77. Level Up Your Laundry Empire with Mark Vlaskamp

If you’re starting from the bottom and hoping to build a thriving business, Mark has the roadmap. If you’re a laundromat or laundry service owner hoping to take your business to the next level, Mark has the roadmap.

Mark started in the laundry business with no laundromat and began offering a laundry pick-up & delivery (PUD) service to customers. He and his partners quickly scaled that business up and now do thousands of pounds of laundry every day and are soon-to-be closing on their third laundromat location and counting.

Not only is his business thriving, but he’s also on a mission to continue to expand and to pull the whole industry along with him. Creative thinking, testing, and innovating, he’s also giving back to help others benefit from the hard-earned lessons he’s learned.

Join Mark and Jordan, along with a couple of other top laundry pick-up & delivery operators for a free webinar on November 11, 2021, on How to Start and Scale a Laundry Pick-up & Delivery Business!

In today’s episode, Mark and Jordan talk about;

Mark’s journey from zero business to a thriving business
How he has scaled up his business enterprise
SEO, paid advertising, and van wraps
How to manage a business with slim margins
Tips on getting more financing
The differences between a PUD with a laundromat location vs. without owning a laundromat location
The differences of managing a PUD business vs. a self-serve business
The future of PUD
We play a game!!
Finding good content to help you on your journey
Delegating

And a whole lot more!

Watch The Podcast Here

TODAY'S SPONSORS

AtmosphereTV– We’re brought to you today by my friends at AtmosphereTV! Now You may have heard my interview a few months back with Mike Kelly from AtmosphereTV where we talked about what a simple change in content on your TVs can do for your laundromat by getting depressing news stations OFF and something much more fun, entertaining, and family-friendly ON. Since then, Atmosphere has grown to 50+ channels included in their service with everything from Surfing Dogs to Extreme sports, hilarious fails, and jaw-dropping videos from all over the world built specifically for business use. Atmosphere can be used to supplement your cable or you can completely cut your expensive cable bill and use Atmosphere 100% FREE saving thousands a year! Use my code RESOURCE when you check out or click the link or image to have your setup fee waived or contact [email protected] for more information!

Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the

laundromat resource podcast this is show

77 and i am pumped that you are here

today because today we have back on the

show mark vlaskamp who came on and who

gets referenced all the time from the

last time that he was on he is the guy i

think in episode 20 if you want to go

back and check that out i’ll put a link

in the show notes or if you’re on

youtube down below in the description

you can find the show notes with that

link and all the other links by the way

at laundromat resource.com show77

uh you can find the show notes there

with all the links so make sure you

check that out

but he was there and he is the guy who

started a laundry pickup and delivery

business without a laundromat and is

uh well as you’ll see in today’s episode

has gone ballistic he was on like a year

and a half ago here and

at that point he

his pickup and delivery was growing but

he did not have a location yet he’s

getting ready to close on his third

you’ll hear more all about that and and

they’re huge huge plans that they have

to move forward in this industry tons of

really good information but not only

that one of the things that i am super

pumped about is that mark along with a

few other owners are going to join me

this thursday that’s november 11th 2021

if you’re listening to this when it

comes out

uh you they’re going to join me and

all of them are doing awesome they’re

top performers and pick up and delivery

from all over the country doing slightly

different things

and we’re doing a webinar together got

some all-stars here

on how to start and scale your pick up

and delivery

business so whether you are interested

in starting a pick of a delivery

business or if you have one and you’re

ready to take it up to the next level uh

these are some serious players uh just

in all seriousness these guys are

uh they’re they’re doing it they’re

doing it big and they’re doing it right

and you will be able to level up your

business joining us over there so the

link to that will be uh

again on the show notes a lot of my

resource dot com show 77 if you’re on

youtube they’re down below in the

description or if you just want to go to

laundromat resource dot com slash events

and sign up for this webinar and any

others we do a live free webinar every

single thursday so come join us at one

of those um

and uh let’s yeah dude

so much good stuff okay but i’m i’m like

extra excited about this week’s uh

webinar so make sure you sign up for

that

uh and come join us learn about pick up

and delivery or learn how to take your

pickup and delivery to the next level

there will be some questions and answers

and i promise i will not do a whole lot

of talking i’m gonna do more hosting and

less talking because these guys serious

their their serious business all right

uh just come join us learn from i say

this all the time right like work with

the best learn from the best become the

best uh this is a class a opportunity to

do that okay so

there’s that i also want to encourage

you hey the more you’re networking in

this business the more we’re learning

from each other we’re helping each other

out we’re asking each other questions

we’re answering each other’s questions i

bet you know where i’m going with this

the better we’re all going to be in this

business we’re going to make more money

we’re going to serve more people and

we’re going to do it faster and better

uh the best way i don’t know if it’s the

best but one of the best ways to be

doing that is to head over to the

laundromat resource forums go introduce

yourself on the new member forums go uh

ask a question answer a question over

there and let’s you know continue to

interact lots of really great stuff

happening over there there’s i just

peeked over there right before i

recorded this and there’s some uh fun

conversations happening on looking for

brokers in different areas uh somebody

asked about financing options in

australia which is uh man i never

saw that conversation

coming a mile away you know when i

started the forum so pretty cool and

obviously welcome to all the new members

who’ve gone over to the new member

introduction forums and introduce

yourselves over there go meet them go

welcome them again being a part of the

community is really going to accelerate

your growth whether you’re just getting

started or you’re a veteran in the

business

and uh you know looking to continue to

improve and let’s be honest if you’re

not looking to continue to improve your

business

then your business is probably dying so

let’s keep up the good work let’s keep

propelling each other to new heights and

uh and all that good stuff okay i don’t

wanna uh i don’t wanna pound that any

harder uh but i do wanna mention real

quick last just a few days ago actually

i released a podcast episode 76

where i announced uh laundromat

marketplace i almost said a lot of my

resources

laundretmarketplace.com and that’s a

place where uh agents or just owners can

go and list their uh laundromats for

sale for free go listed over there for

free and again a ton of traffic coming

through laundromat resource from all the

various channels from the website

podcast youtube email list buyer’s email

list instagram we got people coming from

all over the place

that are interested in buying

laundromats and uh this is going to be

the place that i send them so tons of

free good traffic if you’re an agent out

there or if you know an agent out there

pass this along to them because i think

it’s going to be a huge resource for the

great agents

to be able to connect up uh with you

guys who are buying laundromats and i

right now i am all about

connecting laundromat owners and people

who want to buy laundromats with

the best people that uh that they can

work with in their area so i want to

find those agents get them on that site

and get you guys connected with them so

if you could do me one favor i don’t ask

for a lot

but if you could do me one favor

if you know of any agents or

distributors who sell

laundromats if you could just mention to

them hey you know if you have listings

throw them up on this website because

not only are you going to get a lot of

very targeted traffic uh coming and

looking at your laundromats but it’s

also a great place for those guys to get

connected with potential buyers and

potential sellers awesome uh just real

quick too one of the cool things was we

had uh one laundromat that was listed on

there when i launched the podcast that

uh within a day

uh went

from uh being on sale or being for sale

to not on sale for sale being for sale

to pending uh within a day very very

cool and again just there’s a lot of

targeted traffic going there so uh if

you’re an owner who’s looking to

sell your laundromat you just want to do

it on your own you can list there too

but specifically agents and distributors

or whoever else is selling laundromats

that is

a an awesome place to go and again i’m

gonna be sending people there uh

especially the more uh lauter maps we

get for sale listed on there and there’s

a lot more perks coming uh i can’t

mention them yet because they’re all in

the works but there are perks for both

buyers and sellers coming who list and

who buy through that website so

i just i’m super excited about it so get

excited with me and again it’s good for

the industry i think that’s the main

reason i did it all right uh with all

that said let’s get into it with mark

vlascamp again a super cool episode and

you’re gonna want to join our webinar uh

that we’re doing with a couple other

owners uh on thursday november 11th

that’s this coming thursday from when

this is coming out all right uh i’ll see

you on the other side of this with mark

and it’s gonna be uh it’s gonna be a

doozy you’re gonna enjoy it all right

guys today’s episode is brought to you

by atmosphere tv

you may remember back in episode 34 when

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atmosphere.tv mark i am so pumped that

