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Napoleon B. - Part 1
At its peak in the mid-2000s, 1-800-MATTRESS was the leading bedding telemarketing company in the US. 1-800-Mattress offered same-day delivery in as little as two hours, selling their products both over the phone and online. In 1976, Napoleon Barragan started the company with little more than some zeal (and help from his wife and kids). Thirty years later, the company boasted more than 300 employees and 250 showrooms across the US. 2006 proved to be an astronomically successful year for 1-800-MATTRESS, making them over $150 in gross revenue.
But in 2009, the company suffered heavily from the nationwide financial crisis, and the Barragan family also experienced a series of personal tragedies which affected both them and their beloved business. That same year, 1-800-MATTRESS filed for bankruptcy and was sold to a competitor.
Napoleon Barragan was born on March 8th, 1941 in the small farming village of Bolivar, Ecuador. He slept on a dirt floor alongside his three brothers (Carlos, Cristobal, and Nestor) and two sisters (Marta and Marcella). At age seventeen, he left his childhood home without so much as a goodbye, making his way to Colombia. Despite sleeping in the streets and park benches of Barranquilla, Napoleon eventually found a job selling beverages. One street he trod during work was so steep that he was even given a donkey by his employer so thirsty customers could get their beer on time.
Napoleon’s next job consisted of teaching elementary school in Colombia, without so much as a high school diploma as a credential. Nap worked up to becoming a university professor and opened a new language school in Colombia that still operates to this day. Along the way, he met Kay, another teacher and school administrator, who eventually became his wife in 1966. Soon they welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Kay, after her mother.
In 1968, Napoleon’s mother-in-law invited him and his young family to leave their home in South America to live with her in New York. She sent them money for a flight to the states, where they shared a small apartment in Queens. For their first few years in Queens, Nap worked several manufacturing jobs, while his wife, Kay, sold Avon products door to door. Soon she was making more than twice as much as her husband, and it was with her help that Napoleon would place his first ad when starting his own business in the 1970s.