When Neil Parikh was in medical school, he called his parents to say he was taking a year off to move to NYC. At the time, they were furious, but little did he know that would be one of the best decisions of his life. He partnered with his friend, whom he met at a coworking space, to build a DTC mattress company. Their most recent valuation was at over $1 Billion. This is the story of Casper and the secret behind their viral growth. Follow the host: https://twitter.com/shamusmadan 📩 Join The Dealroom: https://dealroompodcast.com/subscribe Learn more about Casper here: https://casper.com/ (0:00) Introduction and Neil Parikh's early years (2:57) Foundation of Casper and disrupting the mattress industry (11:11) Lessons learned from investor rejections and evolution of Casper's story (18:00) Achieving $1,000,000 in revenue in 30 days and creative marketing strategies (28:53) Overcoming traditional business barriers in the mattress industry and innovating customer service (32:16) Dealing with challenges and problems in business and importance of feedback (38:05) Mistakes made during Casper's scaling process and maintaining focus (40:09) Decision to go public and challenges faced (46:41) Future focus: Consumer applications of healthcare and AI (49:13) Best piece of advice: Relentlessly invest in yourself and words to 18-year-old self (51:53) Wrapping up the episode and future plans