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Yet another startup that caters to the 20 something tech crowd with too much disposable income and too little free time on their hands. Do people in Silicon Val

Yet another startup that caters to the 20 something tech crowd with too much disposable income and too little free time on their hands. Do people in Silicon Valley ever leave spend time outside Silicon Valley?

aroman 13y ago
As fellow (hopefully that's a safe assumption) an outsider looking in, I have to agree with this. It also just generally frustrates and disappoints me that so many brilliant young developers and entrepreneurs spend their time fixing textbook first world problems instead of addressing the poverty, disease, crime, and unrest which still plagues the world.
- jjsz 13y ago
  "Well maybe once everything in our country is automated, we'll have time to worry about others' automation, digital divide, and poverty."
  - aroman 13y ago
    Having just Googled that quote, I'm going to assume it was meant to be a paraphrasing of my comment/a (sarcastic?) response to it, rather than an actual quote. In any case, I didn't really mean other countries in my comment. There is a great deal of crime, starvation, poverty, and disease in this country. "Charity starts at home."
    - jjsz 13y ago
      It wasn't sarcastic, it was a realist based comment pointing out the fact on how much we focus on our country's automation before moving on to other countries. I agree, eventually, after solving our digital divide issue, we'll worry about real problems. VCs invest in these services to bring what rich people had for years to the masses, and that is a maid and servants to free up your time to do what you really want to do. The economic recession has allowed numerous of people willing to do your laundry, these people picked up on that, I wonder what's next. Will there be a service to wash my dog?
    - barry-cotter 13y ago
      The last time there was widespread starvation North America was in Newfoundland during the Great Depression.
- unohoo 13y ago
  I live in the valley and I still have to agree with this
- hayksaakian 13y ago
  entrepreneurs look for problems with money in mind. philanthropists look for money with problems in mind.
  - aroman 13y ago
    I really like that. As rising high school senior, I often struggle with this -- the question of whether to get rich any way I can and then make my mark on the world (a la Bill Gates), or whether I should strive for my money-making to also be genuinely (in my opinion/worldview) beneficial for mankind.
    - lobotryas 13y ago
      Why not both? After making his fortune, Bill is now working to better the world by using it to power his charitable foundation. If you're really confident then both tasks are within your reach. Don't listen to the nay-sayers who'd rather we all work as volunteers for the Peace Corps
      - aroman 13y ago
        Well I think "both" is the first alternative described: get rich any way you can, then use the money for real good. I think Bill's Microsoft was definitely not very interested in "Don't be evil" -- monopolistic practices, stealing ideas and technology from Apple (who often stole themselves), trying to kill free software (see: home brew computer club), etc. Don't get me wrong. I have tremendous respect for Bill -- I look up to him and give him a LOT of credit for his recent work and humility. But I don't think Bill did "both". He definitely fell squarely into the first limited category: being a ruthless capitalist to get rich, and then trying to figure out how to actually bring some tangible good into the world with that money. (See also Andrew Carnegie)
    - barry-cotter 13y ago
      You should look into Effective Altruism, Earning to Give and 80,000 Hours.
- cgag 13y ago
  I don't have any of the problems or any perspective or any idea of how to solve them with technology since they seem to be largely social problems.
nodesocket 13y ago
Hatin' from the mid-west. Listen, I don't know about you, but I despise doing laundry. Their pricing is actually cheaper than the laundry mat down the street from me here in SF. It is a win! Plus, I get the tech; SMS when the driver is in route to pick-up and deliver. Time is critical for people working here, and shopping (InstaCart), chores (TaskRabbit/Exec), and now Laundry (Prim) are things I am willing to pay for. It is true developers/entrepreneurs might have more disposable income here in SF than other cities, but we also have a startup for anything you need. I like the ability to pick and choose what I am willing to pay somebody else to do. Startups should make people's life less shity; I'd say Prim accomplishes that.
antiterra 13y ago
Considering that they mention a service in Los Angeles and the very specialized and expansive market in NYC (that serves WAY more than a privileged 20-something tech crowd), your characterization seems a bit unfair.
- marknutter 13y ago
  When they launch in Peoria, let me know.
  - yinyinwu 13y ago
    That's funny you should mention Peoria because my parents live in Peoria. We may launch there sooner than you expect :)
