Morgan Lavoie
speaker
350 appearances
16 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard May 2025
Morgan Lavoie’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsNo recordings in the last 12 months.Older appearances are listed below; set an alert to hear about the next one.
Appearances
So you knew that you wanted to apply innovation and disruption to an old school business. And we actually did an episode about this on the show a couple of weeks ago because we've been seeing a lot of business media recently really glorifying some of those kind of more traditional businesses. Like there's a lot of reporting around is the plumber your millionaire next door type of thing.
But businesses like plumbing, pest control, laundromats. And I think part of the reason why there's this glorification happening in the media is because there's more PE activity around these types of businesses. So is this what you were seeing 11, almost 12 years ago that made you excited about an idea like Rinse?
I love that, that sort of check-in of, are you still excited about this? Are you still excited about this? And so you went through that process of saying, what am I good at? And then you mentioned another question you asked yourself, which is so important. And it's that question of like, is this something that's needed? Like, what do people need? And I think that...
That can be an easy trap for entrepreneurs to fall into. If they're just really excited about an idea, they feel like they want to do something, but actually testing whether or not something is needed, their ideal customer profile is somebody who actually needs this service. And so you did a test with 11 friends. Was there anything about that test that surprised you?
Yeah. Yeah. Debate debatably. One of the more important steps was rinse always called rinse, or was there another idea for the name of the business that you tossed around?
That makes so much sense. And I'm so glad that you did that. And I love that you brought up Lyft because I was wondering if this story would go like, we considered Rince with a Y, we considered Rince without an I, we considered Rince with no E at the end. So that's the origin story of, Fast forward 11, almost 12 years.
I'd love for you to sort of paint a picture for the listeners about what the service actually looks like. So I'm in a room where I can see my laundry hamper right now. I have a puppy. We went to the dog park today. We both came back muddy and disgusting. If I want to use rinse, can you tell me about the journey that my now muddy pair of jeans will go on?
That's something that really does... sort of serve as a heartbeat through rinse, the consideration of the people along that are involved in the processes, like the fact that your valets are W2 employees and the fact that you actually are supporting local mom and shop businesses, because especially like you think about the time and the influences, you mentioned Uber and Lyft.
Around the same time, people are getting really interested in marketplaces like Airbnb. And so I could see a world in which Rinse is a marketplace that helps people find those mom and pop shops. Or you could have decided we're going to have Rinse facilities and we'll own the space and the machines and things like that.
But I love that you've kept this through line of just really considering the industry at large and the people involved to pull it off. It really shows.
Yeah, that's great. Make mom proud. That's going to be our KPR, our key performance indicator for next year. I love that.
Speaking of KPIs for next year, we're approaching the end of 2024. This is a time where people, businesses are making their goals for next year. Can you talk a little bit about how you set goals as a company and use what your goals are for 2025 as an example of that decision-making process?
I love how you take this sort of, there's a lot to do, but we don't have to do a lot and give people a framework that they can always sort of do a gut check of like, does this support the overarching goal? And we had the co-founder of Club Penguin come on the show a while ago.
And he said that they had a similar framework where, you know, the company was big and they were selling to Disney and they were getting invited to all of these conferences. And they were like, wouldn't eight-year-olds care about this? And that was sort of their their pillar. And so if an eight year old wouldn't care about it, they just sort of didn't do it.
And that was how they filtered like there's a lot to do. But what are the things that we're actually going to do and what should we be putting our focus on? And I know for for 2025, in fact, you may be announcing it today as we're as we're talking, but you're doing a partnership with Barrier Free Living. Can you talk a little bit about what that is?
I do think that that is such a smart way to provide that social impact because I remember even when I was going to college, my mom moving me in my freshman year, the first thing she said was, you have to make your bed because that's what makes you feel like you're having this fresh start in your home. That's really amazing.
I'm sure between your social impact work and the growth and profitability goals you have for next year, 2025 is going to be another great year for Rinse. And Again, like this is the time of year where businesses are making their goals for the year. Individuals are also making their goals for the year. We hear from a lot of listeners who are like, I've always wanted to start a business.
It's 2025, the year that I actually do it. Can you give advice for a founder in those shoes or a would-be founder about how to know when it's the right time to make the leap?
Yeah. And what about founders or potential founders who are in discussion with friends about starting a business together? I know that this is, of course, something that you did with James. You had known each other since college. And I think people worry if I start a business with a friend, how do I make sure that neither suffers?
The friendship doesn't suffer, but also the business doesn't suffer because of the friendship. So what advice would you give to friends who are considering starting something together?
Showing 281–300 of 350 · page 15 of 18
← Previous
Next →