you are back on the show welcome and

thanks for coming back on how you doing

hey good thanks for having me i’m

excited it’s been uh it’s been fun

keeping up with all of this oh let’s get

into it yeah yeah likewise man and i

know that we’ve been kind of chatting

every now and then and getting some

updates and that’s why i wanted to have

you back on the show to get some more

updates but just in case uh people don’t

know i sure i probably should have

looked this up beforehand so while

you’re chatting i’m gonna look this up

on what episode you were on before i

don’t know if you know do you know

i don’t feel like it’s the highlight of

your life it was feel like it was a long

time ago a long time ago it was a long

time i’m gonna look it up in a second uh

but you you were on the show and in fact

i i end up referencing your podcast

almost maybe one definitely one of the

most of all the podcast episodes if not

maybe the most and one of the big

reasons for that is because

you kind of started in this business

backwards you started with a pickup and

delivery service you didn’t have a

laundromat you partnered with a

laundromat and i get a lot of questions

about that specific topic and i’m like

you want to talk to somebody who’s

killing it with this you know go check

out this episode reach out to mark he’s

killing it so

i thought it’d be cool to get you back

on the show just to kind of get an

update on

did you go bankrupt what you know what

happened starting backwards and working

and uh where things been going so why

don’t you try to catch us up a little

bit maybe maybe like a brief brief uh

background on how you got into the

business but you know if you want more

i’m gonna tell you what episode to go

look up in a second but uh maybe a brief

background how you got in and then what

business has been looking like lately

yeah absolutely so not not bankrupt but

it sure felt like it for a while doing

all that laundry without a laundromat uh

certainly better margins when you are

vertically integrated into the actual uh

facility

uh we get that question quite a bit too

and and uh probably a lot of a lot of

that from your podcast and i i

i recommend it with extreme caution that

you really have to know what you’re

getting into that is very low margin to

do the delivery without the laundromat

um but certainly can be done and i think

with the popularity of delivery there’s

our there are people um taking that on

and some some smart folks we’ve talked

um i’m very happy to have the

laundromats now though so i think last

we talked uh we had a booming pickup and

delivery business that we partnered with

laundromats to use their facilities

during off hours to produce all of our

laundry

um we ended up uh purchasing uh the

laundromat the our flagship store in

austin is uh it’s about 5 000 square

feet of laundromat and almost 3 000

square feet of warehouse so

big big big facility uh almost 200

machines that are just spinning 24 7. we

have

day shift we have swing shifts and we

have third shift and we are

holding laundry like a warehouse uh

operating as a traditional laundromat by

day

trying to take up you know a third or a

half of the facility leaving a third two

thirds or a half for retail customers

and then at night we close the door to

the public and we that’s when all the

thoroughbreds come in and we really uh

crank out some laundry

seven days a week 365 days a year

we’re flirting with 70 plus folks on

staff now so it’s it’s a much more of a

logistics and a warehousing business

than you think your traditional coin op

laundry mat operates like

luckily i think we were forged in the

fire doing this without the laundry mat

so that was you know that was like

batting practice for this is that we’re

cruising now uh owning the laundry mats

makes it significantly easier

yeah holy cow man that’s crazy and you

know it’s pretty funny because i don’t

know maybe like a year ago or i don’t

know something like a year ago you sent

me a you texted me a video

and it was of this laundromat and there

you were just kind of walking through

the laundromat there was laundry

everywhere like on top of all the

bulkheads there were shelves that were

packed there was stuff

lined up on the like the end caps there

was

you know literally bags and bags of

laundry out on the sidewalk and

you just had so much laundry going on i

was like holy cow these guys have got to

get a

location

for themselves sounds like you got a

doozy of a location with like almost 8

000 total square feet of of space there

that’s

that’s significant that’s big real big

yeah yeah that’s kind of the you know

now that we are we’re

able to fill up laundry mats quickly uh

we we feel like we’re really comfortable

with the playbook of turning demand on

and off and when we go into a territory

we can

we can generate demand and fill that up

