SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders
This Mom of 2 Wants to help Hotels Clean Sheets Faster but needs to update her Andriod App first
08 Feb 2024
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You are listening to Conversations with Nathan Latka, where I sit down and interview the top SaaS founders, like Eric Wan from Zoom. If you'd like to subscribe, go to getlatka.com.
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Jennifer launched Launder, that's L-O-N-D-R.com back in 2020 to help you use an app, get your laundry done quickly. She's now doing a kitchen garbage size bag for 35 bucks. 40% goes out to the folks actually doing the washers, right? So call it $17, 50 cents, something like that. She keeps the rest, is looking to scale.
Right now looking for an engineer so she can update her Android app and get that volume going again to get back up to about 100 bags per month like she was doing back in January of 2023. Hey folks, my guest today is Jennifer Meyer. She's a CEO of Launder and a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader focused on doing well by also doing good, which we love.
She's passionate about Launder, an on-demand laundry service because it improves the lives of customers and service providers, which also strengthens communities. Jennifer, you ready to take us to the top? Sure. All right. I just one question. How many pounds of laundry did Laundry process last week? Oh, gosh. Pounds of laundry.
You know, we're different than some of our competitors in that we don't do it by the pound. We charge just a flat rate by the bag. So last week, we're still running kind of in the early stages of startup. So I believe that we did about 20 bags last week. 40 or 20? 20. 20 bags last week. Okay, this is great. Talk to me a little bit more about the service.
So are you based in only one geo or are you worldwide? How do you structure the business? Well, we're open to all 50 states. We don't have customers in all 50 states. Primarily, most of our customers are in Idaho and Utah, but we do have some customers in Virginia, Miami, Illinois, and a couple little smattering of places across the country.
How do you get to break even in those locations where you might only have a couple people doing laundry each week? In other words, do you have to pay the person doing the laundry full time or are they sort of picking up the jobs as they come in through your app? It's the same profit ratio or expense ratio no matter where it is.
So they're all independent contractors and they're paid a flat rate per job they do.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Jennifer Meyer to launch Launder?
I see. What's the average? Can you break down the economics a bit? So when someone, if I pay you to clean one of my bags, what will I pay for that? And what will you pay the service provider, the contractor versus what do you keep as a company? Yep. So we have two size bags currently. We are getting ready to switch up our business model.
And if it's okay, if I don't mind, if you don't mind, I'll go to that instead of what we currently do. But what we're doing is going to just a standard size bag, which is about the size of a kitchen garbage bag. And those will be $35 each. And on average, most people do about two of those a week. So they'll be paying $70 and we'll be paying out $40 to a washer for that. Okay.
So 40% then out to the washers. Yes. Yes. And then, um, so our profit ratios are small. It's going to be in the, in this, small single digit percentages, especially right currently.
Chapter 3: How does Launder's pricing model work for laundry services?
But once we start getting volume up and we're going to be then cross-selling other services to those customers, our net profits will increase. Yeah, this is a change because last time we came on and I think it was actually last year, you had a small bag, which was 13 gallons for 30 bucks and a large bag, which was 30 gallons for 50 bucks. Did you just not see demand on the 30 gallon one?
So you went down towards the 13 gallon size? It was actually, it's a profitability issue. So on the $50 bag, there's just no way for us to make, we weren't charging enough for it. Because you were paying the washer, you told me $32 or 64% on that. And there wasn't enough margin for you to make money is what you're saying? Exactly. I see. I see. So this also gives some flexes.
So this allows us, the most important thing for us, I mean, clearly we want to make a profit, right? But the most important thing in this is not just the customer, but it's actually our washers. We want to provide them an opportunity for income that's competitive and that's not going to exploit them as a gig worker.
So with, believe it or not, with that 50 pound bag, it can sometimes fit more than two of the white bags in it. And so, right. with two white bags, they're making $40, which is worth their time to go get it, pick it up, bring it back, do the work, you know, and then take it back. Whereas with the, you know, if they're doing a large black bag, it didn't equate.
So it was, you know, it's a bit of a, it was both in that it was better for the washers.
