Early growth and the DTC apocalypse

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Albert Chow built Silk & Snow in the shadow of the DTC mattress wars—but instead of racing to burn VC cash, he played the long game. Today, Silk & Snow has grown into a full home brand with 10 retail stores, a thriving Canadian customer base, and a strong U.S. expansion roadmap.

For DTC founders scaling from $5M to $50M...

• Why they skipped the mattress arms race and leaned into vertical integration
• How bundling less (and planting trees instead) saved $1.3M
• What they learned scaling from 1 to 10 retail stores in a year
• The metrics they track now that ROAS is irrelevant
• Why launching a sofa was more about customer affinity than furniture

Who this is for: Operators scaling past one SKU or one channel—and looking for a sustainable path to growth.

What to steal:

• Bundling with purpose (optional tree planting vs. free stuff)
• Bottom-up brand building: low-funnel mastery first
• How to use DTC data to drive brick-and-mortar strategy

Timestamps

00:00 Organic growth and surviving the DTC mattress crash

02:00 Entering the crowded mattress market in 2017

04:00 Why Silk and Snow became a full home brand

06:00 Factory-first supply chain and Canadian manufacturing

08:00 Launching with Kickstarter and early traction

10:00 The 2019 DTC apocalypse and sustainable growth

12:00 Expanding beyond mattresses into sleep accessories

14:00 Functional vs aspirational buying in home goods

16:00 Becoming a multi-channel retailer

18:00 Using customer data to choose store locations

20:00 Canada vs US growth strategy

22:00 Building brand from the bottom of the funnel

24:00 Replacing bundles with tree planting

26:00 Performance marketing roots and early Google

28:00 Shifting into awareness and brand media

30:00 Why ROAS isn’t the real growth signal

32:00 Retail partnerships and staying DTC

34:00 Black Friday for big-ticket home products

36:00 Fulfillment, returns, and sustainability

38:00 Repeat customers and long-term LTV

40:00 Sleep Country acquisition and retail scale

42:00 Vancouver store and physical retail strategy

Hashtags

#DTC #EcommercePodcast #SilkAndSnow #AlbertChow #DTCBrands #HomeGoods #MattressIndustry #BrandBuilding #RetailStrategy #DirectToConsumer #EcommerceGrowth #StartupPodcast #FounderStory #CanadianBrands #PerformanceMarketing #Omnichannel #RetailExpansion #DTCpodcast

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