physcab 13y ago
I disagree with this. When I was a poor grad student, laundry was the greatest time sink of my life. I spent many Sundays trucking loads of laundry between my apartment and my laundromat a mile away. $20 was definitely a reasonable sum to have that time given back to me. And I'm sure many of the other people I met there (often mothers who were disciplining unruly children) would have said the same thing. If you think this is purely an entitled tech worker problem, you've never spent significant amounts of time in run-down laundromats.
- icebraining 13y ago
  Why didn't you get a small washing machine?
  - Lewisham 13y ago
    I'm going to guess because almost all grad students rent and don't own, so cannot install washing machines in apartments that don't have them.
    - icebraining 13y ago
      You don't need to install them; portable washing machines just need to be plugged into a faucet and a wall socket. They take small loads, but it's plenty for a single person.
      - cbhl 13y ago
        Do you have a particular model on Amazon that you can recommend? I always thought that the only kind of washing machine is the big $600 kind that my parents had.
        icebraining 13y ago
        Sorry, I don't know the model, I just know it's a 2Kg, top loader machine. I think they're commonly sold to RV owners.
pg 13y ago
These founders merely did what I advise every startup to do, build something for which they are initial market. So essentially you're complaining that the founders are members of the demographic group that they are. But that seems unfair; they can't help that.
- nudetayne 13y ago
  I'm sure it'll make money since it's exploiting the lazy. The folding is a nice touch, but it's essentially useless since it puts unwanted creases and wrinkles in clothes. They aren't following tag instructions, either. Based on this, here are the steps that are actually useful: 1. Separate white clothing from non-white clothing. 2. Place white clothing in washer and add soap. 3. Place white clothing in dryer. 4. Place non-white clothing in washer. 5. Remove white clothing from dryer. 6. Place non-white clothing in dryer. 7. Remove non-white clothing from dryer. That's all they're doing for people besides giving them a little soap. It's about 5 minutes of work, so around $300/hour if they're efficient, assuming one bag per customer. This is a scam YC if I've ever seen it.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    Yes. The big laundry scam.
  - jmduke 13y ago
    Let's say I'm an entry-level freelancer who bills out at $100/hr. It's 5PM on a Wednesday. I need to do the laundry because I have a client meeting tomorrow and they usually look at me funny when I wear crumpled tee shirts that smell kinda funky. I could do one of two things: 1. Work for an hour, generating $100, and spend 20% of that getting someone else to do my laundry. (Plus, I get to drink beer when I'm working at my desk, and I don't get to drink beer at the laundromat.) 2. Do the laundry.
    - rdouble 13y ago
      Let's say I'm an entry-level freelancer who bills out at $100/hr. ... 1. Work for an hour, generating $100, and spend 20% of that getting someone else to do my laundry. I know you're just an entry level freelancer, but $25 is actually 25% of $100.
icambron 13y ago
I don't understand this response at all. "Businesses provide services to people that require those services and have the money to pay for them? Living in a densely-populated area gives you access to such niche services even though they wouldn't work where I live? Madness!" I'm sure that living in Peoria is a fine choice, but you can't expect the world's startups to cater to you there. And that's OK.
- bobwaycott 13y ago
  This kind of sounds like referring to SF startups like Americans refer to baseball championships--'world's' startups ... 'world' series. I don't think the commenter was remarking on the lack of personal catering he experiences from SV startup land.
  - icambron 13y ago
    > This kind of sounds like referring to SF startups like Americans refer to baseball championships--'world's' startups ... 'world' series Startups in SV are a subset of startups in the world, and my argument applies to most of them (perspective: I don't live anywhere near SF/SV). Targeting a demo with a need and means makes sense no matter where the company is founded. If Prim had started in NYC or London or Hong Kong, would that change any of the logic here? Or do you think the commenter above would say, "oh, targeting the 20-something tech crowd with too much disposable income is OK, as long as you're not in Silicon Valley"? My point is that it makes perfect sense for Prim to target the demo it does-- nothing to do with SF. That the commenter thinks this is a problem specific to a certain region doesn't affect the argument that it's not a problem at all. > I don't think the commenter was remarking on the lack of personal catering he experiences from SV startup land. He's certainly complaining that a certain demographics (which I'm guessing includes him, though I am not sure, and it's not really relevant) don't get catered to by SV startup land. My point is that this isn't a good reason for bitterness.
