There’s A $40 Billion Opportunity In Laundry

0:00Hey, business besties. Welcome back to Female Founder World. I'm Jasmine. I'm the host of the show and the person behind all things Female Founder World. Today I'm chatting with Ireland. She is the founder of Laundrette. Welcome. Hi, thank you so much for having me. For people who don't know Laundrette, what are you guys doing? So we are a full service, modern, eco-friendly, sustainable laundromat. We're based in Williamsburg and what we're really focusing on is a customer centric approach and really building a community and also building a relationship with our customers. I saw I think I came across you on Instagram or maybe TikTok or somewhere and I saw what you were doing it was like this kind of like a little bit like sheikah looks like it's a better experienced laundromat than what you might typically see around the city and immediately I got it where I was like oh I can totally sit with this opportunity here it is the same as what has happened in so many other spaces like nail salons or with Chill House or or maybe like global what they've done with the like the facial and beauty treatments where it's like this more just better experience cuter environment totally scalable through different locations business idea and innovating in a category that's been around forever and ever and ever is super super boring and so no one's going into it and immediately I was like oh I want to talk to her and have her on the show yeah I'm so excited so you launched in January right yes okay so you're new and I want to talk about this.

1:33I want to talk about what this first like year in business is like. We talk about, we talk with folks on the show who've, you know, exited their businesses and been acquired and people at all different stages. And I really like genuinely want this show to be a place where people come to learn about what is working right now and what is not working right now. And I think talking to people who are actively in the like launching and getting traction and that stage and getting like the honest feedback from them is so, so valuable and that's why I wanted to talk to you as well. Yeah totally I think there's all stages of business and we're pretty early on and there's so many things that you know I wish I had known or I would love to have come on and had someone talk about the first couple months because they're crazy you have to be prepared for the crazy and I think sharing anything about that would be really beneficial for anyone that listens.

2:24What was the opportunity that you saw that made you think okay I'm going to open a laundromat in Williamsburg. Yeah. So it's funny. I was living in California when we were deciding to do this and looking at a whole bunch of different industries for some context. I used to do medical sales. So I've worked in a corporate situation and then I freelanced for a bit, creating media. And so I kind of have experience in a lot of different industries. And so I was making a pivot and really wanted to create something of my own. and when I was looking into doing so I was talking to my parents kind of about just different industries and just the world right now and this was a few years ago so kind of post-covid there's a lot going on obviously and we randomly got into the topic of okay their friends are retiring they're at that age and there's all these essential boring businesses that really run the world that a lot of people in my generation never even think about, you know.

3:24And so I saw an opportunity there and we really started to look into this world of boring businesses. And it was so fascinating because there's all these industries that just absolutely kill it, but haven't been reimagined in years. You know, it's almost like if it's not broke, don't fix it. But there's so much opportunity, I think, in fixing it and giving it like a facelift, if you will. I was in LA and I'm sure you're familiar with Air One, that grocery store. They're a grocery store, but they've really created like a cult following almost off of their branding and their partnerships with celebrities.

4:03And, you know, they make people want to shop there. So that's just one example of so many things that are really taking this model of turning something into just something more exciting for customers, something that people want to be a part of. So that's really where the idea was born from. I love this idea of building a boring business, you know, and creating because, you know, a lot of us want to create fashion brands or beauty brands or whatever. And those spaces are, you know, there's always, there is always an opportunity to do something differently, but those spaces are so crowded. And so it's so interesting to hear from someone who has genuinely found like a white space where you can innovate and create something new.

4:42Can you talk about what the market size and what the opportunity is for you in this like laundromat space? So when we started looking into it, the laundromat industry is a$40 billion market worldwide. And in the US alone, it's$7 billion. So we saw a huge opportunity there. And we thought, you know, there's not really any laundromats that have like monopolized the industry. It's kind of a lot of one-offs, especially here in New York. Everyone has like their local laundromat. so we really saw an opportunity in creating a brand that's recognizable in the laundromat space so if we ever take it somewhere else or even just go somewhere else in the city people recognize it and they know that not only their belongings will be safe there but they can go and hang out there and be comfortable and enjoy a task that's really essential for everybody.

5:29I want to know what you did when you decided this was an opportunity you wanted to pursue like what were those first steps you did to like make this a thing, make it real? Yeah. So this is so crucial, I think, for people that are thinking about starting a business, because when I first got into this, I didn't know really what went into it, especially if you're looking for fundraising or anything like that. I treated it almost like a school project, if you will, because a lot of the beginning stages are all hypothetical. You're dealing with numbers based on research. So nothing's truly real yet.

