Evita Kunke: Co-Founder of Honeydew Sleep

Episode 855

What if waking up in pain wasn’t something you had to accept?
On today’s episode, we welcome Evita Kunke, Co-Founder of Honeydew Sleep — a company rethinking how we sleep, starting with the pillow. After struggling with a debilitating back condition and being told surgery might be her only option, Evita discovered that the right sleep setup could completely change her health — and her life.
What started as a personal solution turned into a business. With deep roots in the sleep industry and access to dozens of existing products, Evita and her husband realized the market wasn’t solving the problem — so they built their own. Today, Honeydew Sleep is known for its handcrafted, science-backed pillows designed for proper alignment, cooling, and real comfort.
In this episode, Evita shares her journey from personal struggle to founder, what’s broken in the sleep industry, and how small changes in your sleep setup can have a massive impact on your overall health and quality of life.
If you’re interested in building a mission-driven brand, solving a real problem, or simply sleeping better — this one’s for you. Tune in now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control, control, control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. So join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go, let’s go. Hi everyone. and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. Why have we all accepted waking up in pain as normal when it really shouldn’t be? So, today I’m joined by Evita Kunke, who is the co-founder of Honeydew Sleep, a company on a mission to rethink how we sleep, starting with something most of us overlook, the pillow, and I have to tell you, these are the best pillows. So you have to have to have to try these if you haven’t. But what started with sewing pillow covers on a dining room table has grown into a nationally recognized brand known for its handcrafted science-backed pillows designed for real alignment, cooling, and comfort, and not mass production. So, I cannot wait to hear more about Evita’s story. Evita is the co-founder, and more than anything, just hear about how did this all come about, and how has she scaled the company, and all of the fun stuff in between? So, Evita, welcome to the Kara Goldin show. So excited to finally meet you.

Evita Kunke 1:54
Thank you. I appreciate the lovely introduction, and I am so excited to be here. I just feel honored. I know you, you talk to a lot of founders, and I just think it’s so interesting. I think people in our position don’t often have an outlet to really share our stories, so I love what you do, and just really proud to be here.

Kara Goldin 2:14
Thank you so much. Well, okay, so Honeydew Sleep, for listeners who may not know about Honeydew Sleep. How do you describe the brand, and what makes it different?

Evita Kunke 2:26
So we kind of came to be almost accidentally. My husband and I worked in the bedding industry for many years. His dad actually started brick and mortar stores when he was a little boy, and he used to work in the stores, and even when he was little, he would hand out hot dogs on Memorial Day, and he grew up in the business. We had met in high school, but we had gone our separate ways, and I had had a really severe back issue. So, after that happened, I was looking at possibly having surgery in my early 20s. I was in a lot of pain, and I had a doctor at the time recommend a mattress for me, and my parents invested in it for me, and it completely changed my life. I went from pain, painkillers, not being able to drive myself to almost no pain at all, and just from changing my sleep setup, so it was something I was already passionate about, so when I got together with my husband, we started working in that industry together, and then we saw that there were things missing or that could be improved upon based on the customer feedback and based on what we knew about alignment and all the ways that we were educated about sleep, so we started kind of tinkering. One of the things that we thought was most overlooked, and yet absolutely critical, was the pillow. A lot of times, even if you have a mattress that’s not great, but you have the right pillow, and your cervical spine is in alignment, you can sleep better than if your mattress is great, but your pillow is not good. And a lot of people didn’t see it that way, because you just think about the bigger picture, right? You think the mattress is kind of the star of the show. So we started to tinker around with pillows. We discovered a different way of making the fill that would allow it to be supportive and keep you in alignment, but also be soft and luxurious, because prior to that you could find really one or the other, and once we developed this product, we thought this is really fun. We took time doing it. We, we sewed our own cover. My mom was helping us sew pillow covers. We were using all kinds of filling, we had it all over our home, just trying to figure out the right thing, and we then started to share it with friends and family, and right away there seemed to be this desire to get their hands on these pillows, and as it spread, we thought, well, if it’s making a difference for people, maybe this is something that we can do on a larger scale, so right away we kind of started. Started experimenting with selling it online and selling it in the brick and mortar stores that we had, and the sales grew very quickly. So then we became aware that now we have started a business somehow accidentally, but we wanted it not just to be a business or a pillow, we wanted to build a brand, which was difficult, because our industry, the sleep industry, is kind of run by these large behemoth companies, and over the last several years, especially, a lot of them have combined, so to make you a name for yourself when you’re new is a difficult task, but we wanted to build a brand that our customers could trust and keep coming to, and that was always focused on innovation, on alignment, on the health aspects of what good sleep can bring you, and so that we can improve the quality of sleep and improve people’s quality of life. It affects every aspect of your health. So we started to really focus on how we wanted to present ourselves to the world. We’re a little bit different in that a lot of sleep companies will present themselves in a very kind of pastel sleepy way, where it’s all about the kind of serenity of the sleep you get, but we wanted to focus on how vibrant your life can be when you are getting the right sleep. So, right away, everything about us was kind of different.

