Entrepreneurship is often romanticized, but the truth is, it’s filled with struggle, perseverance, and countless lessons. Aaron Spivak’s story is no different. He went from almost losing everything to building a $48 million company, Hush Blankets, in just four years. This blog dives deep into his journey—exploring how he and his co-founder, Lior Ohayon, started with a mere $4,000, faced numerous challenges, and ultimately revolutionized the sleep industry.
Humble Beginnings: The Early Days of Hustle
Aaron Spivak has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Growing up in Toronto, he started ventures like lemonade stands, party buses, and even his own juice shop. However, it wasn’t until he met Lior Ohayon, his future business partner, that his career trajectory shifted towards something much bigger.
Aaron was running a juice shop, and Lior had a background in the digital world, running a software company. Together, they brainstormed new business ideas, including the quirky concept of selling cricket protein. Lior rejected the idea, but instead, the duo stumbled upon a more promising market: weighted blankets. With over 300,000 people searching for weighted blankets online, Aaron and Lior knew they had found a golden opportunity.
The Idea That Sparked a Revolution
Aaron and Lior set out to develop the perfect weighted blanket. The journey wasn’t glamorous. They continued working full-time jobs—Aaron at his juice shop and Lior at his software company—and met every night from 7 PM to 1 or 2 AM to work on their new venture.
To test the market, they created a sample blanket and put up a pre-order site with basic images. They bought Google ads for the most expensive keyword, “weighted blankets,” and soon enough, the sales started trickling in. Their excitement grew as they reached $30,000 a month, then $60,000, and finally $90,000 a month.
It seemed like everything was falling into place. But the reality check came fast.
Facing the Abyss: The Summer Collapse
Just as they were celebrating their initial success, summer hit. Toronto’s sweltering heat made weighted blankets a hard sell. Their sales plummeted from 20 sales a day to zero on most days. By July, they were sitting on a pile of unsellable inventory, and their bank accounts were rapidly draining.
Lior came to Aaron with a harsh reality: “We need to shut this business down.”
The temptation to quit was strong. They had a seasonal product, mounting inventory, and dwindling cash. In that moment, Aaron was forced to confront the toughest question an entrepreneur faces: “Am I really cut out for this?”
But they didn’t give up.
The Turning Point: Listening to Customers
In the face of failure, Aaron came up with a bold idea: talk to the customers directly. They needed to understand why people had stopped buying, so they sent out an email with a Calendly link, encouraging customers to schedule calls with them.
The feedback was unanimous. Customers loved the product but found the blanket too hot to use in the summer. Aaron and Lior realized they needed to create a cooling weighted blanket—one that could be used year-round.
This insight was a game changer.
The Ice Blanket: A Revolutionary Product
Aaron and Lior spent September 2018 flying around, searching for suppliers to create a cooling fabric. They developed their own proprietary material called Ice Fabric, which became the core of their cooling weighted blanket. The only problem? The fabric was so expensive that it cost $100,000 for the first roll—money they didn’t have.
They turned to Kickstarter, setting a modest goal of $25,000 to raise enough funds for the first production run. To their surprise, the campaign exploded, raising over $1 million in just 30 days.
This success led to the launch of the Hush Ice Blanket 1.0, which would become one of their signature products.
Breaking the Internet: Going Viral on Dragon’s Den
With their newfound momentum, Aaron and Lior were looking for the next big opportunity to scale their business. They decided to pitch their company on Dragon’s Den, Canada’s equivalent of Shark Tank.
Not only did they secure a deal, but they also made history by increasing their valuation live on the show, a first in the show’s 14-year history. This moment went viral, especially after the episode was uploaded to Netflix, catapulting Hush Blankets into the mainstream.
Customer-Centric Innovation: Launching New Products
A huge part of Aaron and Lior’s success was their dedication to talking to customers. After the cooling blanket took off, they applied the same strategy to other products. They called thousands of customers, asking what they wanted in a pillow, and launched a pillow that sold 3,000 units in 72 hours.
This method became their secret weapon. They weren’t just creating products—they were building products that their customers explicitly asked for. This approach led to the launch of more products, including Hush Ice Sheets and later, the Hush Mattress.
The Million-Dollar Mattress: Defying the Odds
Launching a mattress-in-a-box seemed like a risky, even foolish idea. The mattress industry is notoriously difficult to break into, and few companies manage to make a profit. But Aaron and Lior believed they could do it by relying on their customer-first approach.
After months of research, they developed a mattress with specific zone technology, designed to provide comfort during sleep and other activities, including making love—a common pain point among customers.
Their instincts paid off. They generated $1.5 million on the launch, defying all expectations.
The Acquisition: Selling Hush Blankets
In 2021, as their business continued to grow, Aaron and Lior began considering an exit. They had taken Hush from a bootstrapped startup to a multi-million-dollar company in just four years. In October 2021, Canada’s largest sleep company approached them with an acquisition offer.
They sold Hush Blankets, closing the chapter on one of the most exciting success stories in Canadian entrepreneurship.
The Secret to Success: Building a Community of Super Fans
Aaron and Lior’s journey wasn’t just about products or profits—it was about building a community. By talking to customers directly, they created an army of loyal fans who were emotionally invested in the brand.
This dedication paid off in unexpected ways. When Hush opened its first pop-up store in one of Canada’s busiest malls, they had 1,500 customers on opening day—double the foot traffic of their competitor, Alo Yoga.
One customer even brought a blanket for Aaron to autograph, a surreal moment that demonstrated the power of storytelling and community-building.
Key Lessons for Entrepreneurs: What You Can Learn from Aaron Spivak’s Journey
Aaron and Lior’s story is full of valuable lessons for entrepreneurs:
Customer Conversations are Gold: The duo’s willingness to talk to customers directly allowed them to identify key problems and innovate accordingly. Every product they launched was a direct result of listening to what their customers wanted.
Resilience in the Face of Failure: When their sales hit rock bottom during the summer months, they didn’t give up. Instead, they pivoted and found a solution that made their product viable year-round.
Bootstrapping Can Lead to Huge Payoffs: Aaron and Lior bootstrapped their company from the beginning, which allowed them to keep 100% ownership. Even when they needed large amounts of capital, they turned to Kickstarter rather than investors.
Storytelling is Powerful: Aaron believes that storytelling is one of the most critical aspects of building a brand. Customers today care more about the people behind a brand than the product itself.
Leave a Reply