Rinse, a San Francisco-based on-demand laundry and dry cleaning pickup and delivery app, is helping to streamline and improve how customers get their laundry done. Customers face multiple pain points when doing laundry, like inflexible laundromat hours and lack of transparency around delivery times. At the same time, local brick-and-mortar cleaners have struggled amid rising property rents. Laundry and dry cleaning pickup and delivery app Rinse offers consumers on-demand service by partnering with small business cleaners across the country, seeking to bring newfound convenience to the chore, while offering local laundromats a new revenue stream.
Few people like the regular chore of laundry. But if you live in a big metropolis, keeping clothes clean can be a major inconvenience that’s full of obstacles and frustrations. Often, it’s tricky to find a time to drop off dirty clothes when laundromats are open only during traditional business hours. It’s unclear when laundry will be ready, and it’s difficult to find a good time to pick it up. Dirty clothes can easily accumulate. College friends and business school graduates Ajay Prakash and James Joun understood these barriers well. Joun, in particular, had an inside view into the laundry industry, having grown up at his family’s dry cleaning facility in San Francisco. Prakash, for his part, lived for a period in Manhattan, where getting laundry done can be a hassle.
In 2013, Prakash left a role at a travel-related startup and was ready for a new challenge. He wanted to start a business that would bring new technologies to a traditional, established industry and remove friction for customers. Now, Prakash and Joun are the co-founders of Rinse, a San Francisco-based on-demand laundry and dry cleaning pickup and delivery app. Rinse is helping to streamline and improve how customers get their laundry done by partnering with local brick-and-mortar cleaners across the country, rather than driving them out of business, its founders said.
Over the past two years, Rinse has expanded its footprint by more than 50% into markets including Seattle, Austin, and Dallas. Now, the company’s focus as it expands into several more metro areas in the U.S. this year is simple: clean clothes and deliver excellent technology-enabled customer service. Rinse aims to offer a seamless process for customers, and also provides an opportunity for increased income for its cleaning partners.
In early 2013, Prakash and Joun started to have regular brainstorming sessions during which they exchanged business ideas and gave each other feedback. During one chat, Joun shared how his parents’ store had become less busy over the last several years. He was mulling over how to help his family. The idea for a business involving laundry started to take shape. They conducted interviews to learn about peoples’ frustrations with getting laundry done. A common theme was not having a trusted brand—many customers just used the closest service. People also lamented a lack of transparency and accountability.
In 2013, the two launched Rinse. Customers sign up with Rinse, then use the app to choose a pickup time for their dirty laundry. Rinse valets, who work as W-2 employees (so employee taxes are covered), pick up the laundry during an 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. time slot, then take it to a trusted Rinse cleaning partner. Rinse delivers the clean laundry to customers’ doorstep the next day.
For cleaners, Rinse fills unrealized capacity. Often, cleaners have a spike in demand at the start of the week, and then business peters out. Rinse sends local cleaners a predictable steady stream of business seven days a week, helping them to raise revenue. Cleaners don’t interact with customers, freeing them up to do what they do best: clean clothes. Rinse developed a five-step process for working with its cleaner partners that includes ensuring cleaners hire the best possible employees.
Now, new Rinse customers are growing more than 70% year-over-year. The coming year brings expansion plans. Prakash and Joun have their sights set on opening in five to ten other major metropolitan areas, possibly including Miami, Atlanta, Denver, and Philadelphia. Expanding internationally is on Rinse’s radar for the long term. At the same time, Rinse is focused on giving back and supporting the communities it operates in. It accepts clothing donations, and around the holidays collects gently used coats, cleaning them before they’re passed on to a new owner. Rinse is committed to reusing hangers and plastic bags and not using harmful chemicals to clean.