Susana Saeliu and her co-founder, Kevin Li, take sleep seriously. In 2018, they launched Pluto Pillow, a personalized sleep pillow that’s custom built to your body stats, how you sleep, and what you like. The company combines a carefully designed physical product with a wealth of data, developing an algorithm that chooses the right pillow for every individual based on a comprehensive quiz. The Pluto Pillow currently comes in 35 different variations—ranging from super soft to ultra firm. Their pillows are developed with high-performance, high-grade, and breathable foam.
dark-haired woman lying in bed with her head on a white quilted Pluto Pillow.
Pluto Pillow's are custom-built to your body stats, how you sleep, and what you like.
While it took Susana and Kevin ten months to create a quality product and build a beautiful digital storefront on Shopify, they launched to the sound of silence. There was a three week period where they only made a single sale. Initially bootstrapped and unable—plus unwilling—to spend thousands of dollars on Instagram and Facebook Ads, they sought out an option that was effective but free: PR.
Their first successful press feature in Business Insider led to hundreds of visits to their website, more than they had ever seen. Pluto Pillow has gone on to receive press attention in publications like Fast Company, Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, Men’s Health, Essence, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, and many more. In February 2022, Pluto Pillow was featured in a Valentine’s Day gift idea segment on The Today show with hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, a placement that led to a couple thousand pillow sales on their website.
Entrepreneurs frequently dismiss PR as too expensive––often, companies hire external PR firms to build relationships with press on their behalf. But Susana took a different route, crafting a scrappy in-house PR strategy that she executed herself for free. Read on for advice on how to use the power of PR to get the word out about your business, without a pricy PR firm.