Built an on-demand laundry startup from concept to working product

Overview

LaundryMate is no longer active.

I started LaundryMate because the on-demand economy was transforming every service industry except laundry. The idea was simple: let people schedule laundry pickups from their phone, connect them with local laundromats that had capacity, and handle the logistics in between.

I took LaundryMate from concept through branding, app design, and development. The brand went through an extensive identity process that landed on something simple but playful — approachable enough for a consumer product, professional enough for the B2B operator side. I designed custom illustrations and iconography to give the product a distinct personality.

The app itself was built in React Native, with a highly iterative design process. On the consumer side, users could schedule pickups, set washing preferences, and track orders. On the operator side, I built a dedicated POS system that handled app orders, walk-ins, and phone orders in a single interface — giving laundromat owners a modern tool they didn't have before.

The hardest part was the logistics layer: route optimization for drivers, real-time status updates, and scheduling algorithms that kept pickup and delivery windows tight. It was also where I learned the most about the gap between a working product and a sustainable business — driver economics, customer acquisition costs, and the challenge of building density in a local marketplace.

LaundryMate didn't make it long-term, but it was formative. I learned how to ship a product from scratch, how to think about two-sided marketplaces, and how to be honest about when the unit economics don't work. Those lessons carried directly into everything I've built since.

What I built