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We do the best part of life in the bedroom. The phrase is part of the Spanish proverb, but that does not mean that it ceases to be profoundly true. The bedroom, and more precisely the bed, is our most precious place: it is the place of rest, refuge, rest and why not, of joy and passion. That's why it's so important to feel comfortable with our bed and everything we put in it.
It is precisely to build that experience and ensure a rest with restorative quality, with style and also with technology and innovation, that Santiago Varenkow and Daniela Machado created D&C Home, a brand that covers all Top of the bed products and that it has the desire to expand to become a lifestyle brand for the home.
Today we talked to them and found out how Cubbo has helped this innovative company to bring sleep to every bed in Colombia.
Frank: How was D&C Home born?
Santiago Varenkov: I am a natural entrepreneur, I am Venezuelan and I lived in Spain for many years, and I come from a family business that had more than 85 years of tradition in the rest industry, specifically making mattresses. However, I had my aspirations to create something of my own and that's why I came to Colombia, I founded two mattress companies: REM Mattresses and Boxi Sleep, companies that have grown exponentially in recent years and with which we were able to integrate vertically and set up factories. These are two companies that have been very successful and recognized in the Colombian market.
However, last year we wanted to start another project, taking advantage of my understanding of the Colombian market, and then the idea was born to create D&C Home, a company that seeks to offer an attractive and high-quality value proposition in a field that was in high demand: bed linen.
That was a clear awakening. Bedding was a sector where the supply was very basic, very limited and it was also an essential product when it came to having a good rest.
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A successful career
Santiago first founded two mattress companies in 2014 in Colombia. The success of these companies pushed them to explore more ventures in the same sector, that of leisure and the home lifestyle.
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Frank: When was this project born?
Daniela: In 2021, we started with this project. It was a long planning effort to really identify the type of product we wanted, the qualities and the specifications. We needed to know where we were going to produce it so that it had attractive qualities for the Colombian market and that it would also be powerful to compete against any other company in the sector.
This category can be called Top of the bed and it is a category that includes everything that goes above the bed: sheets, blankets, duvets, cushions, etc.; our long-term vision is for D&C Home to become a brand that expands to all spaces in the home. We want to be a lifestyle brand for the home where we will not only be in the room with all the other products that coexist in the room, but also in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in the living room, etc. We want to be a state-of-the-art Bed Bath and Beyond, applying technology and digitizing all sales channels.
Frank: Do you start as a physical store or do you start from the beginning as an ecommerce?
Santiago: To be able to offer the highest quality at an affordable price for the largest number of people, the model had to be a B2C. And we knew from the beginning that if we were going for retail or a traditional brick and mortar, the costs and the initial investment would make scalability very complex.
In addition to the fact that every time you scale, you would have to invest again because you are depending on physical spaces and expenses that are along the way that in the end do not contribute anything to the final consumer. That's why our DNA is 100% digital from the start: to provide the consumer with the highest possible quality. This does not imply that in the future we will pursue an omnichannel strategy.
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Frank: On the web they state that their products are made of 100% cotton and extra long fiber. Quality is a point of honor for you, isn't it?
Daniela: Yes. For us, quality comes first. It happens a bit like with mattresses, bed linen is a necessary and essential good that we need to sleep well, to rest well and therefore to lead a healthy and functional life. To be able to perform in our daily lives. But, unfortunately, it is an asset of which there is a great deal of ignorance. Most people just think that “the more threads the better” and that's what they're left with. And that's what many brands have resorted to, to do marketing tricks by inflating that number of threads to levels that are simply physically impossible.
For example, you see markings that indicate that your sheets have 1800 threads per square inch, that's not possible. Because if you put 1800 threads in a square inch, the first thing is that they physically don't fit, and second, if you could do it out there, nothing would happen, absolutely no air. And that's not a good quality fabric. That is why the quality of a good textile depends not only on the yarns but on the quality of the cotton - in the case of our cotton fabrics - and on how it is grown and where it comes from. Cotton from India harvested by hand and with respect for nature is not the same as industrial cotton from China.
In addition to that, there's also the issue that you can have long fibers and short fibers. In the case of our cotton, it is made of extra long fibers that make it softer, more breathable and more durable. And if you mix all this with great manufacturing quality, then you end up having a premium product like ours.
Frank: They seem to be very confident in the quality of their product.
Santiago: These are the best sheets in Colombia. And we are so sure that we give 60 nights of trial, so we are sure that we are of our quality.
Frank, what if I want to return the sheets to you on night 59?
Daniela: You can do it without any problem. If you don't like them, you return them. We're not even going to ask you. They don't have to have any defects. If you don't like them, you return them and we'll cover the shipping costs and refund your money.
Frank: And isn't this a huge risk for you? Because this type of product is not reusable later, right?
