Why This Comforter Startup Had to Make Its Product Less Perfect When Buffy set out to build a cozy, cooling, eco-friendly comforter, they encountered an unexpected problem in manufacturing -- and had to solve it by making the item less perfect.

Leo Wang is a second-­generation bedding maker, raised in a family that has always sold duvets filled with goose or duck down. Wang wanted to make a product that was more eco- and animal-friendly, so late last year, he launched his startup, Buffy, with a single product: a comforter filled with material spun from recycled plastic bottles. It was a success, but Wang wanted to push further and create a plant-based comforter filler. "But there's no playbook for that," he says.

Related: The 3 "R's" That Reveal the Quality of Your Product

He started working with eucalyptus, which he knew would regulate heat; however, his prototypes had a problem. Customers reported that the eucalyptus filler shifted around in the comforter until it was uncomfortably out of place. So Wang reexamined the filler, trying to understand why.