Rise & Shine

Friday, January 12, 2018

By Colin McIntosh, Founder & CEO of Sheets & Giggles™

If you’re reading this, you’re probably a friend of mine, which means you may already know about my budding pun-based empire, Sheets & Giggles (“S&G”).

If not, here’s a 10-second overview: S&G will make and sell insanely comfy bed sheets made from sustainable plant fibers like eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus lyocell breathes better than cotton in the summer, holds heat in the winter, and is incredibly sustainable, wildly comfortable, and moisture-wicking to create an antimicrobial environment. Plus, because we want our customers to better express themselves in bed (literally), we'll eventually launch our own unique pattern line created by incredibly talented, starving artists from around the world. We’re launching in May, and I hope you’ll consider supporting the business by buying something that every home needs. (May 2018 edit: we launched! Snag your set today at SheetsGiggles.com/s.)

We'll have some cool pre-launch promotions like discounts, free fabric and design samples, contests, and even free S&G branded slippers (that’s right). Make sure you sign up to our email list here to be a part of our launch!

Now that that’s out of the way...

If we haven’t caught up in a bit, you may be thinking, “Wait what happened to Revolar, that company Colin was maniacally working on for the last few years?” Well, the long and short of it is that after two and a half years leading Revolar’s business development, I decided to make a go of it as my own Founder & CEO.

I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity afforded to me by Revolar, especially to my friends Jackie Ros and Andrea Perdomo (Revolar’s co-founders). They moved me out to Denver from Seattle in June 2015 for Techstars Boulder, and joining them was the best decision of my life.

Since then, I’ve met some unbelievably talented people – too many to list, but you’re probably one of them. I can’t adequately express my appreciation for the Techstars and Colorado startup communities, Foundry Group, my Revolar coworkers, my mentors, Revolar’s partners, and Revolar’s users. I believe that we really made a difference together, and despite some difficult challenges and a lot of sleepless nights, I’m proud of everything we accomplished.

I get asked a lot of questions about S&G, which is understandable considering how different its focus is from Revolar’s mission. So, I figured the best way to explain the company in this first blog post would be to go over some of the more common questions from people around me:

From family:

Bed sheets?

Yes.

Why?

Because I know style. It’s fun to work on something lighthearted in an industry that traditionally takes itself too seriously. And I think the brand name is pretty funny.

Ok… Are you going to need to move back home?

Maybe.

From friends:

How can I help?

It may seem trivial, but there are several very impactful ways you can help, and they all only take a minute:

1. Sign up for our email list so you know when the Indiegogo launches. We’ll do our best to ignore you and never email you, we promise.
2. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or anywhere else @SheetsGiggles.
3. Share this blog post or the website with anyone who might be interested. If you share on social, use #AwesomeInBed so I can thank you with some free S&G branded stuff.
4. Know someone in fabrics / bedding, or someone that might just be interested in S&G? Any and all intros are welcome. Mentorship is a huge difference maker for a startup, and I need it.

Are you still based in Denver?

Yes, Denver is awesome.

Oh, have you heard of one of those other sheet startups with a boring name I can’t remember? I heard a forgettable podcast ad about them.

Ugh, those guys. Selling $800 sheets made from unsustainably sourced “Egyptian cotton” grown in Romania (no knock on Romania). They should be ashamed of themselves.

From former partners:

Can we please work with you again? We love you. You’re amazing.

Oh, go on…

I’d love to work with all my partners again! Open to any and all collaborations.

Except for you. You know who you are.

From investors:

We’re excited by S&G’s potential. We get it. You’re a differentiated brand in a highly fragmented, traditionally physical retail, $10B+ domestic sheet industry... So how does blockchain figure into all of this?

We’re glad you asked. We’ll be issuing our own bedroom-based cryptocurrency, Sheetcoin. Consider Sheetcoin as the opposite of Bitcoin: it exists in real life (as bed sheets), holds stable intrinsic value for many years, and actually helps you sleep peacefully. Side note – 24/7 exchanges for crypto… who thought that was a good idea for anyone’s circadian rhythm?

Really? Sheetcoin?

No, not really. But we will accept Bitcoin as payment on the off chance someone out there actually uses it to buy things instead of HODL'ing.

Do you need more investors?

I’ve raised the funds I need to launch from a few incredible angels made up of former coworkers, current mentors, and immediate family. That said, I’m always open to a conversation, so please email me at colin@sheetsgiggles.com if you’re interested.

From my girlfriend:

So, wait – am I paying all our bills until the company starts making money?

Yes. I love you. Please don’t leave me.

From strangers:

When and where can I buy these?

On our Indiegogo page in May 2018. Sign up for email updates and we’ll send you a note when we launch. (05.06.2018 edit: we launched!)

From my internal monologue:

I wonder how many people are actually still reading this. I’m too wordy when I write. People like things short and to the point; think about Twitter and Donald Trump and the universal accolades he’s received from using that medium.

If anyone is still reading and takes a screenshot of this paragraph and emails it to colin@sheetsgiggles.com, I’ll send you some S&G swag to reward you for your attention span.

Welcome to Sheets & Giggles – leave a comment below to let us know what you think! Thanks for all your support. We’re here to have fun, and we’re glad you’re here with us :)

Travel into the future and read next week's post 

Note the monogram 🔥