6:03You're putting together business plans and pro formas, which are financial projections based on research that you're doing. And so it can be a little bit daunting and a little bit confusing, honestly, when you're dealing with all this data and then presenting it to investors because you're like, I don't really have anything yet. But you have to just get comfortable and confident with all of the research that you've done. and I'd say confidence is really huge in the beginning because you're really selling yourself and selling your ideas. So if you really put in the work and do the research and figure out your industry and know about the market and have the answers to all the hard questions that are going to come at you, you will already be miles ahead of everybody else.

6:48Where do you find this dotto? You can literally just Google laundromat market size, grocery store market size and there are so many just really good resources that you can pull from. I also recommend when you're doing so to cite all these sources because I had people ask me, where did you get these numbers? You know, where is this coming from? How do I know you're not making this up? Because again, you don't really have anything going into it. And it's kind of like a trust me and this is a great idea. But online, we're so connected and have so many resources available to us that truly just deep diving on the internet, again, like you're doing a school project is like the best resource you could have.

7:27Is opening a physical like laundromat, a physical space, is that quite an expensive thing to do? Yes. So it's interesting because a lot of like a brand or clothing or, you know, things of that nature that live primarily online, you can start without a lot of capital. But when you are building like a brick and mortar store. Yeah, the capital is there. There's rent, there's utilities, there's the construction process. If you're going to do a build out, of course, with a laundromat, you can buy them and renovate them. But for what we were doing and the market that we were trying to get into and the demographic we wanted to reach, we found ourselves with this white box of a space that we had to totally reimagine and put all the machines into so it was the machines as well yes so it's a very front heavy project and that is why for us especially like the pro forma and everything was crucial because we were dealing with big numbers you know and you have to either buy or finance the machines you have to get the space you have to put money down as if you were doing an apartment construction all the furnishings and there's just so much that goes into it so that was huge for us feel free to say no but can you talk about what some of the numbers are and like those big expenses and again like this is your business you don't have to share anything i don't want anyone to leave the show with a vulnerability hangover but i know a lot of like a lot of people are kind of like looking at these businesses and the questions of numbers i just just feel like this black box that you just can't crack yeah now for a quick word from our sponsor adobe express adobe believes that creativity is a superpower for entrepreneurs and adobe express is all about making that power accessible for small businesses and founders.

9:08You know, the ones that wear a million hats. Built with founders in mind, Adobe Express features ready-to-go templates for everything from product mock-ups to pitch decks and Instagram stories. It works on mobile and desktop, so you can literally design from anywhere, anytime, even in between meetings or on your way to a pop-up. Adobe Express, the quick and easy create anything app. Get started for free at adobe.com forward slash express in the app store or google play store so with our business especially where we're at in new york the rent is really crucial so from our advisors something that went into this and it was also funny talking to our advisors because again it's an older industry so a lot of people that we met in the industry when we first presented to the idea to them it was almost like crickets at first they're like what are you what do you want to make like a cute you know laundromat and by the end of it all now they're like oh I totally see where you were going it's so smart you know people love it but in the beginning we were looking for a space that had the demographic that would be interested so Williamsburg was perfect you know really high renting capacity middle income we also really wanted it to be accessible for people so keeping the price point low was really important to us but I can go into that more later but right in Williamsburg You know, you have people that have high incomes, medium incomes, like students, renters, owners.

10:36So just a huge range of people. And that really fits into our business model. But rent is something that in the laundromat industry, you want to keep it relatively low. And ours sits at right under like$13 ,000 a month, which is higher. We got recommended like$5 ,000 to$7 ,000. Right. So we kind of doubled it. But when we looked into the demographics, there was the opportunity there that somewhere else maybe wouldn't have. So we really ran those numbers. We really found out how many people are around us that use laundromats. And luckily, the brand of the machines, Electrolux, that we went with, they had a whole team that worked with us to pull the numbers.

11:15And they had all this data because they're trying to sell you these machines at the end of the day. I bet they're super expensive. Yes, they're really expensive. You can either finance them or buy them. There's positives and negatives to both. You know, obviously you're going to have interest if you're financing them. We bought the machines outright because we put it into our business and we raised the money for it. And we didn't want to have to pay the interest on them. Also, now it's an asset of ours. So another thing, if you own the machines moving forward, let's say, you know, shit hit the fan.