Evita Kunke 6:33
We were bright colors, we were lots of energy, and it was about, you know, being able to have adventures and chase your dreams and travel and work and live your best life when you’re getting your best sleep, so that’s kind of what we focused our brand on, and because we had a product that was now backed by medical professionals, cervical spine specialists, and was actually making a difference for people in pain relief, regaining mobility, getting better sleep. I think the combination of those two things, and the fact that we really focused on building our own factory, even though we had no experience in that prior, but we knew that if we wanted to keep our standards high and keep our hands in the quality of our products, we would have to do it ourselves. So here in Southern California, we have our offices combined with our actual factory, and we’re here every day making pillows. So, Evita, where did the name come from? So, it’s funny, when we first started, we thought, well, we got to have something sleep-related, and we were thinking of different terms that that would kind of evoke sleepy thoughts, and one of the things we thought about was drift, because we were thinking drift off to sleep, drift away, and and we kind of started moving in that direction, and then we realized that there was like a company in the UK using that term, which wasn’t a conflict, we could have stayed with it, but I think that the more important thing for us was we wanted to differentiate ourselves, and as I mentioned before, what we wanted to do is focus on kind of this vibrant fun life you can have when you’re getting the best sleep, and so we started thinking about fun words that are just kind of evoking like happy vibrant thoughts, and Honeydew was one of those that we threw out at some point, and it just felt right immediately. And we are a married couple, my husband and I, and we run the company together, so it’s funny because you know you always have a Honeydew list, right, and so good sleep is on the top of our honey-do list, and especially because of the industry we’re in, so it just kind of fit, and it felt sweet, and it felt fun, and that’s the vibe we wanted to present for our company,

Kara Goldin 8:56
so when you finally launched Honeydew, you really focus specifically on side sleepers? So, what did you hear from consumers that was interesting when it came to, you know, the side sleeper approach?

Evita Kunke 9:16
Yeah, so actually I think something like 70% of sleepers are side sleepers, so it’s a large majority of people sleep on their side, and it’s actually also one of the positions that’s hardest to get into alignment, because there’s all this space between your neck and the bed because of your shoulder, so that was a big problem we were seeing, and a lot of complaints about people not being able to kind of find that sweet spot where they were able to have comfort, but feel the like luxurious softness. Firm pillows typically were the pillows that were structurally better, but they were firm, so they were causing pressure points. Didn’t feel. Comfortable, a lot of them were kind of molded and kept you in a specific position, so you weren’t able to kind of move around freely. So, since we are both side sleepers, we thought, well, we’ll tackle that first, but the great thing about it is we made our pillow adjustable, so that is a key element into making sure that your pillow keeps you in alignment, is you have to be able to adjust it to your shoulders and to your height, so that you’re able to have that spine in alignment. So we made it adjustable, and also we made a curve in it, because we wanted it to kind of scoop around your shoulder, where it wasn’t bunching into your neck and throwing you out of alignment, and what we discovered is that that shape actually works really well for all sleepers. So our side sleeper pillow is by far our most best-selling pillow, our most used pillow by all side sleepers, back sleepers, stomach sleepers, because of the way you’re able to adjust it, because of the way you’re able to move it, and kind of have it mold to your shoulders and neck, so it was kind of a one of those discoveries where we made something specifically for side sleepers, but it works for everyone really, really well, and we have traditional rectangular pillows, because a lot of people still like that and like the esthetic of it, but most people who try our side sleeper are immediately sold on it and definitely go that route.

Kara Goldin 11:32
It’s such a great pillow, so I am a side sleeper, but I will tell you that my, my husband tried it, he’s not a side sleeper, and he’s like, “Wow, this is amazing. So, it’s, yeah, so it’s, it’s really, really great. So, when you talked about the adjustability part of it, I don’t think many pillows are adjustable, right? You sort of play around with it and figure out how to make it work for you, but how do you make a pillow adjustable, because that seems so unique in this industry.

