It is not uncommon to find some people sleeping on the cold, hard floor every night, and even when they have a mattress, it is often cheap and does not provide them with a good night’s rest.

Keen to put this matter to bed, Winson Chong and Joey Tan launched their quest to provide the poor with quality mattresses.

The founders of local startup Joey Mattress approached philanthropist Kuan Chee Heng, better known as Uncle Kentang, with the idea of working together to distribute mattresses free of charge.

This collaboration has already resulted in 26 mattresses and 15 pillows being delivered to needy households nationwide, with more to come.

Chong says the idea for Joey Mattress came about when he went shopping for a mattress during his university years.

“I had a very unpleasant experience,” he tells FMT. “After I bought a mattress, I found it was unsuitable and wanted to return or exchange it, but it wasn’t possible.”

After a few restless nights due to back pain, Chong felt he had had enough and started to think of ways he could improve the mattress industry.

Chong and Tan, both of whom have experience in e-commerce, laid the foundation for a startup while bearing in mind two factors.

Firstly, “salesmen are very pushy. Once you walk into their store, they will try their best to sell you the most expensive mattress that will give them the highest commission”, Chong says.

Secondly, Malaysians are often bombarded with so many choices that they can’t tell for themselves what they actually need and want.

Joey Mattress cuts out the pesky middlemen and sells its mattresses, fresh from the factory, directly to customers at affordable prices. There are currently four sizes – single, super-single, queen and king.

“This way,” says Chong, “we can get mattresses of the highest quality at the lowest cost possible, and improve the customer experience as well.”

Taking his past experience into account, Joey Mattress offers a “99-night trial” policy. Customers can use this time to figure out if the product is right for them; if not, they can return it for a full refund.

Chong says it is important for their customers to get a good mattress as it will affect the quality of their sleep and their health.

“Mattresses are very subjective. What may be suitable for me may not be suitable for you. That’s why it’s important for people to be able to try out a new mattress for a period of time before they commit to buying it.”

As for what makes Joey Mattress different from other brands in the market, the answer is what Chong calls “J foam”.

Each mattress contains two layers of foam, which are flexible enough for the user to sink in but not excessively so – one’s body weight needs to remain supported.

“It’s a very simple mattress,” says Chong, adding that the design process took “thousands of hours”, with him and Tan sleeping on prototypes.

Tan shares how she made it a point to make a mattress that would also solve a certain problem they had personally faced.

“Whenever Winson moves around in bed, I wake up! It’s frustrating for me, so I told him we need a feature to fix this. I hate waking up in the middle of the night,” she tells FMT.

Hence, Joey Mattress products are specially designed to address this issue. Tan is now able to sleep undisturbed even with Chong rolling around constantly.

Customers have taken well to their comfortable mattresses, with the elderly and children alike sleeping soundly in their new beds.

On the couple’s proposal to work with the ever-charitable Uncle Kentang, Tan says: “I’ve been following his work for a long time now. He’s always there to personally help people.

“One day, an idea came to me: why not donate mattresses to him?”

One phone call later, Tan was chatting with the man himself, and the details were worked out.

“We were very honoured! He said he’s happy to see young people doing these kinds of things and he’d love to help us.”

For now, any underprivileged person in need of a good mattress can contact Uncle Kentang to receive the product, courtesy of Joey Mattress.

Uncle Kentang can be reached via the Kentang Fund at 018-2683999.

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