fast um so now when we’re looking to

acquire laundromats we’re

knock on wood we’re hoping to close on

one in houston

uh towards the end of this month

and uh we in in the search for that

we’re not even looking for anything

smaller than five thousand square feet

that it has to be big it has to be

bright clean safe and we have to be able

to fill it you know with with

7 000 pounds of laundry every night

yeah how are you

i mean how are you doing so much how did

you get to that point so i know i mean

you kind of started from scratch

like we said with no laundromat how did

you get to a point where you

aren’t even looking at a space that’s

under 5 000 square feet because you’re

so confident

that you

can fill that up and need that space in

order to operate

in a new location

yeah so um i think my thesis on the

market um

on a macro level is that laundromats are

trending bigger i think their owners are

becoming better capitalized the business

itself can be much more than a single

revenue stream business

when you add in the full service laundry

whether it’s over the counter or

delivery

um and so our thesis on the actual

locations is that

they’re they’re not trending smaller

they’re trending bigger so we’re just

trying to get ahead of that uh made the

mistake a time or two in the past of

getting one that’s too small and you

know the acquisition headaches are the

same whether you’re buying a thousand

square foot laundry mat with 10 machines

or a 6 000 square foot laundry mat with

200 machines

so that’s i think that’s just the

general approach that we take is that

bigger uh is better and if you build it

you know like that they will come

on the the playbook side um it’s you

know we were looked at funny by

operators here when we said we wanted to

do pickup and delivery now you know six

years ago or something like that um

that was yeah great place right time you

know we were right on that trend i still

get people in my comments section and on

twitter saying that

uh you know delivery is a phase and that

you know a lot of old old-school folks

like to say that coin off is going to

last forever and delivery is soon to go

away um

we think we have the playbook for

acquiring customers figured out fairly

well as long as that phase lasts and i

think i think it’s much more than a

phase um and it’s it’s been a lot of um

seo you know we we have a strong digital

team that can uh we we rank highly we

have really targeted paid ads and we

have the vans driving around uh they can

spur up demand uh fairly quickly

we think i think it’s a supply problem

and i know other operators that i’ve

talked to doing high amounts across the

it’s not a demand problem once once you

figure out the demand it’s it totally is

the fly problem you need space you need

machines you need employees

that most the folks i’ve talked to

especially in october is one of the

better months of the year for when we’re

recording this for delivery service uh

most folks are turning ads off raising

prices and trying to scare customers

away that uh that you need machines you

need space and you need

the people to fulfill those orders

yeah and i i just comment on that last

little section there i mean i found that

one of the big keys to success is if

everybody’s doing something especially

if everybody’s at a time where they’re

taking their foot off the pedal that’s

the time to put your foot on the pedal

and i know a lot you know it’s the

holidays kind of approach here

a lot like you said a lot of people are

doing things that

you know

seem you know in theory like maybe good

ideas but it’s really the time to go

hard because you can really

you know

use those time i mean generally speaking

especially in warmer clients these are

the months that are the big months for

you know for us as

lot of mad owners is pick up and

delivery because people are wearing

heavier clothes they’re wearing more

clothes kids are in school the filthy

filthy children are getting dirty all

the time right and and that’s the time

to push push the pedal down and keep

going and i know a lot of times our

tendency is hey it’s the holidays i want

to take it easy but if you want to take

it easy

go get a job and don’t own a business

that’s my that’s my view on that

i agree yeah this is uh i hate holidays

the holidays of the laundromat operator

and an owner are tough because the

business doesn’t stop um we’re cleaning

clothes 365

days a year

but yeah certainly certainly uh good

october man i love it lots of towels

lots of blankets jeans jackets

everything is is uh

considerably

easier to fold and then weighs more and

fills more we do flat right back so it

fills more space in the bag

yeah

okay so well take us back because last

time we talked

you didn’t own

a location a lot of my location and now

you do so how did you get from

you know and you mentioned also earlier