Evita Kunke 12:04
Yes, so there are pillows out there. So our pillow is a proprietary fill that we designed ourselves, and we have a utility patent pending on it, and we actually had machines made to cut our fill in a specific way, our fiber in a specific way, so our foam is instead of ground like a lot of pillows, it is sliced very, very thinly, and what that allows it to do is combine really well with our ultra luxe fiber, and so there’s no lumps or bumps in the pillow, the pillow feels really uniform, a lot of people think it’s a solid piece because it never travels around the pillow, but it is adjustable because they all have a hidden zipper, and you can add or remove fill to change the height and the firmness of your pillow. So, if you feel like your pillow is a little too high and your neck is tilting up, you can remove fill, redistribute the fill that’s in there, and it will support you perfectly. If you need more fill, one of the things that we do is we also send free fill to our customers for the life of the pillow if they decide they need more fill, but it holds up really well, so it’s not going to flatten out over time. So, once you get it to where you want it, and it feels perfect for you. It’s going to stay that way, and it’s going to continue to support you.

Kara Goldin 13:26
So, your products use proprietary copper infused foam. So, what does that actually do?

Evita Kunke 13:35
So, copper is really great because it allows it to dissipate heat, so it’s one of the cooling elements in the pillow, and the other thing about copper is it’s naturally antibacterial and antimicrobial, so it also helps with, like, the hygiene of your pillow, it keeps it fresh for longer, so it’s a great element. At first, we were making our pillows with just a gel-infused foam, which does have a cooling element as well, and then we stepped it up to the copper, because the copper is just so much better at that.

Kara Goldin 14:07
What are some of the biggest challenges that you faced that maybe you didn’t expect in building out the company? A physical product business is is tough, right? Right, but you’re doing it, and but what have been some of the biggest challenges, and actually not only launching it, but also scaling

Evita Kunke 14:30
it. You know, I think interestingly enough, my answer to that would be educating our customers, because sometimes the customers aren’t aware of the importance of a pillow, and also the differences in quality between something like we make that’s handcrafted, that has all sort of pure certified materials, everything is safe and healthy and high quality. It’s going to last over time, it’s going to hold up, it’s not going to break down. On a lot of times, customers won’t realize the difference between that and then something that looks similar, but is kind of a copycat at a much lower price point, made overseas. When we first started our business, we were the only curved pillow on Amazon. Now, if you go on there, you’ll see tons and tons of them, and that was something that we almost were kind of shocked about, you know, that when you come out with something good, people are going to copy it, but when it actually happens, it’s almost like validating in a way, but stressful, because now people have these other options, and if they don’t know what makes your pillow better, then they will buy something of lesser quality and have a worse experience, because people are looking at kind of the budgetary factor. So we have, for that reason, kind of two lines of pillows. We had our flagship pillow that came out, and then we thought there’s a lot of pillows in this kind of lower price point that are just so far inferior as far as quality and are not going to give the support and alignment necessary are not going to give the same comfort. So we created a pillow that was in that lower price point, so that people could still have access to that quality without having to pay the higher price point.

Kara Goldin 16:18
So, how many different SKUs do you have now in the line?

Evita Kunke 16:22
Well, we have our Scrumptious line, which is our side sleeper. We have a traditional one. We have a travel pillow, which is amazing, because it’s more like a destination pillow, so you can take it with you and use it as your main pillow wherever you’re staying, so you can keep that comfort with you. Then we also have our Essence line, which comes inside sleeper and traditional, and we have a body pillow, which is amazing as well. So that’s kind of our pillow line. We have the classic pillows and the side sleepers, and then we also do these incredible bamboo sheets that are just so soft and luxurious, also really an important element of your sleep system to have sheets that are going to help regulate your temperature, so that you’re not sleeping too hot, that are just kind of comfortable, breathable. We also have silk products, so we sell silk pillowcases, because that’s the absolute best thing for your skin, for your pillow to have a silk pillowcase. It’s great for your hair, it’s great for your complexion, it’s great for all of the lovely skincare products that we invest so much money in, because it doesn’t draw the moisture away from your skin, it allows those products to work, and because it doesn’t cause friction, it reduces wrinkles and is just such a nice, comfortable sleeping environment, especially since I would say it’s arguably the coolest of all of the materials to sleep on, and it’s natural, so that is something that’s really important to us as well. We try to use as many natural elements as possible, because it’s so good to have those components that are breathable and that are healthy,

Kara Goldin 18:02
so you are the creative side of the co-founding team. So, when do you know to launch a new product? Right, coming up, innovation overall. I mean, that’s the fun stuff, right? All founders love, love to do, you know, in my case, new flavors, new, you know, new, new, new, but, but when do you do it? When do you not do it?