11:47You could sell them if you really needed to. So there's positives and negatives to all of that. But really figuring out what the demographic was and what we could sell to people and how much we could sell to people was super important in finding out how much we could spend in the beginning, if that makes sense. You mentioned fundraising and raising a bit of money. What have you done and what's the process been? So in the beginning, we started by making that pro forma, making that business plan, because that's really what you bring to investors. They want a whole presentation. They want to know the market.

12:23They want to know the industry. They want to know barriers to entry, any advantages you might have. How are you going to stand out? How are you going to win the customers? Those are all high level questions. And then you get done into the nitty gritty. You know, what are the numbers? What do you need in the pro forma? you literally outline like how much it's going to cost per month to operate. How many employees are you going to need? If you're financing those machines, how much is it going to be? You have to factor in paying back the loan that you're applying to get. So there's just all these different things and keeping those numbers as low as possible.

12:56But when you're approaching people, you need to be realistic. And it's funny, before I came on here, I was looking back at all the numbers and it kind of made me giggle a little bit because it was, we undershot how much it would cost and then we over projected how much we'd be making which is pretty which is so common so common but i wish you know i almost would say like give yourself like a 20 buffer because there's so many things like the taxes on the machines shipping these machines that are thousands and thousands of pounds cost twenty thousand dollars and we just didn't even factor that in you know so which is silly it's like how are they going to get there but you need to be and that's really where research comes in as well.

13:38Like really making sure you're checking every single box because when things come up as they will, especially when you're doing construction in New York City, you know, it's very difficult. You mentioned a loan. How does someone get a loan if you haven't built a business before? You don't have that experience. What was your experience going through that? Yeah. So there's a couple of different ways to get a loan. We did a family and friends round. So we have a family member that's an equity investor and then we finance the rest through a loan. So there's a couple different ways that you can do this in our personal experience again we did friends and family and then we got a 15-year loan with four percent interest which we were really happy about yeah so that that was a really favorable loan that was another reason that we were able to proceed and do all of this you can also go through banks you can go through outside investors you know venture capitalists there's a bunch of different ways to do it i'm talking like finance questions because like i just i just think this is really interesting and important when we're talking about the first year just being honest about this stuff what it takes and are you paying yourself in the business yet very little so I take shifts at the laundromat yeah and you know you're like on the front desk yes on the front desk doing every everything but yeah I will work the front desk and that's the only thing I'm paying myself right now as an LLC and as the business owner once we are profitable I will take my share but it's funny even saying that I'm like will I a little bit you know because I'm probably just going to reinvest it into the company but I think that's something that's really important to be aware of when you're going into entrepreneurship and starting a company is you're probably not going to make very much money for a while and you have to have a plan and you have to be prepared for that because even if the business is performing well you might not be personally you know and you have to either have savings or a second job or just anything being on social media, you know, anything that you can have a separate stream of income because it's also beneficial to be able to put that money back into the business.

15:37I'm always, every time I speak with someone and I ask that question, I am not surprised because I've heard this so many times before, but it's just a good reminder because people at all different stages of building companies who from the outside would look like they're absolutely killing it. And the business is doing really well. Very rarely are they paying themselves very much and I just think it's really important to share that often it's um you know particularly folks who are like building something that they can exit one day like it does take a salary sacrifice for a really long time to be able to do that and I just think that's really important to like put up there up front how are your customers finding you our customers find us primarily on Instagram we deliver all over Manhattan and most of Brooklyn so getting customers outside of the Williamsburg area has been mainly online and then just the nature of the launch event business word of mouth and just people walking by you know for traffic it's New York City we put our signage out like two months prior to opening and that was huge for us because we'd be in the store wrapping up and people would knock and poke their head and be like when are you opening you know we're so excited um so that was huge for us but Instagram yeah we um got a lot of attention right off the bat we got lucky enough to get reached out to by some instagram accounts one was new york locals like first week of business they reached out and wanted to do a story on us so that was really helpful because they obviously have like a lot of new yorkers that follow them but other than that we've had a couple posts go viral kind of sharing our story and giving background and kind of just like opening up to everybody i think people really resonate when they can see who's behind a brand and they can connect with somebody and we really opened up and like introduced ourselves in the process and everything that went into it so I think people really gravitated towards that how is that going like are you are you like happy with the foot traffic that you're getting and the new customers that you're getting obviously so early on but I know that you're on track to hit break even like now yeah so last month it's funny we were on pace and did hit the break even point You know, the number that we've been waiting for.

