Earlier work · Co-founder · 2011–2014

PillowMob

A company that put your face on a pillow. Profitable within 6 weeks. A Today Show spot lifted conversion to 11% for its first holiday season.

Role: Co-founder. Design, front end, identity, photography.

to profitability: 6 weeks
pillows made and shipped by 22 employees: 16,000
conversion, first holiday season: 11%
return on investment at exit: 70x

Two face-shaped pillows propped side by side on a pale green sofa: a woman with blue-streaked hair sticking her tongue out, and a grinning man in glasses.

PillowMob made puffy pillows of your face. Or your pet's. There was no store and no sales team: the website was the business. Upload a photo, choose a shape and a hair color, name it, and for $25 it arrived in the mail.

We launched from Capitol Hill in Seattle in August 2011 and were profitable within 6 weeks: nothing got made until someone ordered it. A low-cost viral campaign landed a 1 minute 45 second spot on the Today Show, and conversion reached 11% that holiday season. Seattle magazine ran a feature, and Fab sold us.

We hired 22 employees to make and ship 16,000 pillows and grew 25% in year two. I sold my equity after three years at 70 times return.

I was co-founder: design, front end, identity and photography. The part I would point to now is the builder: four steps that turned the customer into the designer, and a TV spot into orders.

The PillowMob home page shown on a laptop. The headline reads "We make puffy pillows of your funny face!" above a photo of two face pillows on a sofa captioned "Your couch or mine?" — Fig. 1

The "Make your own" page, with four numbered steps down the left: Upload, Shape & Crop, Hair Color, Name It. An upload progress bar sits above a photo of a woman asleep, hugging a pillow of a man's face, captioned "Always wake up together." — Fig. 1

Two face pillows pressed cheek to cheek in close-up: a grinning man in thick-rimmed glasses, and a woman with blue hair sticking out her tongue.

A still from NBC's Today Show. Two hosts sit at a glass desk while a presenter holds up two face pillows beside a basket of more. The caption on screen reads "Bobbie's buzzworthy gifts: puffy pillow heads, PillowMob.com". — Fig. 2

A woman asleep in bed, her arm around a pillow printed with a sleeping man's face. — Fig. 2