Instant Relaxation With the Original Weighted Pillow
The Origin Story of Quiet Mind
Last Updated: By TRUiC Team
There are lots of products that offer relief for people who live with attention deficit disorder, anxiety, stress, insomnia, and similar conditions. However, chances are that a pillow doesn’t come to mind as something that could address these issues.
Mikey Goldman, founder of Quiet Mind, thinks otherwise. He says his company offers “a compact and convenient alternative to weighted blankets in the form of an ultra-soft weighted pillow that you can hug and will hug you back – like a de-stress ball for your body.” This is Quiet Mind’s origin story.
‘A Racing Mind and Ants in my Pants’
Mikey got the idea for a weighted pillow based on personal experiences growing up with learning differences.
“I am part of the over-prescribed generation directly impacted by the ease at which serious drugs were ‘handed’ out to kids and teens before natural alternatives were even discussed,” he says. “I grew up with a racing mind and ants in my pants, always struggling in school to focus and sit still – and formally diagnosed with severe ADHD and math dyslexia (dyscalculia) in high school.”
He was prescribed a drug in college that “worked wonders” and helped him succeed, but which had severe side effects and led to more prescription drug use. “Before I knew it, I was completely dependent on a daily routine of prescribed drugs like Vyvanse, Adderall, Klonopin, Ambien, and Xanax,” he says. “I started to suffer physically and mentally, and the people I loved did, too. Through a brutal withdrawal period, I eventually got off all prescriptions.”
It took years for his body to recover from the lack of pharmaceutical stimulants. However, he put that time to good use, experimenting with dozens of wellness products, experiences, and drug alternatives. “I was mesmerized by the benefits of deep touch pressure and weighted technology, but like many people with ADHD, I found weighted blankets uncomfortable,” he says. “Quiet Mind solves for those areas of discomfort with an alternative in the form of the first-ever Original Weighted Pillow, a convenient and reliable solution for people like me.”
Mikey points out that weighted pillows aren’t hot or claustrophobic like weighted blankets can be. They’re also easier to move from place to place. Plus, while a weighted blanket can only simulate the sensations of being hugged, a weighted pillow can also simulate the feeling of hugging someone else.
Target Market
Quiet Mind markets its products to the approximately 20% of Americans who identify as neurodivergent, as well as anyone else who could use a sense of calm now and again.
“The Original Weighted Pillow can be used for sensory seekers, to increase focus, reduce anxiety, as a recovery tool for athletes, and many other use cases,” Mikey says. “There are so many people who struggle with mental health and are actively looking for natural solutions to help alleviate these symptoms. So anyone with anxiety, stress, ADHD, autism, and loneliness are at the forefront, but it broadens to people in need of a natural way to calm them down.”
‘Just Go and Do It’
Mikey advises early-stage entrepreneurs to actively pursue an idea if they’re passionate about it.
“My number one piece of advice is if there's an idea that completely consumes you, just go and do it,” he says. “I enjoyed marketing, but there wasn't passion there. This idea [of a weighted pillow] consumed me so much. Everything about me became pillows, and I was so excited and consumed by the pillow information that I said, you're gonna do it. So if you ever have an idea that just does consume your life, that's a telltale sign that you should probably jump into that.”
He also advises founders to look at funding as a marathon rather than a sprint.
“View the funding process as a long journey, one that is accomplished in milestones, and [realize] that anything can be achieved with limited funding. I never raised a massive round all at once to get started. I made a prototype to validate my idea and get me ‘in the room’ with an investor, which got me some funding to hit my next milestone, which led me to the next person, and so forth. It’s the small wins that create the big wins.”
Improving Product Awareness
One of Mikey’s business goals is to make the public as familiar with weighted pillows as they are with weighted blankets.
“Next for Quiet Mind is to not only dominate the weighted pillow market… but it's to get [the] weighted pillow at the same place as weighted blankets as a viable option for people looking for natural calm, and to get it to a place where when someone hears weighted pillow, they understand what that means,” he says. “So we really are growing out our weighted pillow business specifically because we want it to become synonymous with calm just the same way weighted blankets are.”
One way he plans to get there is to introduce pillows in more colors and other variations. He also wants to expand to other products besides pillows. “We have some new exciting products coming out, and then we really want to use the weighted pillow as our stake at the ground to say, hey, here's our first product to market,” he says.