    - bobwaycott 13y ago
      The connection between criticizing targeting certain demographics with disposable income for completing a chore vs not catering to him (your original charge) is not made, despite your clarifications. The original commenter was neither complaining about the world's startups, nor about lack of personal catering. I suppose I read your comment as far more specific than you intended.
kumarski 13y ago
You're focusing on the negative. What if you found out that their goal was to reduce the total number of washers, dryers, and irons in the United States? What if washers/dryers/irons are extremely inefficient and that by reaching scale PRIM reduces consumption? It's a longshot, I know, but try to be a little less negative. In India, these services already exist but have no mobile platform.
dannyr 13y ago
When the PC first came out, it only catered for the rich. Same with cell phones, cars, etc. How about restaurants? Why should people eat out when it's cheaper to cook at home? If founders listen to people like you, nothing will be built.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  To be fair, in places that aren't the Valley wash-and-fold services are a dime a dozen, the product is heavily commoditized, and availability is high. You wouldn't need a high-tech web-based provider of laundry, because there's a perfectly good low-tech one already doing it, doing it cheap, and doing it well. This is not a case of a new product being upmarket before working its way downmarket. It's a case where something that exists at rock-bottom prices everywhere else is being introduced to the Valley at a premium, because for some crazy reason the SF/Bay hasn't figured out laundry by now. This feels like a business that solves a Bay Area Problem. The question is how many other geographies are there where there is sufficient demand, insufficient development of local alternatives, and the income level to support this kind of pricing. I think it's safe to say that this sort of service doesn't stand a stone cold chance in hell in a place like NYC, where laundromats are everywhere, pick-up-drop-off services a dime a dozen, competition fierce, prices low, and being VC-funded with a cool mobile app doesn't earn you many (if any) points.
  - subsystem 13y ago
    It's really nothing "tech" about this business at all. The only reason it's on HN is because it's a YC company. All the challenges are basically business challenges. SV seem to have created a culture were you can ride on the merits of technology without any actual substance.
ghshephard 13y ago
If you've ever done any business travel, you know that a week's worth of laundry (Two Pants, five shirts, six pairs of t-shirts, socks and underwear) through the Hotel - usually goes for about $200-$225. If you are thrifty, and order a service, and are willing to wait for a week's delay, you can get your laundry done for about $100, but then you need to juggle logistics of actually getting your laundry to the service and back (and then worry about having to leave early, and stranding your laundry in a remote city) If you are a freak (like me) - you actually track down a local laundromat, and burn a couple hours on a Saturday Morning doing your laundry to save the company $200, but 95% of business travelers just throw it on the company tab. My advice to Prim - If they haven't already, reach out to Casto Travel (Typical corporate travel agency) - and every similiarly focussed travel agency, and see if they can get traction with the business travel market. You won't make any friends with the Hotels, but when I see a $250 laundry invoice for a single bag of laundry, I can't help but think that's a market ripe for disruption from below.
- reverius42 13y ago
  In NYC, you can drop off a bag of laundry at a Wash and Fold, and pick it up the next day clean and folded for $20. Where is your $100 going for getting your laundry done?
  - ghshephard 13y ago
    Profit, I presume? I'm not sure I understand your question.
Felix21 13y ago
Mark What world changing startup have you built? Its really unfair to for anyone on the sidelines to criticize the man in the arena. Be the change you want to see in the world: if you feel they are solving the wrong problems, go solve the right ones.
- bobwaycott 13y ago
  Not defending the comment to which you replied, but offering valid and helpful criticism does not carry the requirement of having a 'world-changing startup' on one's resume.
- marknutter 13y ago
  You'll notice I never complained in my comment about this idea not being "world changing". I just wanted to point out that there's been a raft of startups that cater very specifically to the demographic of people who start startups in the valley (as PG acknowledged in a sibling comment). It just seems to me that SV is becoming an echo chamber.
  - kumarski 13y ago
