Interview With Mark Zhang From Manta Sleep

Hey Mark,

You co-founded Manta Sleep in 2016, a range of sleep masks that, to use your words, “empowers light sleeps to sleep better and do more”.

I first became aware of Manta Sleep from your presentation explaining your branding process and developing a company culture.

You did a fantastic breakdown that helped me in my supplement business, so thank you.

Thanks again for your time today, let’s jump into the interview.

I would like to get some background information from where you were born to where you live today. What’s your backstory?

I grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and spent most of my life there until my early twenties.

I don’t really have any entrepreneurs in the family and thought business people were semi-crazy risk-takers – definitely not me.

So without any real plan in place, I stumbled into majoring in accounting and worked in public practice for a year. Hated it.

Felt like my soul was dying each day I went to work.

Then two catalysts prompted me to quit, travel, rediscover myself, and start my first business in 2012.

The first catalyst was that a close high school friend passed away from leukemia.

I thought if I was going to die in 6 months, I didn’t want to spend my time working as a goddamn accountant.

Second, I started listening to a podcast called Mixergy by Andrew Warners.

Over the course of a year, I started to realize that maybe I can start a business.

I started to believe.

That’s what propelled me to quit my job, pack up my bags, travel, and start a business.

What was the inspiration for Manta Sleep?

My business partner and I were getting bored with a previous business.

We were doing it purely for the sake of making money, and it was boring and uninspiring.

So we decided to work on something that was meaningful.

I’ve been a light sleeper for most of my life, and have been using sleeps masks for 20 years. Always thought we can do something better.

That’s how Manta Sleep was born.

You did an amazing breakdown of how your approached branding for Manta Sleep. Please summarise your approach for other eCommerce owners struggling with brand identity

A strong brand is not about your font, or your logo, or your style guide.

Those come after.

Fundamentally to have a strong brand, you as the owner need to know why you are doing what you are doing. Why your enterprise exists.

If you were able to answer that question clearly, then you have a strong brand. You have a strong message.

Everything else comes after (font, logo, style guide, copy guide, etc).

Just answer the question, why does your company or brand exist, what is it trying to do?

Can you give us an idea of the size of your company? Are you mostly remote working?

20+ people, mostly working remotely.

The thought of a big remote team worries me, how do you manage, grow and keep your team engaged?

Have a great hiring process that filters out people that don’t fit in with the culture.

I recommend reading the book: WHO – The A Method For Hiring (check out the book on Amazon here).

Also, have a strong set of goals and KPIs.

When there are no goals or ways to measure performance, then as entrepreneurs, maybe we get worried and think to ourselves, what are my team members actually doing?

But with a strong set of KPIs, you can simply measure by actual performance.

Team members will enjoy the experience more as well because there is greater flexibility.

I often say to the team:

as long as you are getting it done, I don’t care where you are

I think engagement comes from having a purpose and vision for the business and sharing that clearly with the team.

When they know where we are all going, engagement is nature.

We don’t need to create any gimmicks to try to engage people.

What’s been the biggest challenge in growing Manta Sleep?

We design our products in house.

They aren’t private labelled. They don’t exist.

We are literally creating something out of nothing, and this process is extremely challenging. But also fun.

What has been the biggest level that has influenced the growth of Manta Sleep? This can be internal with your team or external factors.

Joining communities with other entrepreneurs who are more successful than I am.

Then we can take the lessons from people who have been there done that and just execute. It’s a great way to hack our way to rapid growth without needing to figure it out all on our own.

I’ve really enjoyed being part of Ezra Firestone’s Blue Ribbon Mastermind.

Manta Sleep is continually innovating, and recently you released Manta Sleep Sound Mask. I haven’t tried this one yet (no hint, lol) how did this come about? Could you share your approach to R&D?

In the earlier stages, it was all about solving our own problems.

Being a light sleeper, I intuitively understand what light sleepers want, and how to communicate with them.

Now, with all the customer feedback we’ve been getting, they give us a general direction of what to work on next.

For example, our customers have been asking for YEARS for us to make a sleep mask with Bluetooth speaker functionality. It just took us a while to come up with the perfect design 🙂

In general, though, R&D is hard and challenging.

But it’s also the area my business partner and I are the most excited about.

As I mentioned above, it’s literally creating value out of nothing.

What’s next for Manta Sleep in 2023?

We will be expanding into additional sleep accessories beyond sleep masks.

Please look forward to it 🙂

SHOP MANTA SLEEP