<p>Matteo Franceschetti is the Co-founder and CEO of Eight Sleep.</p><p><br></p><p>Eight Sleep created one of the original breakout consumer health products in 2014, quietly building a business that’s raised over $300 million dollars and was reportedly free cash flow positive in the first half of 2025.</p><p><br></p><p>But things weren’t always easy, and Matteo shares the challenges of starting a hardware company, why hardware has stronger moats, and the fundraising mindset he adopted that eventually got Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund to invest.</p><p><br></p><p>We also get into the importance of sleep, how the company’s Sleep Butler uses AI to help you sleep better, and the big opportunity building more consumer health products.</p><p><br></p><p>Thanks to Numeral for supporting this episode. It’s the end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: ⁠https://www.numeral.com⁠</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>(2:18) Three pillars of health: sleep, nutrition, fitness</p><p>(4:02) Creating a sleep routine</p><p>(6:59) Importance of body temperature in sleep</p><p>(8:43) How Eight Sleep works</p><p>(12:14) Using AI to help you sleep</p><p>(18:35) The AWS outage</p><p>(24:12) It’s too hard to build in Europe</p><p>(28:09) Why hardware has stronger moats</p><p>(32:23) How to fundraise for a hardware company</p><p>(35:30) The opportunity in Sleep tech</p><p>(38:43) Hiring is easy when you have a mission</p><p>(40:37) How to fight jet lag</p><p>(43:03) Opportunities in women’s health</p><p>(45:54) Evolving from single purchase to subscription model</p><p>(47:12) Matteo’s personal health stack</p><p>(49:41) Racing sports cars</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Referenced</p><p>Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/</p><p>Compliant VC Meme Account: https://x.com/compliantvc</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Matteo</p><p>Twitter: https://x.com/m_franceschetti</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteofranceschetti/</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Turner</p><p>Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak</p><p>LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/</p>