    Every technology has its early adopters. Here are examples of not so world changing startups that changed the world with early adopters from the 'luxury' crowd. Using your same logic in a previous time might have yielded the same feedback for technologies that are world changing. Viagra is now used to save lives. The foldit project proved video gamers can solve complex protein folding problems. Birth control pills were initially sold to fix first world problems and is now a leading technology in giving women control of their reproductive systems. Maybe Prim starts here, but none of us know where it will end. 50+ years ago James Lapeyre Senior stepped on a piece of shrimp and saw the shelling come off the meat. He built the first shrimp peeler. As he commoditized the world's shrimp industry making it massively popular among the rich and then scaling it to make it price friendly, he realized that the conveyor belts that fed the shrimp peeler with shrimp were rusting. He then went on to form a half a billion dollar modular plastic conveyor belt technology that is used by 60,000 clients. Before dying he had about 130 patents in all sorts of areas. The first digital magnetic compass etc...
enraged_camel 13y ago
There were two inventions in particular that contributed to the empowerment of women: refrigerators and washing machines. The former made it so that women no longer had to go to the market once per day. Instead, they could do one week's worth of shopping and store everything in the fridge. The washing machine made it so that they no longer had to spend hours everyday washing clothes. With all this free time, they could now start working outside the home. So they joined the workforce. Bottom line: Do not be so quick to dismiss an idea. Things are often more complicated than they seem on the surface and can make a much bigger impact than you think.
patio11 13y ago
If it makes you feel better: pretend you and your wife are immigrants to the United States, speak little English, are raising three children, and work long hours at a laundromat. The Internet, which you're pretty sure one of your kids has on that phone with the white earbuds, calls and tells you that it can offer you $3,000 of business. A month. For the forseeable future. No catch: they just want to pay you money to do that thing that you customarily take money to do. So, hypothetical you, how frivolous would you rate this company, when it has just told you that you can probably now afford to send your eldest daughter to any school that will take her?
- olliesaunders 13y ago
  Except the overall effect of this startup will be the opposite of what you just describe. Prim isn’t creating more dirty laundry, it’s consolidating the laundry jobs into batches that will be performed by fewer businesses than would otherwise overall. If you happen to own one of the laundromats that Prim doesn’t want to use you will see a reduction in your business. There is a saving grace for that situation however, you could apply for a job at Prim.
  - eitally 13y ago
    Presumably they'll choose the companies who can/do service them best. I work for a contract manufacturing company and the same thing holds true for us as a $6b corporation with a presence in 25 countries. Customers pick the partner who provides the right mix of cost, quality, communications, timeliness, location and alignment. Depending on the customer's own business goals and performance, the list of eligible partners ebbs & flows over time. Generally speaking, though, the cream always rises to the top.
  - patio11 13y ago
    I think they're probably competing with non-consumption rather than with their suppliers. Note the market segmentation and markedly higher prices, for example. (I have some accidental knowledge on this due to previous HN threads attempting to value laundry services as a perk from Big Daddy G, so I happen to know that weekly laundry pickup costs about $800 a year in SV, which is a sizable discount relative to this.) To put it another way: they don't have to create more dirty laundry, they just have to successfully sell people on "You've always thought that poor people use the laundromat, middle class people use their own washer, and rich people have hired servants, but guess what, people just like you can actually outsource laundry without any of the squicky associations you have with hiring domestic help. It's as easy and natural as ordering a pizza."
JumpCrisscross 13y ago
Non-tech New Yorker here. I have a laundry unit in my apartment, but I drop off my laundry for wash-and-fold at the laundromat. It costs me about $15 every one-and-a-half weeks, on par with lunch. You find having someone else do your laundry ridiculous. That's fine. I find every dwelling having its own laundry infrastructure similarly silly. Given that there is already a robust wash-and-fold industry in New York which, to a large degree, already offers delivery, this start-up appears to be doing what tech does best. It has found an existing, de-centralised value chain and is using technology to make it work better.
the_watcher 13y ago
I live in Austin, do not have much disposable income, and have free time, but I hate doing laundry. I wish they'd come here, I'd pay their rates and cut back elsewhere.

