Hoboken-based Bear Mattress was No. 7 on the 2019 Inc. 5000 list. – AARON HOUSTON
Bear Mattress made the 2019 Inc. 5000 list for the first time this year, and it did so by landing in the top 10.
Bear, America’s seventh fastest growing, privately held company according to the Inc. 5000, is headquartered in Hoboken and has just 12 employees. It’s grown 13,481 percent in the past three years, designing mattresses, pillows and other sleep accessories with the recovery and sleep needs of athletes in mind.
The company’s 2018 revenue was $20.5 million.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind today,” said Founder Scott Paladini. “It’s a statement to the whole team and everything we’ve done here. It makes us all want to dig in here and figure out how we get to stay at spot No. 7 next year again.”
New Jersey companies accounted for 128 of the 5,000 companies on the list, including nearly two dozen that have made the list before.
Software company iCIMS, based in Holmdel, has been on the list more times than 4,991 companies. It’s one of nine companies nationwide that have appeared 13 times, and one of only two based in the northeast, alongside insurance agency MedRisk in Pa.
“There’s five New Jersey businesses in the top 200, and I know there’s three Hoboken businesses including ours on there,” Paladini said. “I think that’s a pretty good representation on the list, and it’s always good to represent the Garden State. I’m from New Jersey, so being No. 1 in New Jersey is something I have a soft spot for maybe even more so than being No. 7 in the whole country.”
Scott Paladini, the founder of Bear Mattress. – AARON HOUSTON
Growth like Bear’s doesn’t typically come without growing pains, but Paladini said he’s managed to mostly avoid common issues regarding supply chain and staffing.
“We’ve been able to diversify our supply chain throughout the country. We have multiple factories and multiple locations and we’ve been able to [get them] at the same time we were growing,” he said. “It enabled us to continue growing without getting into a bottle neck. We started early, before we needed more—we kind of got ahead of ourselves on the chance we were able to grow, and it worked.”
Paladini’s employees have been sturdy as well. Current staffers at the not quite five-year-old company have an average tenure of two years. The right people in place provide some peace of mind, he said.
Though proud of what he created, Paladini said he’s more excited and grateful for the team and everyone who has been a part of the brand’s growth.
“There’s so many people that really were involved in that, from our partners to our vendors, to our customers and all our employees,” Paladini said. “It’s something we can share with a lot of people and a lot of people can feel good about that. It’s recognition and validation for a lot of people’s hard work.
