Tech Tuesday: CordaRoy’s

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Happy Tech Tuesday. I’m Melanie Moron with UF Innovate, and have you ever been in a scenario where you want a mattress and a bean bag at the same time? Joining me is Byron Young, CEO and founder of CordaRoy’s. Byron, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you for having us. Welcome to our Gainesville facility out here, where we manufacture our products. Melanie Moron (00:27):

So speaking of your products, what do you guys do?

We make bean bags, for the most part. We make a bean bag that’s not your typical bean bag. It’s got shredded foam inside of it, and this is foam that would otherwise be sent to landfills. So what we do is we take this foam in here, we process it. We make sure it’s all brand new foam, so we don’t necessarily have to clean it, but we do have to go through it, make sure it’s proper for our products. So that’s what we’re doing back here. You see guys going through the foam. We shred the foam, we blow it into our products, and then we run it through a machine that packages it, much like the new mattress packaging that you see today, where it’s smashed and rolled so that we can ship it worldwide.

And what’s the story behind your company?

The story is that I was trying to come up with something 25 years ago. I wanted to invent something that would be something that only I had. And like I said, I saw an opening in the market for this corduroy fabric, but then I started messing around with this bean bag, and it’s a long story to how it ended up converting to a bed, but it turned out to be the biggest part of the company. And that’s what got us on Shark Tank and everything, as you know. Everybody thinks of us now as being a bean bag company. And now our challenge, really, is to convert the bean bag company into not necessarily a furniture company but a comfort company.

And what is going on here in this facility?

This is our local factory that we own. We brought this here because, to be honest with you, a lot of times we were having trouble with manufacturing. And when we had those troubles, I felt like I had no control of anything. And all I could do was hope that the manufacturers would do us right. And during one of those moments, I decided that it was time for us to have our own manufacturing facility here in the Gainesville area.

And speaking of Gainesville, how has being here helped your company grow?

Well, this is our home. I mean, this is where we started. This is where I went to school. This is where my wife was born and raised. I tell everybody that Gainesville’s just an amazing place, I guess, because of the college, the hospitals, all of the startups that we have here. It’s so startup-friendly, and there are so many smart people to work with here. If you have a problem or a question in Gainesville, you can always get it answered. There’s so much knowledge and expertise in Gainesville. Melanie Moron (02:51):

And for those who are interested in learning more, where can they go?

They can certainly go to our website. It’s cordaroys.com. It’s spelled very strangely, so if you can’t find it, you can always search for bean bag bed, and you will find us there.

Well, Byron, again, thanks so much for bringing us out here.

Thank you for having us.

And that’s another great Tech Tuesday. We’ll see you next time.

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