My name is Olaf Arkauer, and I’m the co-founder of Suite702. I come from the advertising world and had always dreamed of building my own brand. I explored that idea and noticed that in the home decor industry, there are surprisingly few strong brands. Sure, there are players in the market, but no real stand-out names.

If you ask someone to name a jeans brand, that’s easy. But if you ask them to name a home interior brand, they’ll probably struggle. In the US, I saw that D2C was already a big thing, and that the bedding market was booming. In the Netherlands, however, we were still lagging behind in that area. So I looked at the opportunity from a business perspective.

At the same time, I was looking for new bedding and couldn’t find anything I liked. I know that sounds cliché—many founders start this way—but the market was either price-driven or very high-end but too expensive. Most of what I saw had loud prints. And the high-end stuff was often a bit old-fashioned—embroidered patterns and uninspiring designs, especially at department stores like De Bijenkorf. We wanted to offer hotel-quality bedding, but with more than just white—we wanted to bring something special.

My partner is a textile designer who also teaches at the Design Academy. So we thought: why don’t we do it ourselves? We went to Portugal to visit several manufacturers—combining business with a family holiday, since we brought our kids—and that’s how the adventure started.

What’s also important is that after 20 years in advertising, I felt my motivation fading. I wanted to do something more meaningful, and I found sleep a fascinating domain. Sleep is gaining more attention, with scientific research, sleep apps, and more.

We didn’t want to create a purely functional brand, but rather one with emotional value. A brand with identity, with purpose—not just nice, soft products. That’s how we came up with the line: “You can’t change the world overnight, but a good night’s sleep is a hell of a start.”

That led us to Suite702, named after the suite where John Lennon and Yoko Ono famously stayed in bed for a week during their honeymoon to protest for world peace. That was over 50 years ago, but it’s still iconic—especially for Amsterdam—and we thought it was a beautiful story to build around.

For us, sustainability was a starting point, not necessarily a differentiator. We care deeply about sustainable business practices—all our products are organic—but from there, we looked at how else we could stand out. One of our key USPs is our huge assortment of colors that are all mix-and-matchable. That’s been a major driver of our growth.

Finally, our collection is season-less. We’re not tied to fashion seasons, but we do follow color trends. Literally and figuratively, we’re trying to bring a bit more color into the bedroom.