uh that you know margins are slim it’s

tough to do this business without your

own location uh because your costs are a

lot higher than if you own your own

location so how did you manage that

phase of things and how did you get from

that into

your first location

yeah so um

found ourselves growing like crazy and

with the operation as it was originally

set up without a laundromat we were

paying a lot to use someone else’s

machines and then it’s a vicious cycle

of as you grow you’re actually straining

cash flow much much much more than you

otherwise would have if you didn’t grow

so on one side we had

a lot of the traditional lenders saying

hey you need to be more profitable but b

you also need to grow and we’re trying

to point out in the model like you get

to choose one or the other

um so we found uh with our unique

approach to it it made sense for a bit

of a unique uh funding round to kind of

get on the right side of things some

folks that saw could understand the

position uh maybe we’re a little more a

little less risk-averse than a

traditional commercial banker so uh we

piled some of our own money in and

actually partnered up with some uh some

really smart uh folks that sell the

value and adding a technology and a

service side to a traditionally uh

unsexy and absentee business

so a lot of our investors have

experience and

self-storage car washes mobile home

parks things like that that you wouldn’t

think make great businesses and you

could probably lump laundry maps into

that adding a layer of technology adding

a layer of service and then

continuing on a roll-up plan

yeah i think that’s i think that’s huge

and uh

i mean the the dilemma is real right

when especially coming from the angle i

know we talked a little bit when you

were trying to figure out the running

piece of it because

you know the dilemma is is real when you

have a lot of income coming in but your

expenses are going up

almost faster than your income because

of the business model because you’re

stuck where you don’t have

your own equipment and you can’t get the

efficiencies of of owning your own

you know equipment and your own assets

and so trying to find that

financing is difficult do you have any

tips for anyone who

you know is in a situation like that who

maybe has

you know a solid business but

you know maybe doesn’t look that way to

a lender at first or something like that

on how to get financing to take your

business to the next level which is what

you did

yeah

yeah absolutely so i think the first

thing to uh to consider here is

even every month we get further away

from covid and more into the future i

think pickup and delivery is gaining

credibility as a real business a real

income stream and something that’s

sustainable

the times we were looking um for that we

knew that we knew that we can you could

walk into it every night and know that

it wasn’t going away right that’s

tactical to the roof um aka not a fan i

think a lot of that

right i think a lot of the

i think a lot of the traditional lenders

and

lenders in general even even equity

investors they

were hesitant i think the further we get

away from that uh

pickup and delivery and full service and

in any consideration is is getting more

credibility as a as an asset class

on your on your books and

i would imagine that um there’s a couple

companies now that that had to get

rejected get rejected get rejected and

prove everybody else uh wrong

ourselves included i think uh from what

we’re hearing that pickup and delivery

volume is getting more and more

considered into that so i would hope

that anybody in our situation has a much

easier time now i think

us and a few others have kind of broken

down that wall

but um

one thing i learned through the process

is is

money is out there if you’re building

something cool

you just have to be creative with how

you get it i

having only experienced bootstrapping i

thought everything came through a bank

that there was a gatekeeper and we’ve

certainly partnered with great lenders

that operate as traditional banks and

lending institutions

but if you are in a business that might

be viewed as a little risky and can’t

get through there there is money out

there uh through other

avenues and that was a big step for us

we kind of made the transition from

laundromat owners

to business owners when we realized that

in that okay i can teach folks how to

run a laundromat but i also need to

teach myself and we need to teach

ourselves how to

get financing and then plan for growth

and if we’re going to be doing this

thing with a scarlet letter on it that’s

marked as risky for the rest of our

lives uh we’re gonna have to get

creative at these these creative

financing options

yeah i mean you said something that

first of all really strikes home with me

but i mean it’s just so true money is

