers and interior designers to send us images of the beds in situ, which are invaluable resources for both our paid and organic Instagram marketing.

Who are some experts or entrepreneurs you recommend for learning how to grow a business?

Both! I think starting and growing a successful business is more difficult today because the costs of launching a new business have never been lower. As a consequence, there is so much more competition. To make a success of a fledgling brand, you need to be brave and original, but you also need to get it right the first time. Believe in your idea, be original, but seek advice to cover those areas where experience has been hard-earned by others.

How did you make the transition from a side hustle to full-time entrepreneurship?

I think there are three types of business starters:

1. Those who have some capital behind them, so starting a business isn’t as risky.
2. Those who have little or nothing, so starting a business (perhaps using other people's money) is again not as risky.
3. And then there are those who already have a family and a mortgage, for whom starting a business is a huge risk. I have immense respect for these people.

I was lucky enough enough to have enough capital to take a risk, launch a brand, and become self-employed.

My advice to anyone thinking about it is this: Find a way to make it happen. If you don’t, there will always be a "what if" at the back of your mind. And if you do make it work, you’ll get to experience every school play and sports day—and no one can put a date in your diary. In the ledger of life, that’s no small thing.

What drives you to do what you do?

Sleep plays such an important role in everyone’s life, and knowing that we can help improve the quality of our customers' sleep is a real driving factor. Everyone should have a quality mattress, so it feels like what we're selling is an essential purchase.

We're also proud to be helping tackle the mattress landfill crisis we have here in the U.K. All of our mattresses are fully recyclable, and we're working towards achieving a circular economy with our Second Sleep campaign, where elements from used, naturally filled, pocket-sprung mattresses will be reutilized in new Button & Sprung mattresses.

Any quotes you live by?

"Insecurity and humility are strengths in retail." - Howard Schultz

"Let's start by taking a small nap or two." – Winnie the Pooh

Any promotions you would like to add for Founderoo readers?

As a brand, Button & Sprung is unique in that we do no sales or promotions and have removed the 'promo code' box from our website. In an industry littered with fake discounting, we want you to know that:
a) The product will not be sold at a lower price during Black Friday or in a January sale, and
b) No one is paying less for the product than you are.

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