aroman 13y ago

As fellow (hopefully that's a safe assumption) an outsider looking in, I have to agree with this. It also just generally frustrates and disappoints me that so many brilliant young developers and entrepreneurs spend their time fixing textbook first world problems instead of addressing the poverty, disease, crime, and unrest which still plagues the world.

jjsz 13y ago
"Well maybe once everything in our country is automated, we'll have time to worry about others' automation, digital divide, and poverty."
- aroman 13y ago
  Having just Googled that quote, I'm going to assume it was meant to be a paraphrasing of my comment/a (sarcastic?) response to it, rather than an actual quote. In any case, I didn't really mean other countries in my comment. There is a great deal of crime, starvation, poverty, and disease in this country. "Charity starts at home."
  - jjsz 13y ago
    It wasn't sarcastic, it was a realist based comment pointing out the fact on how much we focus on our country's automation before moving on to other countries. I agree, eventually, after solving our digital divide issue, we'll worry about real problems. VCs invest in these services to bring what rich people had for years to the masses, and that is a maid and servants to free up your time to do what you really want to do. The economic recession has allowed numerous of people willing to do your laundry, these people picked up on that, I wonder what's next. Will there be a service to wash my dog?
  - barry-cotter 13y ago
    The last time there was widespread starvation North America was in Newfoundland during the Great Depression.
unohoo 13y ago
I live in the valley and I still have to agree with this
hayksaakian 13y ago
entrepreneurs look for problems with money in mind. philanthropists look for money with problems in mind.
- aroman 13y ago
  I really like that. As rising high school senior, I often struggle with this -- the question of whether to get rich any way I can and then make my mark on the world (a la Bill Gates), or whether I should strive for my money-making to also be genuinely (in my opinion/worldview) beneficial for mankind.
  - lobotryas 13y ago
    Why not both? After making his fortune, Bill is now working to better the world by using it to power his charitable foundation. If you're really confident then both tasks are within your reach. Don't listen to the nay-sayers who'd rather we all work as volunteers for the Peace Corps
    - aroman 13y ago
      Well I think "both" is the first alternative described: get rich any way you can, then use the money for real good. I think Bill's Microsoft was definitely not very interested in "Don't be evil" -- monopolistic practices, stealing ideas and technology from Apple (who often stole themselves), trying to kill free software (see: home brew computer club), etc. Don't get me wrong. I have tremendous respect for Bill -- I look up to him and give him a LOT of credit for his recent work and humility. But I don't think Bill did "both". He definitely fell squarely into the first limited category: being a ruthless capitalist to get rich, and then trying to figure out how to actually bring some tangible good into the world with that money. (See also Andrew Carnegie)
  - barry-cotter 13y ago
    You should look into Effective Altruism, Earning to Give and 80,000 Hours.
cgag 13y ago
I don't have any of the problems or any perspective or any idea of how to solve them with technology since they seem to be largely social problems.

nodesocket 13y ago

Hatin' from the mid-west. Listen, I don't know about you, but I despise doing laundry. Their pricing is actually cheaper than the laundry mat down the street from me here in SF. It is a win! Plus, I get the tech; SMS when the driver is in route to pick-up and deliver. Time is critical for people working here, and shopping (InstaCart), chores (TaskRabbit/Exec), and now Laundry (Prim) are things I am willing to pay for. It is true developers/entrepreneurs might have more disposable income here in SF than other cities, but we also have a startup for anything you need. I like the ability to pick and choose what I am willing to pay somebody else to do. Startups should make people's life less shity; I'd say Prim accomplishes that.

antiterra 13y ago

Considering that they mention a service in Los Angeles and the very specialized and expansive market in NYC (that serves WAY more than a privileged 20-something tech crowd), your characterization seems a bit unfair.

