Great Product First, Social Impact Second

I had the opportunity to interview David Wolfe, CEO of Leesa on the eve of the opening of the Leesa’s Dream Gallery in SoHo. I asked David, and Sophie Wolfe (head of social impact at Leesa) for their advice to other companies looking to implement a social impact initiative as impactful as Leesa’s. David’s answer reflected the wisdom of being an experienced entrepreneur:

You can’t just build a social impact program when you’re a startup, you have to build a company and deliver a great product — and you can’t do either of those things without an even better team of people. The underlying essence of any great company is satisfied customers and an amazing experience with the product or service. As a founder or CEO, if you get that right, you can achieve anything.

Customers want to buy your product first, because it’s great. They remain customers for life because of your customer service and how you make them feel — a social impact initiative is the icing on the feel good customer experience.

Read my full interview with David and Sophie here on the Turnstone (a Steelcase company) blog.