Who We Are

Michael Penny

Launching an organic mattress company is nothing I set out to do, yet Savvy Rest has been the natural and happy result of choices I made along the way.

I am a yoga teacher at heart. I lived and taught in a yoga community for 20 years. I loved helping people to relax and experience their own inner world.

Later I worked for a futon company and gradually learned the mattress business; how they are made, and how they are marketed and sold. As I learned what toxic chemicals and allergens wind up in mattresses these days, it became my life's work to create a healthy, comfortable alternative.

I am passionate about health and how sleep contributes to well being, and I enjoy giving talks to groups about sleep and holistic health.

My staff and I go out of our way to establish and maintain excellent communication among ourselves, and with our dealers and customers. We treat one another and everyone in our circles with dignity and respect. Positive relationships foster good business, and our success is primarily due to this commitment. We say what we mean, and we do what we say.

That's who we are. Our mission is to offer you mattresses and pillows that create the healthiest sleeping environment possible.

Seanan Maranzano

I graduated from the University of Virginia in 2004 in anthropology, and then worked on a yacht out of Fort Lauderdale. That was exciting, but I wasn’t destined to be a deckhand.

Sleep has fascinated me since high school. The rigor of trying to balance academics, sports, work and other activities wore me down. I felt like an android, stiff and disconnected. Just when my mind needed to be at its sharpest, I was spending more time on assignments and getting less done. I also became increasingly irritable. It got to the point where I would fall asleep sitting up in class. I knew I shouldn’t be so tired all the time.

I studied sleep for a research paper and learned that although people spend nearly a third of their lives sleeping, they typically understand little about the sleep cycle and how it affects their everyday lives. I reprioritized my sleep time and began paying closer attention to my sleep habits, and soon noticed an improvement in my health and well being. Sleep studies also resurfaced in my college psychology courses. Still, I would never have guessed that a few years later I would be helping other people find sleep solutions. I love what I do.

I feel an ethical responsibility to leave the smallest possible ecological footprint behind. I know after my Savvy Rest mattress has served its purpose it will decompose without seeping toxins into the land and water. I want future generations to enjoy the same hobbies and beautiful scenery I have. And in the present, I work hard, play hard and can get up and do it again because I sleep like a hibernating bear on my Savvy Rest.

Dominick Palamenti

I joined the Savvy Rest team in November of 2006 after weathering the sale of a company I had been part of for 14 years. I had seen a darker side of business during that process, so it is a pleasure now to be part of a company in which transparency is highly valued and honest interaction is the norm.

But business was not my first love. I spent many years training as an actor and performing in theater productions in Switzerland, Italy, New York and now in Virginia. These days, however, I am focusing more on my passion for the outdoors. Specifically, kayaking. My wife (the best adventure partner a man could ask for) and I have gone on kayak-camping expeditions in Assateague, along the Outer Banks, on the Roanoke River and, most challenging, in the Everglades. 

When not battling wind and tide we enjoy spending time in our Virginia home cooking great food and listening to the sound of the spring peepers.

I have always loved to sleep. All my other interests aside, it is my favorite pastime. My wife loves the irony of my job.

It is very satisfying to apply my business skills and contribute to the growth of a company that has such an important mission: helping people to find the healthiest possible sleep.

Laura Wallace

I’ve worked in the creative side of marketing and publishing for 20 years, including stints as an editor for Prevention Magazine Health Books and in senior editorial positions at a few intrepid dot-coms. I earned my M.A. from The Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, and returned to Baltimore years later to head up the editorial division of a publishing firm. I’ve always felt there should be blue mountains at the end of every street, though, so I’m glad I came home to Charlottesville.

One night, awake with back pain, I thought, I need a new mattress. I hopped on the computer and found Savvy Rest. Michael responded to my query, and I soon realized that to him, courtesy and integrity are simply the way to do business.

It’s both gratifying and fun to spread the word about Savvy Rest, and I am happy to be part of this team of smart, caring and conscientious people. To me, Savvy Rest means not only a wonderful organic mattress, but right livelihood, too.

Gretchen Watson

People drift into and out of our lives for all purposes, perhaps to love, or teach. You will find them and lose them again and again. One late December day, just such a person told me, "Life is a journey." This has stayed with me as a defining principle.

My career path has never been a straight one, how could it be with a BA in Theatre from Allegheny College?

My first job was memorable. I was in charge of outreach at a small zoo in Erie, Pennsylvania. There aren’t many jobs during which you look out the window and see a giraffe looking in at you with solemn brown eyes. Later I served as a college admissions counselor, trying to interest rural high-schoolers in higher education, not an easy sell in some areas. Yet many came, and became good students with bright futures. I’m still proud of that. I've also done nonprofit fund-raising and grant-writing, which I love.

Here at Savvy Rest, I enjoy giving people the information they need to make informed choices about their health, especially about the quality of their sleep. And I enjoy all the interesting people I encounter in the course of the day.

Gopal Penny

Starting at a young age, I was educated about the harmful effects of chemicals in our everyday products. Growing up with my family, we slept on futons and shopped at local health food stores. So I feel completely at home marketing and discussing the benefits of a mattress containing only natural materials.

I started at Savvy Rest in early 2009, where I've been handling our online marketing. In particular, I've been been working with the website to make it more user-friendly. But when I'm not buried in my computer screen, I also enjoy helping people choose the mattress that best fits their needs.

I graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007, where I studied electrical engineering and participated in various service activities and study abroad trips. After completing my studies, I worked in the solar energy industry before coming to Savvy Rest.

In my free, time I enjoy playing sports, dancing, and cooking fresh, gourmet dinners with my friends.

Judd Jarvis

I received my B.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Miami in Florida and an M.F.A. in ceramics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I have moved around a bit, starting in Iowa, and now live in Virginia with my wife Brooke and two mutts. I am currently in the process of getting my pottery studio up and running.

Over the years we have slowly added greener choices to our life: food, cleaning supplies, and home projects. The one item in the house that seems to have been overlooked was the mattress we spent seven hours a night on. The only requirement of our mattresses has been, “Does it hurt my back? No. I’ll take it!” But, we didn’t know that much about mattresses. All we knew was that we love sleep and a Queen size gets a little cramped with two humans and two bed-loving dogs.

Luckily I found Savvy Rest in August of 2007.  I work in the warehouse putting orders together and shipping them all over.  It is a great job with excellent people and an education all rolled into one.