marknutter 13y ago
When they launch in Peoria, let me know.
- yinyinwu 13y ago
  That's funny you should mention Peoria because my parents live in Peoria. We may launch there sooner than you expect :)

physcab 13y ago

I disagree with this. When I was a poor grad student, laundry was the greatest time sink of my life. I spent many Sundays trucking loads of laundry between my apartment and my laundromat a mile away. $20 was definitely a reasonable sum to have that time given back to me. And I'm sure many of the other people I met there (often mothers who were disciplining unruly children) would have said the same thing. If you think this is purely an entitled tech worker problem, you've never spent significant amounts of time in run-down laundromats.

icebraining 13y ago
Why didn't you get a small washing machine?
- Lewisham 13y ago
  I'm going to guess because almost all grad students rent and don't own, so cannot install washing machines in apartments that don't have them.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    You don't need to install them; portable washing machines just need to be plugged into a faucet and a wall socket. They take small loads, but it's plenty for a single person.
    - cbhl 13y ago
      Do you have a particular model on Amazon that you can recommend? I always thought that the only kind of washing machine is the big $600 kind that my parents had.
      - icebraining 13y ago
        Sorry, I don't know the model, I just know it's a 2Kg, top loader machine. I think they're commonly sold to RV owners.

pg 13y ago

These founders merely did what I advise every startup to do, build something for which they are initial market. So essentially you're complaining that the founders are members of the demographic group that they are. But that seems unfair; they can't help that.

nudetayne 13y ago
I'm sure it'll make money since it's exploiting the lazy. The folding is a nice touch, but it's essentially useless since it puts unwanted creases and wrinkles in clothes. They aren't following tag instructions, either. Based on this, here are the steps that are actually useful: 1. Separate white clothing from non-white clothing. 2. Place white clothing in washer and add soap. 3. Place white clothing in dryer. 4. Place non-white clothing in washer. 5. Remove white clothing from dryer. 6. Place non-white clothing in dryer. 7. Remove non-white clothing from dryer. That's all they're doing for people besides giving them a little soap. It's about 5 minutes of work, so around $300/hour if they're efficient, assuming one bag per customer. This is a scam YC if I've ever seen it.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Yes. The big laundry scam.
- jmduke 13y ago
  Let's say I'm an entry-level freelancer who bills out at $100/hr. It's 5PM on a Wednesday. I need to do the laundry because I have a client meeting tomorrow and they usually look at me funny when I wear crumpled tee shirts that smell kinda funky. I could do one of two things: 1. Work for an hour, generating $100, and spend 20% of that getting someone else to do my laundry. (Plus, I get to drink beer when I'm working at my desk, and I don't get to drink beer at the laundromat.) 2. Do the laundry.
  - rdouble 13y ago
    Let's say I'm an entry-level freelancer who bills out at $100/hr. ... 1. Work for an hour, generating $100, and spend 20% of that getting someone else to do my laundry. I know you're just an entry level freelancer, but $25 is actually 25% of $100.

icambron 13y ago

I don't understand this response at all. "Businesses provide services to people that require those services and have the money to pay for them? Living in a densely-populated area gives you access to such niche services even though they wouldn't work where I live? Madness!" I'm sure that living in Peoria is a fine choice, but you can't expect the world's startups to cater to you there. And that's OK.

bobwaycott 13y ago
This kind of sounds like referring to SF startups like Americans refer to baseball championships--'world's' startups ... 'world' series. I don't think the commenter was remarking on the lack of personal catering he experiences from SV startup land.
- icambron 13y ago
  > This kind of sounds like referring to SF startups like Americans refer to baseball championships--'world's' startups ... 'world' series Startups in SV are a subset of startups in the world, and my argument applies to most of them (perspective: I don't live anywhere near SF/SV). Targeting a demo with a need and means makes sense no matter where the company is founded. If Prim had started in NYC or London or Hong Kong, would that change any of the logic here? Or do you think the commenter above would say, "oh, targeting the 20-something tech crowd with too much disposable income is OK, as long as you're not in Silicon Valley"? My point is that it makes perfect sense for Prim to target the demo it does-- nothing to do with SF. That the commenter thinks this is a problem specific to a certain region doesn't affect the argument that it's not a problem at all. > I don't think the commenter was remarking on the lack of personal catering he experiences from SV startup land. He's certainly complaining that a certain demographics (which I'm guessing includes him, though I am not sure, and it's not really relevant) don't get catered to by SV startup land. My point is that this isn't a good reason for bitterness.
  - bobwaycott 13y ago
    The connection between criticizing targeting certain demographics with disposable income for completing a chore vs not catering to him (your original charge) is not made, despite your clarifications. The original commenter was neither complaining about the world's startups, nor about lack of personal catering. I suppose I read your comment as far more specific than you intended.

