WHERE REST BEGAN

It started, as many great partnerships do, on a school playground. When Rick Louie transferred to a Vancouver elementary school in the 1990s, an astute teacher paired him with a classmate known for being the “nice one” who would show the new kid around. That student was Andy Nguyen. Rick's parents, like many Hong Kong families, had emigrated, landing in the multicultural, working-class Vancouver neighborhood of Renfrew Heights and getting assigned to Andy's school based on Postal Code alone.

What started as a teacher's intuition became one of the most enduring friendships—and eventually one of the most productive business partnerships—either of them would ever have. They played sports together obsessively: table tennis, track & field, soccer. They competed in everything, not just against each other, but as part of a tight-knit group of friends who were always pushing one another. They went to the same elementary school, the same high school, and stayed close through university. Thirty-plus years later, that same competitive energy—tempered now by trust and complementary strengths—is what powers Rest.

THE LONG ROAD TO THE RIGHT IDEA

After university, their paths diverged in unpredictably entrepreneurial ways. Rick, whose parents ran a restaurant in Vancouver, had grown up watching them build something of their own. He spent summers working odd jobs, then launched a reusable bag import business just as Canadian retailers were phasing out plastic—an emerging global trend he spotted early at a Chinese trade fair in the mid 2000s. From there he built out a full e-commerce operation, running Louie Supply as a one-man show: media buying, copywriting, customer service, fulfillment. He learned every corner of the business ecosystem firsthand.

Andy, meanwhile, took a brief corporate detour—a stint at PwC that lasted long enough to confirm he was, by his own admission, a terrible auditor. He was let go during the 2008 financial crisis layoffs, a moment he now describes as one of the best things that ever happened to him. He and Rick joined forces to launch a Halloween costume business together, flying products from China to stock a handful of pop-up stores in Vancouver. It worked—until Andy made the decision to move to China, and they wound it down. What the physical retail business taught Andy: Not going digital first was a critical mistake. China, he saw firsthand, was years ahead of the West on e-commerce. It was only a matter of time.

In Shanghai, Andy built a career in digital marketing at agencies working with major international brands—LEGO, Costa Coffee, HK Disneyland, Nike. He also helped Chinese brands like Ecovacs break into Western markets. He was learning how big, purpose-driven brands behave from the inside—the cult-level clarity of Disney, the athlete-in-everyone conviction of Nike. He filed it all away. He was waiting for the right moment.

THE PIVOT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

That moment arrived through a Chinese language tutor, a business-minded connection named Mr. Zhou, who shared Andy's instinct for identifying white space. The two of them began workshopping an idea: Build a company that could help manufacturers in Asia create real, competitive brands for the North American market. They held a workshop with Alibaba Group to meet manufacturers interested in going international. One attendee—a factory owner who supplied premium duvets to five-star hotels—raised his hand immediately. That handshake became the foundation of MTC Global and, eventually, Rest.

Andy called Rick. He remembers pacing outside on the street. A long coffee break. A pitch that didn't take long to land. Rick had been grinding through the increasingly cutthroat world of drop-shipping and was ready for something more substantial—a real brand, a real product, a real reason to keep building. The timing was perfect. Rick brought the performance marketing and full-stack e-commerce experience. Andy provided the brand strategy instincts. Mr. Zhou supplied the manufacturing relationships and operational backbone. They were also guided by the corporate expertise of Brian A. Wong, an entrepreneur and investor and long-time leader at Alibaba Group, who helped shape the brand vision, values, and positioning. Together, this team had something none of them could pull off alone.

BORN DURING A PANDEMIC, BUILT FOR AN EVOLVING MARKETPLACE

Rest launched in 2021—in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic. Flights were grounded, borders were closed, and Rick, Andy, and Mr. Zhou wouldn't meet in person for two and a half years. The company was built entirely over Zoom. What began as a logistical constraint became, in time, a superpower: a truly remote-first, globally distributed team that could tap talent from anywhere and remain resilient and agile in the face of shifting global dynamics and technological advancements. Today, Rest employs approximately 80 people across 13 countries. Morning, afternoon, and good night—all in the same call.

FINDING THE GAP IN THE BEDDING MARKET

Early on, Andy started interviewing friends in the US and Canada about their personal experiences with bedding brands. What he found was striking: Virtually nothing had changed in the industry in decades. The same products, the same retailers, the same minor aesthetic updates that perpetually lagged two to three years behind fashion and tech trends. The industry was overdue for disruption. DTC brands like Buffy and Cozy Earth were gaining traction, but no one was truly innovating on the product itself.

At the same time, the team was attending trade shows to explore how to take the emerging technology available in apparels and apply it to new verticals. They landed upon it: a cooling fabric that had gone viral in China and was already solving a real problem for a specific, underserved customer. They sampled it to a test group of menopausal and perimenopausal women. The feedback was unanimous. Rest had found its product.

They named the technology Evercool®, built the science around it, and made a deliberate decision that set Rest apart from every competitor: Rather than targeting the generic "if you sleep hot" crowd, they went specific. They solved a real problem for a real person—women going through perimenopause and menopause. Also, because Andy, Rick, and Mr Zhou were outsiders to the bedding industry, the team approached product development and messaging from a very different angle. They believe this naivety and optimism at the start allowed Rest to be different and stand out from the established crowd.

That clarity and desire to disrupt—combined with a supply chain that let them iterate in weeks rather than months—allowed Rest to do what legacy bedding brands couldn't: Move fast, go deep, and never compromise on quality.

THE MOMENT THAT LIT THE FUSE

In May 2022, Andy was cold-emailing editors of "best cooling comforter" roundup lists, attaching screenshots of early customer reviews and pointing out—politely but directly—that the products on their lists weren't actually cooling comforters. Good Housekeeping took the bait. The list of top 10 cooling comforters became 11 to make room for Rest. It was a tiny snowball. But it started an avalanche.

Since then, Rest has earned Good Housekeeping's Best Bedding Award for its Evercool® Cooling Comforter four years running, an Apartment Therapy Best List Award and a 2025 Health Sleep Award for the Evercool®+ Cooling Sheet Set, and a 2025 Oprah Daily Sleep O-Ward for the Evercool® Cooling Pillow. Rick calls the Good Housekeeping recognition the Oscars of bedding. And they're just getting started—Evercool® 2.0 (and beyond!) is already in development, because that's the Rest playbook: If it's the best, make it better.

WHAT REST REALLY STANDS FOR

Rest was never meant to be a luxury brand. The founders have always been deliberate about pricing: high enough to fund the quality, research, and craftsmanship the product demands; accessible enough that better sleep doesn't feel like a privilege. The goal has always been to make a customer say, "That was a little expensive—but worth every single penny." The reviews they get most often say exactly that, followed closely by: "Why didn't I buy this sooner?"

People talk constantly about diet and exercise as components of health and wellness. Health and wellness experts agree, sleep is considered the third pillar of health. However, it gets a fraction of the attention despite the fact that we spend a third of our lives doing it. Rest exists to close that gap: science-backed products, direct from manufacturer to consumer, designed to give every sleeper—regardless of their body temperature, their budget, or their bedtime—the best night's rest they've ever had.