Shifting Gears: A Message From our CEO

November 03, 2017 5:14 PM Comment(s) By Gabriel Mandujano

Hi everyone, Wash Cycle Laundry recently turned 7 years old! We’re excited to reach this milestone, and excited about all the progress we’ve made. At the same time, growing up and moving from adolescence into adulthood as a business has made us do a lot of thinking about who we really want to be when we grow up, and why we all got into the laundry business in the first place. And long story short, one of the decisions that’s come out of that process is our decision to say farewell to the home delivery side of our laundry business.

As you might know, Wash Cycle Laundry is first and foremost a mission-oriented company. We’re about clean laundry, but also about a clean earth and clean slates; since we began, we’ve been the first or second step into the job market for dozens of employees getting back to work after histories of homelessness, addiction, or incarceration. We got started making home deliveries with a single bike and trailer back in 2010, but pretty quickly began servicing commercial clients. In the time since, we have taken on a wide variety of clients from storefront salons all the way up to luxury hotels. By the beginning of this year, the vast majority of our volume - and all of our growth - was coming from commercial customers.

At the same time, we’ve realized that the things that allowed us to be successful while growing from 1 to 50 employees aren’t working as well as we work to grow from 50 to 500 employees. While successful startups are usually flexible, inventive, say “yes” a lot more than “no,” and scramble to manage the ensuing jumble, successful growth companies build a standardized process, invest deeply in technology, training, and equipment to support that process, and operate with slack. Making that transition has meant us choosing where we want to dig deep, and we think that the commercial side of the tracks is our best bet to move our mission forward.I’m extremely grateful for the support that all our customers have shown for us over the years, some of whom have used us almost weekly for years. I can’t thank them enough for their trust. And although we won’t be pedaling to your doorstep anymore, we’ll still be your neighbor, and we’re looking forward to seeing you around town.

Many thanks! 
Gabriel Mandujano
CEO  
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