out there when you’re building something

cool you know when you got something

that you’re building something you

believe in something uh you know that

that you know you’re just committed to a

hundred percent

you know and people see that and they

see the potential in that the money is

out there and you may need to get

creative especially if you’re kind of

trailblazing like you guys did

uh with sort of you know i mean it’s not

you knew but it’s

it’s relatively new uh you know branch

of our industry

you know then i i think that

i mean i just love

first of all

listen i’m just gonna give you a lot of

credit here for a second

the tenacity that you guys had

in the beginning

to start this business number one i mean

i i can’t tell you how many people i

talk to in my coaching who

just have trouble getting started and

understandably so it’s a tough step to

take it’s scary

all that right so that already

you know

puts you in the top

top percentage of of entrepreneurs of

business owners just getting started you

know and then having that tenacity to

run your business and scale it on such

slim margins and stay alive

huge most people aren’t willing to do it

can’t do it

won’t do it right and then having the

tenacity to

chase down money i mean that’s not an

easy thing and to be told no and to be

told what you’re doing will never work

and to be told that you know you’re

wasting your time and

in all those negative messages like that

stops

the majority of the people who made it

to that point you know again in and

pushing through that and getting to that

next level like

huge huge props um to you guys for

for doing that

and uh can you talk a little bit about

what’s it been like having a location

versus before you had a location what

are what are some of the differences or

maybe similarities i don’t know

yeah

thank you for the compliments i remember

now why i enjoy the first time so much

it’s just me getting gassed up for an

hour so we’re gonna have to do this more

often yeah

man yeah

thank you yeah the tenacity is something

that uh it’s definitely a it stuck as a

core value here uh it’s awesome to see

it we’ve got a full staff of uh middle

managers so it’s it’s not us operating

anymore we’ve got five six seven guys

full-time salary that uh if they’ve

learned anything in getting set up is

that uh don’t back down from a fight

like you’re gonna get punched in the

nose every day and that’s just something

we do here there’s there’s no playbook

for this we’re building the playbook

that other people are gonna copy yeah um

before and after man i think the last

time we talked you were like yeah you

figured out the hard part of the

business the laundromat will be easy

man i

said we closed on one we closed on one

and i was like you know jordan said

jordan said it’d be easy and i spent 24

hours that weekend just cleaning

everything myself because we didn’t know

how to do any of it running back and

forth to lows totally unprepared washers

were breaking everything was going wrong

that could um it’s been really enjoyable

uh there’s a certain element of pride

that we’ve always had for our customers

in our business we haven’t had that for

the facility until we started moving

into them

acquiring them

and now we can put that uh that level of

pride in the actual facility it’s really

enjoyable um

you can feel it you can touch it it’s

not just the customer relationship that

you don’t see them at the door um so

it’s been a lot of fun

learning the hard parts of it um

certainly some staffing positions in the

org chart that we didn’t have before

that we now need to have

maintenance being a big one of them

uh janitorials and other um but uh but

yeah we’re learning it’s awesome i uh

i think a lot of people look at delivery

um and when they talk to us we primarily

get asked about the delivery side of the

business

and rightfully so um it’s it’s the sexy

part of the business it’s a fun business

to talk about

um the one we’re probably better known

for but i think at our core we’re we’re

rolling up laundry mats and we’re

layering in the delivery that the

laundry mats come first and there’s a

that’s a massive massive part of our

business

yeah well that i mean that is kind of

interesting first of all sorry for lying

straight to your face on the podcast

which was episode 20 by the way uh so if

you want to go listen actually you just

you know just either stop this one now

and go listen to episode 20 and then

come back or after this one go listen to

episode 20 because it’s

killer

um and and also i just want to say i

don’t hype anyone up ever who who

doesn’t deserve it’s genuine genuine

hype so uh

the uh it’s i mean it’s interesting that

you say that

because uh i mean like you said you are

known for the pickup and delivery side

of your stuff and i think that’s what

