Justin Waggoner and Juna Sleep Systems

The archetype of the young American entrepreneur has taken on an almost mythical quality, and there’s an easy answer to why people fitting it are so rarely seen in reality: starting a business is a risky, difficult endeavor. Not many are cut out for it, and those who are are rightfully admired. Justin Waggoner has taken his risks, and he’s taken his lumps; over the course of his journey he’s traded a safe job in sales and a six-figure income for a brand name and the freedom to devote himself entirely to building a career he can be proud of. Through it all, he hasn’t lost the optimistic passion that he’s counting on to make his company a success.

Waggoner has spent the past decade in retail, and after even a brief interaction it’s made obvious that he was born for the business. The anxious energy and positive disposition that make him likable also make him a persuasive pitchman when focused on the task of pushing what he believes is a high quality product. After bouncing around retail positions selling everything from cell phones to men’s clothes, he thought he had found a product he could champion indefinitely when he got into the mattress business. However, he soon decided that wasn’t the case after learning about the egregious markups that have become standard for the industry. He found that the feeling that he was cheating each customer who walked through the door was impossible to shake, and his response was to leave the business in December of 2013. Again lacking a focus for his selling skills, he decided to use the information on the bed business he had so ravenously sought out to start his own company; one that he could control himself to ensure that the product was one he could endorse wholeheartedly.

Thus, Juna Sleep Systems was born, and Waggoner’s efforts to build a mattress brand unlike any other began. His goal, while challenging in reality, is simple in theory: to be the best in the industry in every category. His profit margins hover around 40%, a large disparity from other manufacturers who regularly pocket margins of 100% or more. His beds—which he says he’ll happily compare to any other bed, regardless of price—sell at $888 for a king. Despite these lower margins, he’s devoted to paying high wages to his employees, whom he wants to continue to pay anywhere from $20 to $60 an hour as production ramps up and the company begins to grow at a faster pace. The beds are also modular—meaning pieces can be individually removed and replaced—so a Juna bed is made to be the last bed a customer will ever need to buy. Those replaced pieces are then to be donated and recycled, providing the element of sustainable practice to the business as well. Waggoner’s stated goal is to not give his customers any reason not to buy a Juna bed.

While Waggoner did spend two years at Southeast Technical Institute, he’s come to assign a much greater value to the education he’s gained throughout years of forming relationships with his employers. Their practical experiences, he reasons, are more tangibly instructive than any information a person can pick up in the classroom. These real-world lessons, along with the help of The Oven, a business incubation program run by the founders of The Bakery, have been instrumental in providing the knowledge and skills he’s needed to get Juna off the ground. The business has a long way to go before Waggoner will consider it a success: he’s currently busy preparing marketing materials and determining what the company will look like in it’s final stages, and a Kickstarter campaign is in the works. The future is uncertain, but Waggoner’s past history indicates that few obstacles will be able to stand in the way of him and selling a product he believes in.

Justin Waggoner and the rest of The Oven’s first group of participants will be presenting and discussing their businesses on Thursday, January 21 at The Bakery.