Sydney ecommerce startup Companion Couch has designed a sofa-in-a-box

Thanks to the fact it’s nigh on impossible to get through an episode US podcast without hearing an ad for Casper Mattress, the mattress-in-a-box model is now fairly well known and established around the world, with Sleeping Duck and Koala perhaps the most well-known Australian offerings. It has also spawned spinoffs applying the model to other types of furniture.

Applying the model to the lounge, Sydneysiders Joseph Greathead and Andrew Hambly have launched Companion Couch, an ecommerce business delivering customers an easy-to-assemble, modular sofa in a box.

The key problem the pair set out to solve, Greathead explained, is that the traditional experience of buying a sofa usually means paying a delivery fee and a headache trying to figure out how to get inside.

“If you want a couch that you know you’re going to be able to get inside your front door – rather than having to winch it over a balcony – without paying a huge delivery fee or hiring an AirTasker, flat-pack furniture is a great solution, but these products are often poorly-made and rickety,” he said.

“My last moving house experience involved winching a sectional sofa over my Bourke Street balcony and jamming it through a screen door, breaking it in the process. Once I got it inside, I realise that it was then trapped in my bedroom as it wouldn’t fit down the stairs. It was a nightmare.” Read more

Gina Baldassarre - Startup Daily - 16 Mar 2018