kumarski 13y ago

You're focusing on the negative. What if you found out that their goal was to reduce the total number of washers, dryers, and irons in the United States? What if washers/dryers/irons are extremely inefficient and that by reaching scale PRIM reduces consumption? It's a longshot, I know, but try to be a little less negative. In India, these services already exist but have no mobile platform.

dannyr 13y ago

When the PC first came out, it only catered for the rich. Same with cell phones, cars, etc. How about restaurants? Why should people eat out when it's cheaper to cook at home? If founders listen to people like you, nothing will be built.

potatolicious 13y ago
To be fair, in places that aren't the Valley wash-and-fold services are a dime a dozen, the product is heavily commoditized, and availability is high. You wouldn't need a high-tech web-based provider of laundry, because there's a perfectly good low-tech one already doing it, doing it cheap, and doing it well. This is not a case of a new product being upmarket before working its way downmarket. It's a case where something that exists at rock-bottom prices everywhere else is being introduced to the Valley at a premium, because for some crazy reason the SF/Bay hasn't figured out laundry by now. This feels like a business that solves a Bay Area Problem. The question is how many other geographies are there where there is sufficient demand, insufficient development of local alternatives, and the income level to support this kind of pricing. I think it's safe to say that this sort of service doesn't stand a stone cold chance in hell in a place like NYC, where laundromats are everywhere, pick-up-drop-off services a dime a dozen, competition fierce, prices low, and being VC-funded with a cool mobile app doesn't earn you many (if any) points.
- subsystem 13y ago
  It's really nothing "tech" about this business at all. The only reason it's on HN is because it's a YC company. All the challenges are basically business challenges. SV seem to have created a culture were you can ride on the merits of technology without any actual substance.

ghshephard 13y ago

If you've ever done any business travel, you know that a week's worth of laundry (Two Pants, five shirts, six pairs of t-shirts, socks and underwear) through the Hotel - usually goes for about $200-$225. If you are thrifty, and order a service, and are willing to wait for a week's delay, you can get your laundry done for about $100, but then you need to juggle logistics of actually getting your laundry to the service and back (and then worry about having to leave early, and stranding your laundry in a remote city) If you are a freak (like me) - you actually track down a local laundromat, and burn a couple hours on a Saturday Morning doing your laundry to save the company $200, but 95% of business travelers just throw it on the company tab. My advice to Prim - If they haven't already, reach out to Casto Travel (Typical corporate travel agency) - and every similiarly focussed travel agency, and see if they can get traction with the business travel market. You won't make any friends with the Hotels, but when I see a $250 laundry invoice for a single bag of laundry, I can't help but think that's a market ripe for disruption from below.

reverius42 13y ago
In NYC, you can drop off a bag of laundry at a Wash and Fold, and pick it up the next day clean and folded for $20. Where is your $100 going for getting your laundry done?
- ghshephard 13y ago
  Profit, I presume? I'm not sure I understand your question.

Felix21 13y ago

Mark What world changing startup have you built? Its really unfair to for anyone on the sidelines to criticize the man in the arena. Be the change you want to see in the world: if you feel they are solving the wrong problems, go solve the right ones.

