22 February 2024
Under the Radar: How did the creators of the world's first dog bed snag investments from Shark Tank's Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner?
Have you ever seen a dog tucked in his or her dog bed and napping so well that made you go “I wish I could be like him or her?”
Well, that could soon become reality for you, with one startup in the US building and selling what they call the world’s first dog bed, but for humans!
Founded in 2021, Plufl was started by two college students at the University of British Columbia when they were craving a nap after a long and exhausting day.
In fact, the two founders’ light bulb moment came when they spotted a Great Dane napping blissfully in the biggest dog bed they had ever seen.
But before you go, “does such a value proposition even work”? It does seem like that’s the case from what we’ve seen so far.
Just to illustrate, the co-founders launched a Kickstarter campaign in March 2022 to raise funds to produce their initial batch of human dog beds, after their TikTok videos gained attention among the social media community.
Half a year later, the firm managed to raise nearly $725,000 through its Kickstarter and IndieGogo campaigns.
What is even more interesting is that the firm managed to snag $200,000 in investments from Shark Tank judges Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban, for a 20 per cent stake in the company, in an episode aired in October 2022.
So what is Plufl’s business model exactly? What do profit margins look like and what is it about Plufl that allowed them to secure funds from the “sharks”?
Also – what is the strategic value brought about by having Lori Greiner onboard given her network in the QVC world?
On Under the Radar, The Evening Runway’s finance presenter Chua Tian Tian posed these questions to Noah Silverman, Co-founder, Plufl.

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