gets highlighted a lot it kind of

reminds me a little bit and

you know this is this is going to be a

flattering example i think but it kind

of reminds me a little bit of mcdonald’s

right where mcdonald’s is known for

their burgers or whatever right and then

you know most of us who

have read about mcdonald’s or maybe

watch the uh i forget the

super side yeah the founder right the

founder yeah i think the super sleuths

the other the bad one uh the founder

right and you know we know that

mcdonald’s is a is a real estate company

right and it kind of reminds me of that

like they’re known for the burgers

but they’re you know they’re really

doing something bigger underneath um or

at least as big you know underneath that

business and it feels a little bit

similar to what you guys are doing where

you’re known for your pickup and

delivery

you know if you follow these guys you

know the fold i’ll put links to

everything in the show notes and if

you’re on youtube down below the fold on

on like social stuff and and stuff you

know like they they just kill it with

pick up and delivery

but it’s interesting that you say you’re

rolling up laundromats and uh and

creating you know that that business

there and and pairing it up with the

pick up delivery and care at least as

much

and are putting at least as much effort

into those if not if not more

um i did not know that how many how many

laundry mats do you have

uh working on three uh this

week this month and oh got a lot of

perform leads uh

now that we have money this is getting

fun yeah well that’s what happens right

like you get

you get the bug you get the one you get

the bug and then because laundromats can

be so lucrative especially when you’re

running them efficiently you got your

good systems down you’ve got your team

in place

you can start rolling them up real quick

and i i tell new people this all the

time

once you get your first one

like a lot of doors open up to you

financing options open up to you like

now people are going to be more likely

to lend to you

not only because you own other physical

locations

um but also that the physical location

is going to kind of underpin

the business you know the the pickup and

delivery business too um a lot of times

that that self-serve side can

you know can kind of take care of a lot

of the bills and all that stuff and then

you know you’re just staffing at that

point for your pick of the delivery

um so it’s i wanna yeah closing closing

on three i don’t wanna be deceptive i

think i answered that quickly so hoping

for three i know deals can fall through

i don’t want uh

well let’s count it before we get it and

then i think the plan is yeah i think we

can continue to add you know two or

three a year uh we’ve seen really good

operators i mean ross luke you guys know

who they are that that you see the

downhill snowball that they can add in

just acquiring these facilities uh

that’s that’s the race we’re running

i think

laundromats are certainly having um

their moment in the sun right now i read

of times where you could get them for

one to three times uh ebitda

um we’re not seeing that i i think

realistically we’re seeing a lot of

three to five out there right now um

we paid 8.1 for one in austin

uh or one we’re looking at now is around

five point something five and change so

um laundromats are having their moment

in the sun i think pandemic was good to

launder match that is causing a price

increase

i think

smarter smarter better capitalized uh

acquirers are are

causing a price increase and then you

can’t go on twitter or facebook or

youtube you know thanks to folks like

jordan you cody sanchez is on twitter

there’s all sorts of people talking

about them

i think that’s driving multiples up

um so it’s interesting to see how the

pricing is changing in a post-pandemic

world uh curious to see if that level’s

out or it’s for they’re just a more

expensive asset class from here on out

but uh certainly having the delivery

gives us and roths as well it gives you

an advantage to

offer a higher multiple knowing you can

fill it up and keep the thing moving

as compared to a multiple that maybe

another

person bidding on the laundromat might

not be able to go that high because they

they are relying on the base business uh

we’re going based business plus

yeah yeah and it’s an inves it’s an

interesting investment strategy too uh

and

well

okay real quick i want to just kind of

wrap up sort of what you’re doing with

your business can you talk to me i mean

you mentioned you want to you know roll

up two or three

a year uh you know going forward

potentially

i mean what’s what’s the

what’s the what’s the goal do you have a

goal do you have like an end game in

mind or

or a

certain time horizon goal that you’re

shooting for

yeah we do um

i think i think

we can keep going until we get to 50.

