By all indications, Casper Sleep (CSPR) is the latest among high-profile startups that went public — only to let investors down

Shares of online mattress company rallied in their debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, but only because the company slashed its expected price range at the last minute. The stock priced at $12, the tail end of the range it floated, opened at $14.50 — but finished the day at $13.43. On Friday, the stock shed another 15% to trade above $11 per share.

It’s hardly been sweet dreams for the company, who has faced criticism for being unprofitable and for the high price it pays to acquire new customers and then retain them. Yet Co-Founder and CEO Philip Krim isn’t worried about it at all, telling Yahoo Finance the company is on “the path to profitability.”

“The business continues to grow very quickly, and we've been very pleased with where we're making investments and seeing the benefit of those investments,” he said.

Casper is one of the first well-known names to go public this year, and is a test of Wall Street’s appetite for unprofitable companies looking to go public. And at least one expert thinks Casper’s IPO is great for the public market, despite the stock’s lackluster debut.

“To the extent that they've been able to attract so much capital privately and go public in such a gold-plated way— it's a huge win for everyone,” Triton Research co-founder & CEO Rett Wallace told Yahoo Finance’s On the Move.

“What we can say is this is a terrific outcome: A company that makes neither a product nor a profit is successfully now a public company,” he added.

Wallace added that while there are bull and bear cases for the company, the most important part is Casper made it to their public debut.

“It’s all about going public today,” he said. “I would sign up to lose between $50 and $100 million a year every year, right, indefinitely, contractually, for a half billion dollar valuation to be a publicly traded stock.”

Casper estimated that the global sleep economy was worth about $432 billion last year. Krim said the company has plenty of room to grow from here.

“We continue to see rapid growth - though our market share is tiny today, so we have a long way to go,” he said.

Valentina Caval is a Producer at Yahoo Finance.

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