Casper is an online startup founded in 2014 that sells mattresses and bedding. Full stop.

But according to the company’s S-1 filing on Friday to go public, Casper is so much more than that: It’s a “pioneer of the Sleep Economy,” a term which appears 59 times in the filing. Casper says the “Sleep Economy” was $432 billion in size in 2019, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan. Casper “innovates throughout the Sleep Economy.”

It also lost $92.1 million in 2018 on $358 million in revenue. In 2019, it lost $80 million on returns, refunds, or discounts. And it’s burned through $422.8 million in marketing in the last three years.

Yet the company has a valuation of $1.1 billion.

Unique risks and big competition

Casper highlights its “compelling experiences with customers making repeat purchases,” but the Wall Street Journal in December highlighted how easily the free trials offered by Casper and others can be abused.

Under Casper’s risk factors, there’s some of the boilerplate unicorn fare (“We have a history of losses and expect to have operating losses and negative cash flow as we continue to expand our business”) but also a warning about the much-ballyhooed Sleep Economy (“The market for sleep as a retail category is still emerging and if it does not continue to grow... our brand, business, financial condition, or results could be adversely affected”) and a warning about its use of influencers: “Use of social media and influencers may materially and adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties”).

And under competition, Casper says it competes with “legacy mattress manufacturers” like Serta Simmons and Sleep Number, plus fellow direct-to-consumer startups like Purple (which is public), Leesa, and Brooklinen. (And there are dozens more that Casper doesn’t name.) But since Casper also sells “soft goods,” it says it also competes with Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Ralph Lauren, and Martha Stewart. And since Casper also sells “bedroom furniture” it says it also competes with Ikea, Pottery Barn, West Elm, Amazon, Wayfair, and Overstock. Are there any retailers left that aren’t competitors?

Unicorn hype and “Oprah-speak”

So Casper loses money and its losses last year accelerated; it’s competing with an extensive list of retailers including behemoths like Amazon; and it’s spending a lot on marketing to millennials.

That sounds a lot like the conclusions from Peloton’s S-1 filing last August.

Peloton sells exercise bikes and treadmills, but in its S-1 filing, CEO John Foley said Peloton “sells happiness.” (Casper, similarly, says it is ““making shopping for sleep joyful.”) Peloton’s filing also defined Peloton as a “technology company... a media company... an interactive software company... a product design company... a social connection company... a direct-to-consumer, multi-channel retail company... an apparel company... a logistics company.”