Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Derek Hales. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Derek, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?

Remote work has been ingrained into our company culture from the very beginning. About half of my team is located in and around Phoenix, Arizona. However, the other half is spread out across the US and the world.

With the vast majority of our team working from home we’ve always had to be just as productive and effective in the home office as in our HQ.

When it comes to making WFH work we’ve tried to keep it simple. Email, chat, and video conference are the primary ways we communicate across the team. Beyond that, collaborative documents are a major factor in our success. Whether it’s product testing notes, content drafts, scripts, graphics, photographs, or videos, we typically have multiple rounds of drafting, editing, and QA before our work is published to NapLab.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started testing mattresses in 2014 quite by accident. In 2014 I got married and my wife and I needed a new mattress. We did the typical in-store experience and were shocked by the prices. We ended up buying our first mattress online. It was okay, but not amazing, so we returned it and tried another.

By this point I had done a ton of research and had now effectively tested 2 mattresses. I decided to throw up a quick website with my review of each mattress, a comparison, and the research notes I had collected throughout the process.

Those reviews seemed to strike a cord with many other consumers and the website blew up very quickly. 6 months later I left my full time job to test and review mattresses full time.

Fast forward to 2023, I’ve tested hundreds of different mattresses, pillows, sheets, sleep tech, foundations, frames, and more. My team has grown from just me to small group of highly skilled, flexible, and knowledgeable rock stars.

We are aiming to create the most objective, authentic, and transparent mattress reviews possible. With the hope that our reviews can help cut through the noise of the mattress world and help our readers find the best sleep possible.

Over the years we’ve helped well over 10,000,000 users make more informed sleep purchasing decisions.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Authentic reviews based on real world testing and personal experiences.

I’ve always tried to create the mattress reviews that I personally wanted to read. I tested and wrote about the performance criteria that I wished was available when I was first buying a mattress.

These types of reviews are time consuming, difficult, and tedious. But they are also unique. In my view, there really is nothing else like NapLab anywhere in the world of mattresses.

Our meticulous approach to testing provides our readers with an objective and authentic look at what the mattress actually performs like in the real world. Our testing is designed to be as objective as possible, allowing sleepers to compare mattress performance criteria and better understand how mattress X compares to mattress Y.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

In a way, our website readers and video viewers are our clients.

The most effective strategy to increasing our readers and viewers has simply been consistency. We aim to continually expand our mattress testing. Each week we add new mattress tests that grow our collective body of work.

We’re always aiming to improve the quality of reviews through user experience, user interface, ease of understanding the analysis, helpful tools, and content that answers specific reader questions and concerns.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://naplab.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naplabreviews/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naplabreviews/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/naplabreviews
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NapLabReviews
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQy6kjTi6p4zMB65szP4Y6w