JT Marino, Co-founder, Tuft & Needle

Daehee Park & John-Thomas Marino

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Updated: November 19th, 2023

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Daehee Park and John-Thomas Marino created a bed products company named Tuft & Needle as an e-commerce startup on July 19, 2012. Both the founders met through Pennsylvania State University's entrepreneur program.
Tuft & Needle is an American mattress and bedding company that Serta Simmons Bedding now owns. T&N was one of the first online, bed-in-a-box marketers to emerge in the early 2010s. Serta Simmons Bedding purchased the online merchant on September 28, 2018.
Daehee Park is a Korean-American business owner based in Phoenix, Arizona. Penn State University awarded him a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity and risk analysis. He has worked for various online firms as well as Acxiom, an ad tech company, as a marketing strategist.
JT attended Penn State University and majored in computer science and mathematics. He began his career as an engineer at the world's largest software application consulting firm. He is a regular keynote speaker at startups and has been on FOX Business, Entrepreneur, Forbes, and other media outlets.
Park and Marino co-founded the firm on July 19, 2012, with $3,000 each from their own funds. Serta Simmons Bedding purchased the online merchant on September 28, 2018.
With a $6,000 personal investment in 2012, Park and Marino took T&N from $1 million in their first full year of operation to $200 million+ in annual sales in less than six years.
In December 2014, the firm unveiled its first showroom in its Phoenix headquarters. Tuft & Needle has seven retail locations in Scottsdale, Gilbert, Seattle, Kansas City, Raleigh, Portland, and Dallas as of 2019.

Key Success Drivers

Determining constraints helped them In decision-making.
The co-founders took months to learn about the industry margins & markups.
Customer service has remained their greatest asset that drove customer loyalty.
Listing their products on amazon helped them gain product exposure.
Guest Posting helped them reach more customers.