Evita Kunke 18:30
Well, in the beginning, we really wanted to focus on building our reputation and establishing what we had created to start with, so we had our just one pillow for quite some time, and then we started building it out, basically based on all of the customer feedback we were getting. So, when people were reaching out to us, we’d like to see this, we’d like to see that, we were considering all of that. We are really engaged with our customers. It’s been amazing, because it’s almost like a community. They reach out to us, we communicate with them, and so oftentimes we will launch a product when we get a lot of feedback that customers are in need of something, and then we start to explore it, and we get it to where we think it’s perfect, because we’ll never release anything that we don’t think is exceptional or special, we don’t want to just create another product to be in the mix. We want something that’s going to stand above and beyond and is going to serve the customer in a way that it helps solve problems, it helps improve their life. So, there are a lot of products that we’ve tinkered with for a long time that we ended up never releasing because we just never thought they got to that point of perfection, but we really try to listen to what our customers are looking for, and then we focus on sourcing the absolute best components that we can, and how to manipulate those components and put them together, and then when we have something that we’re really proud of, that’s when we start. To roll it out and experiment and take our customers’ feedback and being a small batch company we are able to constantly be improving, so it’s not like we are just running our pillows just as they are for years and years, when we’re getting feedback or we’re finding innovations, we’re able to implement those in real time, so that’s something that’s really exciting about the way that we do business.

Kara Goldin 20:25
I love it. So, when you think about brand and storytelling in a category like sleep, how do you think about that? I mean, where have you been able to really get the brand story out about what you’re doing with Honeydew?

Evita Kunke 20:40
Well, I think being a family business and having the background that we do, coming from the sleep industry, having so many years in the industry prior to starting our business, we were going to all of the bedding and furniture markets every six months, looking at all the products that were coming out, we were carrying all of the major manufacturers, all of these products in the stores that my husband’s father owned, so we had so much exposure to the product, and so I think that having the knowledge and the background and experience that we have lended credibility to our product, so I think that that’s where our brand story kind of grew from the fact that we weren’t just people that woke up one day and thought let’s make a pillow and sell that, we came from a place of history and experience and education on the subject, and so that’s something that we bring anytime we present our products, we are able to kind of problem solve with customers, figure out what’s happening with them and what they need, and we’re able to solve those problems. So, as far as our brand, it’s gotten really a lot of kind of natural organic attention. I think because the product speaks for itself. We’ve been featured on Good Morning America, The View Live with Kelly and Mark, The Tamron Hall Show. We’ve been on The Price is Right, so we’ve had a lot of really kind of natural fun media exposure that’s made people kind of hear our name and see it, and then when they explore beyond just the name and the kind of fun branding they they’re able to see that we really put so much care in everything we do. Our packaging, every pillow goes out with a hand signed thank you note to our customers, and even as we’ve grown and that volume of pillows has grown quite a bit, we still hand sign every a thank you note that goes in the box, and we just want to make sure our customers feel special, and I think that that’s what we’re known for. We wanted to shift the perspective about pillows from being just a necessary household item or an add on to your sleep system to being a self care item, like really a treat for yourself and something necessary for your health and wellness.

Kara Goldin 23:06
I love it. Well, Evita, thank you so much for joining me today. For everyone listening, be sure to check out Honeydew Sleep, it is so incredible. You trust me on this, you absolutely have to try it. So, see and check out what they’re doing on social as well, also Evita and her team, and what they’re building. And thank you, Evita, for coming on and sharing. All really, really appreciate it. Evita Kunke, co-founder of Honeydew Sleep, and we will see everyone next time on The Kara Goldin Show. Thank you,

Evita Kunke 23:42
thank you so much, Kara. Have a wonderful day.

Kara Goldin 23:45
You too. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit, and of course feel free to subscribe, so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too. So, feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening. And goodbye for now.

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