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Chapter 4: What challenges is Launder facing with its Android app?
They they'll make a better income, but also better for the company in that, um, it will be able to be more profitable, but also better for the customer because they'll have more flexibility on the size of bags or orders they want to do.
When we last spoke in January of 2023, you articulated that you were processing about 100 loads of laundry per month, two to three loads per week for B2B folks, like property and property managers do a lot too, is what you said. Are you still around that same average, 100 loads of laundry per month? We have dropped a little bit.
Part of that is due to we've had some software updates that we need to make. So we've lost a few customers due to that on the Android store. What broke in the app? What was not working? It's just a matter of funding and getting it up to date, right? So we just need to hire a contractor to get our app up to date for the current versions of Android operating system.
So we'll be doing that in the next couple of weeks, but, and then we'll be able to get back up to that. Yeah. At least a hundred, a hundred units per month. I desperately want to see you win here. Cause there's so many of these large businesses that do this and they they're processing thousands of bags per week. How do you, I mean, you're already in 50 states.
You have like, you have a seed here of something that's growing. Are you an aggressive person? Do you want to go win and do the most bags per week? Or how do you think? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. For me, especially in an opportunity like this, it's go big or go home. And it really is the only way that you can make this, I believe, this type of business really successful is with volume.
And do we want to be the... Actually, the interesting thing is I don't necessarily need to be the biggest player in the market. But what's important to me is I want to be the best player.
I want to be the company that customers come to because they not only know that they'll be able to trust and get a job done, but they appreciate the values of our company and that we care about the people that are doing the jobs for them. And that we're giving back to the communities that they live in.
So it's really important to us, the quality of work that we do, the quality of company that we are, as much as how big we can get. I respect that a lot. Are you focused on this full time? Yes. Okay. How do you think about that? I mean, because you told me last time you have about 20% equity. You had two first founders, I think, some early investors in an ESOP pool.
Some might think, oh man, she's down to 20% already. She might be demotivated. She's doing all the work, but really only has 20% of the upside.
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Chapter 5: How does Launder ensure fair compensation for its service providers?
Oh, you know... Here's the way I look at it is I would prefer to have 20% of $100 million of a company, right? Because it's still more revenue for me in an accomplishment and an impact in the world than I would be if I just go get a job somewhere, right? So opportunity for me to make a good return with 20% of equity is still a great value. So it's still highly motivating for me
And a bit of its ego, right? I want to actually, you know, I want to accomplish this. I want to be successful at it. So it's not just about, you know, the money. We love that, Jennifer. On that note here, let's wrap up with the famous five. Number one, what's your favorite business book? Right now, it's Atomic Habits. Yeah. Number two, is there a CEO you're following or studying? No.
You said Taylor Swift last time, which you had a lot of foresight there. She crushed you last year. Yeah. And I, you know, and I, I still admire her for, for so many things. Right. But she, she talks her own, you know, she, she does her own thing, but is guided by, by the right, by the right reasons. Right. She, she does, she doesn't take advantage of anyone. Right.
She's still a good person, but still is that I'm not taking, I'm not going to take anybody's mess. I'm going to do what I'm going to do. And very, very, very hard work, which I think gets overlooked sometimes. Number three, what's your favorite online tool for building launder? Instagram. Okay, number four, how many hours of sleep do you get every night? Eight hours. Eight, okay.
And still married, two kids? Yes. Amazing, okay. And did you have a birthday? So 51 now? 51. Very good, 51 and looking young. Last question, something you wish you knew when you were 20. Pardon? something you wish you knew back when you were 20 years old. How to code. Guys, there you have it.
Jennifer launched Launder, that's L-O-N-D-R.com, back in 2020 to help you use an app, get your laundry done quickly. She's now doing a kitchen garbage size bag for 35 bucks. 40% goes out to the folks actually doing the washers, right? So call it $17, 50 cents, something like that. She keeps the rest, is looking to scale.
Right now, looking for an engineer so she can update her Android app and get that volume going again to get back up to about 100 bags per month like she was doing back in January of 2023. Jennifer, thanks for taking us to the top. Thank you, Nathan.
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