17:44Yeah, thanks so much. So that's another thing that I'll go into after. But as an entrepreneur, you hit like a milestone and it's like, OK, what's next? You know, it's almost like celebrating the wins can be kind of difficult. But yeah, so we were on track to break even last month and it ended up being there were five Fridays last month. And so we paid our employees five times. And yeah, in true entrepreneur fashion, we did not break even because. Ruined the math. Of the extra salary, yes. But we hit the number and that was amazing. And I'm referring to the number as what we did in our pro forma.

18:18So it's really amazing to have a really solid pro forma because now we kind of use it as like, are we on track, you know, with the projected numbers? So that's another really important thing about the beginning stages, bringing it into the first couple months is you have this kind of guideline on, okay, are we on track? And to answer your question about, are we happy with the foot traffic and everything? We are. It's really interesting. Laundry is very habitual for people, you know, moving from your current situation to your next situation. It's very personal. It's a really personal industry, you know.

18:51And there's like trust that's required as well. 100%. People invest into their clothes. Clothes are not cheap, as we all know. And we're taking care of people's clothing and they trust us with it. So to get someone to switch over isn't as easy as just like trying a new smoothie or, you know, going to a new grocery store in the morning. It's really personal. so I think sharing us and us being there all the time people walk in they're like oh my gosh you're here all the time I'm like yes but it's been great because we get to meet everybody and talk to them and I hand out my personal cell number you know to our customers and they'll text me and oh I forgot to tell you my white shirt has this on it or can you wash it this way so I think that's been really huge people talk to us over DM on Instagram all the time and we also are really open and honest about our mission to really give like genuine care to people's clothing and not only that but provide a really good customer experience and I think walking in you know it's been really rewarding hearing people go oh my gosh this is the nicest laundromat I've ever been in or I'm so comfortable in here I love to hang out here I love your food and beverage you know just everything about it you have good music playing and I think that leads into the trust that we've with our customers as well they feel good being there is the plan to raise more money open more locations be like a dry bar or a glow bar of laundry yeah so we would love to open more locations another thing that we've kind of recently dove into in the last six weeks two months or so is a business to business laundry so commercial laundry servicing med spas gyms we had a boutique hotel.

20:36So it's really nice working from business to business. It kind of is a little bit more behind the scenes. And the thing about that also is they're on a retainer, you know, they're on contract. So you know that that business is coming back next month. Whereas with customers, even though we have a lot of people that subscribe to us and because you have a membership. Yeah, we have a membership really gives you that peace of mind for the next month. Like, oh, we have X amount of revenue that we're sure will be coming in because they're on contract. So that has been really great for us. But yeah, we do want to expand in the future.

21:09We're looking into potentially Manhattan. We're looking into other big cities that fit, you know, our business model and the demographic that we're going for. But yeah, we would love to expand. That's so cool. I can't wait to see what you do next. The last thing I want to ask you is for resource recommendations. A book, an app, something that's been helping you as you've been building your business. YouTube literally is like my back, which is my best friend. And I can find anything on YouTube and people really open up on YouTube as well. The long form content I think is really beneficial. So a reason that we were able to negotiate our rent down is because we saved the money up in the beginning.

21:49And we were able to do this literally off of YouTube, like chat GPT. Like learning how to do it. Learning how to do it. Also, podcasts, this podcast, other podcasts that are about founders and entrepreneurship, people really get into the nitty gritty, I think, of their business when they're talking. And something I've learned about not only being an entrepreneur, but surrounding myself with other people doing this is people love to talk about what they're doing and what they have going on, reaching out to people that are doing it, reaching out to people in your industry. I think people that are successful and that have been in your position before will talk to you and will help you and won't see you as like a threat necessarily.

22:27I had a lot of really great advisors and a team around me that have been in this space before that really shared their experience with me and helped navigate me when I was in a hard position like trying to make a decision. So really just reaching out to resources and using online because there's so much information out there for free. Thank you so much for coming on the show and congratulations on what you've and the launch of Laundrette. I'm so excited for you. And just like, we'll be following. We'll all be following to see how you go and what happens next. And if you're living in Williamsburg or Manhattan and you're listening to the show, we've got a new laundromat for you.

23:04Thank you so much. I really appreciate being here. I just wanted to jump in and end the show with a quick thank you and shout out to all of our paid Business Besties subscribers. Business Besties bypass literally years of networking by getting access to all of the people that you need to build your dream business. You also get invited to exclusive monthly group business coaching call sessions where you can speak to experts and founders and ask them all of those questions that you just can't Google. You can cancel anytime. Head to bestie.femalefounderworld.com or click the link in the show notes for more.