bobwaycott 13y ago
Not defending the comment to which you replied, but offering valid and helpful criticism does not carry the requirement of having a 'world-changing startup' on one's resume.
marknutter 13y ago
You'll notice I never complained in my comment about this idea not being "world changing". I just wanted to point out that there's been a raft of startups that cater very specifically to the demographic of people who start startups in the valley (as PG acknowledged in a sibling comment). It just seems to me that SV is becoming an echo chamber.
- kumarski 13y ago
  Every technology has its early adopters. Here are examples of not so world changing startups that changed the world with early adopters from the 'luxury' crowd. Using your same logic in a previous time might have yielded the same feedback for technologies that are world changing. Viagra is now used to save lives. The foldit project proved video gamers can solve complex protein folding problems. Birth control pills were initially sold to fix first world problems and is now a leading technology in giving women control of their reproductive systems. Maybe Prim starts here, but none of us know where it will end. 50+ years ago James Lapeyre Senior stepped on a piece of shrimp and saw the shelling come off the meat. He built the first shrimp peeler. As he commoditized the world's shrimp industry making it massively popular among the rich and then scaling it to make it price friendly, he realized that the conveyor belts that fed the shrimp peeler with shrimp were rusting. He then went on to form a half a billion dollar modular plastic conveyor belt technology that is used by 60,000 clients. Before dying he had about 130 patents in all sorts of areas. The first digital magnetic compass etc...

enraged_camel 13y ago

There were two inventions in particular that contributed to the empowerment of women: refrigerators and washing machines. The former made it so that women no longer had to go to the market once per day. Instead, they could do one week's worth of shopping and store everything in the fridge. The washing machine made it so that they no longer had to spend hours everyday washing clothes. With all this free time, they could now start working outside the home. So they joined the workforce. Bottom line: Do not be so quick to dismiss an idea. Things are often more complicated than they seem on the surface and can make a much bigger impact than you think.

patio11 13y ago

If it makes you feel better: pretend you and your wife are immigrants to the United States, speak little English, are raising three children, and work long hours at a laundromat. The Internet, which you're pretty sure one of your kids has on that phone with the white earbuds, calls and tells you that it can offer you $3,000 of business. A month. For the forseeable future. No catch: they just want to pay you money to do that thing that you customarily take money to do. So, hypothetical you, how frivolous would you rate this company, when it has just told you that you can probably now afford to send your eldest daughter to any school that will take her?

olliesaunders 13y ago
Except the overall effect of this startup will be the opposite of what you just describe. Prim isn’t creating more dirty laundry, it’s consolidating the laundry jobs into batches that will be performed by fewer businesses than would otherwise overall. If you happen to own one of the laundromats that Prim doesn’t want to use you will see a reduction in your business. There is a saving grace for that situation however, you could apply for a job at Prim.
- eitally 13y ago
  Presumably they'll choose the companies who can/do service them best. I work for a contract manufacturing company and the same thing holds true for us as a $6b corporation with a presence in 25 countries. Customers pick the partner who provides the right mix of cost, quality, communications, timeliness, location and alignment. Depending on the customer's own business goals and performance, the list of eligible partners ebbs & flows over time. Generally speaking, though, the cream always rises to the top.
- patio11 13y ago
  I think they're probably competing with non-consumption rather than with their suppliers. Note the market segmentation and markedly higher prices, for example. (I have some accidental knowledge on this due to previous HN threads attempting to value laundry services as a perk from Big Daddy G, so I happen to know that weekly laundry pickup costs about $800 a year in SV, which is a sizable discount relative to this.) To put it another way: they don't have to create more dirty laundry, they just have to successfully sell people on "You've always thought that poor people use the laundromat, middle class people use their own washer, and rich people have hired servants, but guess what, people just like you can actually outsource laundry without any of the squicky associations you have with hiring domestic help. It's as easy and natural as ordering a pizza."

JumpCrisscross 13y ago

Non-tech New Yorker here. I have a laundry unit in my apartment, but I drop off my laundry for wash-and-fold at the laundromat. It costs me about $15 every one-and-a-half weeks, on par with lunch. You find having someone else do your laundry ridiculous. That's fine. I find every dwelling having its own laundry infrastructure similarly silly. Given that there is already a robust wash-and-fold industry in New York which, to a large degree, already offers delivery, this start-up appears to be doing what tech does best. It has found an existing, de-centralised value chain and is using technology to make it work better.

the_watcher 13y ago

I live in Austin, do not have much disposable income, and have free time, but I hate doing laundry. I wish they'd come here, I'd pay their rates and cut back elsewhere.