Susana Saeliu on Building a D2C Pillow Company

Welcome to FOMO Sapiens, the podcast about entrepreneurial thinkers who don’t just follow the crowd but instead take their own path to success in business and in life. In this episode, we’ll be talking with Susana Saeliu, founder of Pluto, a direct-to-consumer pillow company that rose to prominence on Shark Tank.

Saeliu’s company has disrupted the traditional pillow industry by using data-driven insights to design the perfect pillow, building a strong brand that resonates with customers, and offering a unique sleep trial that allows customers to test out their pillows before committing to a purchase. The company’s appearance on Shark Tank gave them a major boost in exposure and credibility.

In this week’s episode, we’ll discuss Saeliu’s experience on Shark Tank, the preparation that went into her pitch, and the impact that the show has had on her company. We’ll also talk about the challenges and opportunities of building a direct-to-consumer brand, the importance of customer feedback and data in product design and marketing, and the future of the e-commerce industry. Whether you’re an entrepreneur looking to build your own D2C brand, a Shark Tank fan curious about the behind-the-scenes of the show, or simply interested in the trends and insights shaping the world of e-commerce, this episode is a must-listen. So tune in to FOMO Sapiens and hear from Susana Saeliu about building a successful direct-to-consumer pillow company.

Meet our guest:

Founder Susana Saeliu was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Growing up, she watched her parents start and run different businesses together. They finally started a liquidation business together which was really their big break. She was expected to also go down the entrepreneurship path—which was perfect, because it was what she wanted. She was a first generation college grad, graduating from USC in 3 years with a BS in Business Admin and a concentration in Entrepreneurship. During her last year in college, Susana started a bamboo toilet paper company from a project. From this experience, she learned a lot about what goes into creating a brand from scratch, how to put packaging together, sourcing product, supply chain, and marketing. The product became the #1 selling bamboo bath tissue on Amazon, and she ultimately sold it after 3 years. Susana took some time off and dabbled in a few other fields (real estate, learning more about the liquidation business), but her love for consumer products and creating an impactful brand never went away. In 2017 Susana started experiencing terrible neck pain. After going through a horrible pillow buying experience and seeing the opportunity to cater to the next generation of customers (who all need pillows!), she started Pluto with her friend and co-founder, Kevin Li. Susana lives in Los Angeles. In her spare time, she likes to learn everything she can about cars, track cars, and she is a huge music lover (sadly, she doesn’t play any instruments but she is aspiring to be a bedroom producer).