i won’t i won’t limit ourselves on a

time horizon and i know our discussions

go back and forth on how many win and

how fast and what’s the model i think

there’s interesting models in

going to a private warehouses which i’m

sure we’ll get into i think pickup and

delivery the future

uh might not totally all be hinged in

laundry maps i think we’re early in it

but if you were asking us you know as we

see the model today if we aggressively

uh pursued our plan i think we uh i

think we’re north star is pointing

towards 50 pending model changes as

technology and

demand on the laundry side changes

yeah i mean i think that’s i think

that’s cool and i think you know again

this is obviously this is just a

snapshot right i know if there’s one

thing i know about owning businesses

building businesses it’s that you know

those goals those marks are always

evolving always changing you know you

could get your fifth one and be like

actually

we can network these now and blow it up

way bigger than if we had 50 long or you

know there’s things that happen right

you learn more you grow more so

exactly yeah the big the writing on the

wall we’ve got them posted around here

and our middle managers get them drilled

in every day is like we’re we are

building the playbook towards 50. so so

that’s that’s the goal here i i

fundamentally believe it’s a supply

problem

it’s not a demand problem um the demand

is organically growing

uh the more people not not just with us

the more operators that offer delivery

educate a customer base

just like the first bozo that tried to

offer pizza delivery right like now it’s

everywhere that we are so early in this

that the more operators they get in on

it the more customers that know it

exists

that the demand is going to continue to

grow there and that means if you don’t

have to worry about demand it means you

really really really have to worry about

supply

um that if everybody in the city wants

laundry delivery we can’t help them uh

we need a whole mess more laundry maps

and and we

quite frankly need a whole lot of other

competitors in town offering good

products as well

yeah well i mean that’s a

that’s like a that feels like a very

mature business

thing to say that you need more

competitive they’ll

they’ll mess up eventually and we’ll get

them yeah yeah you need them to to

drive the demand and educate people so

that you can win them over and it just

makes it cheaper right you’re for you to

win new customers i like that i like

that that’s no i say that i say that

jokingly but it is i mean just in the

last couple years you’re seeing it pop

up everywhere i’m happy that it’s

staying in laundromats

i know a couple venture capitals taking

a couple cracks at this and they’re

continuing to pop up especially in

austin where it’s

a peer-to-peer laundry through a

marketplace there’s

here you know b2c

marketplace apps out there there’s a lot

of marketplace apps going on and i think

sustainability on those is questionable

i love the asset light model in siri i

don’t know how execution goes um

but again more more awareness to laundry

delivery helps but the the more mature

the delivery side of it gets

the more i appreciate that it’s staying

in laundromat operators hands for the

lion’s share of it which is really good

to see

yeah yeah and i mentioned uh you know in

in some other things like webinars and

live q and a’s and stuff that you know

it’s

it’s interesting to see how this thing

is evolving and how different people are

trying to

figure out different ways to solve the

laundry problem

so and you’ve kind of alluded to this a

few times so maybe we can jump into you

know what what do you see as the future

laundromats like where do you see us

going

not laundromat specifically but more

pickup and delivery in that what do you

see as a as the future of pick up and

delivery

yeah that’s um

that’s a lot of what i think about um i

think

if you can agree with me that demand is

gonna continue and demand is going to

grow

and we’re focusing on the supply side of

the equation figuring out what what’s

going to be the supply to fill that

demand

that’s what that’s what i like to think

about a lot i think laundromats are a

great way to do it i think we’re seeing

a heyday in delivery right now um i’m

just so impressed with a lot of the

operators you see online

that turned that turned it on like we

did from zero to nothing to now you know

it’s a big business now

i’m curious where it goes in the future

um you know the more money that comes

into an industry the more demand that

comes into the industry the better

capitalized the investors come and you

know i think there’s going to be a lot

of asset light models

that come up the silicon valley types i

think there’s going to be a lot of old

school industrial build a bunch of

laundromats that you know kind of where

we see ourselves

i hear operators talking about

private facilities uh closer to an

altsco um

also they’re national i believe the big

commercial

linen and um

owls rags i’m facing on the name of

their business anyways where they

operate in uh cintos where they operate

in private facilities and they drive big

box trucks around there’s no customers

coming to do laundry because all the

machines all the stations all the

employees it runs like a pure warehouse

so i think we’re in a weird middle

ground now where there’s too much demand

for laundry mats to operate as a

laundromat so a lot of the laundry mat

operators are starting to adopt software

and configure their laundry map to look

more like a warehouse you can still get

it done in the same facility right

that’s what we’re doing yep

but as you get more and more demand

i wonder how much of a warehouse you

need to turn it into to operate and if

that is too much for laundromats

if it helps to have a couple production

facilities and a couple laundromats is

there a sweet spot where a laundromat

can only take so much laundry um

and then on the on the

competition side of this is something is

this something that gets consolidated

um right now there’s you know

every laundromat in town is is starting

to offer delivery so that makes for what

maybe fifties high but something around

their options for delivery uh does that

consolidate and the one or two

fake the lines share or do does there

always stay 50 um it’s interesting to

think about because we are so new in it

this isn’t like dental practices that we

own where you you get a playbook you

hire a consultant and you know what

you’re going to do you can

you can budget out your next five years

earnings and you know exactly what’s

going to happen i think

it’s exciting to daydream and think

about what all these options are because

no one knows

how the supply side is going to get

filled

yeah it’s interesting because dave and i

dave mens and i we do live q a every

single month we were talking about this

before we hit record and somebody had

asked kind of the future of pickup

delivery

and

you know i’ll link to that in case

anybody wants to go watch that and i

think the um that particular

conversation about that the future of

pick up and delivery i think was towards

the very end of that if you want to skip

ahead to

that part of the conversation but um

the the interesting

conversation that we had is i think dave

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