Santiago: Effectively. If you return the sheets to us, either on day 1 or day 59, we can't longer do anything with them. All we have to do is go through the cleaning processes that must be carried out and donate them. We can't resell them. But that way we are sure that you will fall in love with our sheets that we have these 60 nights of trial.
Frank: How many returns have you had?
Daniela: To date, none. We don't have marketing tricks, nor do we tell things that aren't. Simply our products are of high quality and we say exactly the yarns, qualities, materials and manufacturing processes we use. Nothing is hidden. Our message is one of transparency, security and credibility.
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Certified quality
Oeko Tex is a certificate that guarantees that no substances harmful to your skin or to the environment were used, and it also guarantees that the product is 100% cotton. D&C Home sheets and products have this certificate.
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D&C Home and Cubbo: Encloying all of Colombia
D&C Home is a project with a soul. There is a sincere commitment to doing your best and it shows in every word of Santiago and Daniela. This passion makes them dream big, think about expanding beyond Colombian borders and becoming a phenomenon that surpasses the big names in the industry.
To do this, they have the help of Cubbo “your operating arm” As Santiago aptly describes it.
Frank: Where do they currently sell?
Santiago: We sell throughout Colombia. This is allowed by the type of product due to the size it has and our shipments are between 24 and 48 hours. If it's in Bogota, 24 hours. This year we hope to go out and start selling internationally.
Cubbo It's our operating arm. With them we do everything, Complete Fulfillment. When a business starts, it has limited resources and also has many things to validate and focus on. We cannot be dedicated to dealing with logistics, which is complex in and of itself, because then we cannot focus on what is truly profitable for the business. We have to focus on product development, positioning and publicizing the brand.
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Efficient deliveries
In Bogotá, D&C Home guarantees 24-hour deliveries with the same-day delivery service of Cubbo. This was unthinkable just a few years ago and is part of the technical advances that Cubbo You brought it to the market.
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In addition, we could not afford the expense or investment of having a warehouse and a staff that distributes, vehicles and the entire logistics chain to be able to do the packages and shipments. This would have taken us more than half of the time we had and we preferred to invest that time in our core business and in selling our product.
Frank: How do they get to Cubbo?
Santiago: We arrived at Cubbo by its founder Brian York, who is also an investor in D&C Home. We've known him for years, from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and it was a very natural alliance that emerged in a very logical way.
And it's been a great collaboration and a great relief for us to work with Cubbo, because we are certain that our product lies safely and that deliveries are made efficiently even to the most remote corners of the Colombian geography. They give us certainty and peace of mind.
Frank: Was there anything that you asked Cubbo to be a mandatory condition for working with them?
Daniela: Let's see, there was one thing that was very important to us, which was to be able to have a way of knowing in real time what is happening with our merchandise: what you have in stock, what has been rotated, what inventory you have left, etc. That for you is absolutely key since you don't have direct control of the warehouses, because we have delegated them to them. AND Cubbo gave us that access in real time, which gives you peace of mind and enormous operational capacity.
The second thing we talked to them about was delivery times. By being a ecommerce this was essential for us, because if our only sales channel is the web, we had to have that as a competitive advantage and be able to deliver the same day or as quickly as possible. And also to notify the customer when it was going to arrive and that the customer had a tracking of their order. Those were the two Must What did I have to have Cubbo and he complied with them.
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Frank: And in the next five years what plans do you have?
Daniela: We want to be the leading brand for household goods, but also a brand with personality. A brand that people seek not only for the quality of its products but also for the values of its products. Because we care about our customers so that they sleep better, so that they have the best products and so that they can build their dream home.
Our goal is to help women, we speak specifically to women although we know that there are also many men buying, but we want women to be empowered with us and to be able to build the home of their dreams.
So in five years we'll see each other at the regional level. Leading this category and already present in other areas of the home.
Frank: What lesson do you take in starting with D&C Home?
Santiago: Let's see, for me it's something natural because I already came from this industry. Because if you sell mattresses, then you're already drenched in the rest industry. But the truth is that it has been something more exciting at the brand building level. It's much easier to make sheets vacuumable than a mattress. Because they are products that give aesthetics to your bed, which are products that you have direct contact with and live with every day. The challenge of making a “sexy” mattress was not an easy task. This category excites me a little more.
And the biggest learning is that today there are tools that allow you to focus your efforts on the core business, which is the development of your products and your brand. For example, you can outsource a lot of things that take up your time and wear you out, such as the logistics part that we have outsourced in Cubbo. And it is thanks to them that we have been able to maintain this company with a minimum staff and a reduced expense.
Daniela: For me it has been a challenge in every way because I was not an entrepreneur, I came from being an employee and my training is also as a psychologist. So it's been a challenge. I threw myself into the void as they say, and I'm building the plane as I fall. But what pushed me to create this was that I experienced this problem of not having quality textiles. And that's why we're so passionate and devoted so much love to this.
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