16 ms·
“Let’s, Like, Demolish Laundry”
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- mmanfrin 12y ago(I dont mean to nitpick one paragraph, but: ) > "One Wednesday morning this spring, after staff at Washio had gathered for their daily “stand-up” meeting—a ritual suggested in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, a 2001 work-processes manual that advocates keeping employees on their toes by having them give status updates literally on their feet" What an absurdly overwritten way of saying 'at their morning meeting'.
- md224 12y agoEh, I think you're thinking about this sentence as an engineer and not a writer. The author wants to draw you into the philosophy of software development, with its mix of processes and productivity hacks; the elaboration in that sentence serves to paint a more vivid picture of the tech work environment. Of course, we already know all this, but many readers from outside our field may find these descriptions illuminating.
- cgriswald 12y agoAs I writer, I feel the author is painting a picture that has been painted a thousand times before. In that particular paragraph, the additional material dominates the paragraph at the expense of the main point (which itself is strangely spread over a block of paragraphs). As a reader I felt my time was wasted. Some explanation was in order, but I did not need to know the origin of the technique. "Work-process manual" is snooze-inducing. Rewritten: This spring, after staff at Washio had gathered for their daily "stand-up" meeting–in which employees are kept on their toes by giving status updates literally on their feet–operations manager San Nadler broke some bad news. This draws the reader a bit into the meeting and explains what is meant by a "stand-up meeting" without bogging the reader down in details or the "philosophy of software development." If that philosophy was important for the author to communicate, it really deserves its own paragraph.
- ameister14 12y agoExcept that it implies that stand-up meetings actually work to keep employees on their toes figuratively. In the first version, it's more of an implication that this is what the manual says and this company is just trying to build a business like you would a table.
- forgottenpass 12y agoIn that case, I still agree with the parent. Either it's not important so don't mention it, or dedicate a paragraph taking standups to task for being agile cargo cult bullshit.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- xcntktn 12y agoThere is a big difference between a simple meeting and the overly-gimmicky nonsense ritual that is known as the "standup". I've even seen standups where people are forced to hold a heavy book as they talk just to ensure they don't talk too long. How about people drop all the BS and just learn how to properly run a meeting? The gimmickry of the standup is a covert way of saying "no one here trusts anyone else to exercise restraint and common courtesy, so instead we have to come up with these harebrained schemes to enforce it".
- forgottenpass 12y agoHow about people drop all the BS and just learn how to properly run a meeting? The tribal knowledge in startup management is to half-ass a blog post you once read about how to manage employees. Why would someone invest valuable mental cycles making a company run better when they could be planning their exit?
- anigbrowl 12y agoThe point is that most businesses don't formalize the requirement to hold meetings standing up. Either people stand up as a matter of course (eg construction workers), or they hold their meetings in comfy chairs (generic office workers).
- analog31 12y agoMy feet start to hurt after the second or third hour of consecutive morning stand up meetings.
- jdale27 12y agoNot to mention that the Agile Manifesto doesn't actually say anything about meetings, standing or otherwise.
- vilhelm_s 12y agoMy favourite line was > They chose the name ninjas in part to signify the company’s relationship to Silicon Valley, where the title is handed out freely. Just like Canadian engineers complain about the term "software engineer", I hope there is some remote Japanese ninja clan grumbling that "these guys didn't even pass the ninja board exam!"
- maaku 12y agoI am a ninja, or was for a number of years, and I chuckle then sigh everytime I hear that. These people wouldn't know a ninja if they met one.
- npsimons 12y agoThese people wouldn't know a ninja if they met one. Isn't that kind of the point of a ninja?
- sliverstorm 12y agoPresumably good ninja would be able to identify other ninja? :)
- maaku 12y agoMaybe in mass media, or in the just-passed-one-on-the-street-and-didn't-know-it sense. Here's a pointer to learn about real ninjutsu, as it survives today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bujinkan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bujinkan
- sjtrny 12y agoCanadian engineers?
- patmcc 12y agoIn Canada, "engineer" is a very specific title that refers to someone who is licensed as a professional engineer, including all the degree requirements, testing, vetting, etc. that go along with that. It's quite similar to "doctor" or "lawyer" in that way. To call yourself an engineer you need an Engineering degree from a qualified institution (4 or 5 years), at least 2 years of apprenticeship (effectively), and to pass a difficult examination. They're not typically huge fans of people who haven't done those things calling themselves "sanitation engineers" or "software engineers" instead of "janitors" and "programmers". The argument I usually hear is that it undermines their profession; people can hold the work of an engineer to a particular standard. If suddenly I can say "oh, I'm a software engineer" without anything backing that up, it damages the reputation of "engineer" if I behave poorly.
- kgin 12y agoI wonder if they realized how much of a hit piece this was going to be.
- killerdhmo 12y agoI have to assume they didn't know. I assumed it was all fiction until I started looking up these companies.
- smacktoward 12y agoThe thing that leapt out at me the most strongly from this article is how none of the laundry startups appear to actually do any laundry. They all outsource that work to other companies, like the one mentioned in the article, Wash Then Fold -- companies that tilt heavily towards being run and staffed by immigrants, who do the actual work involved with cleaning clothes while the white-kid startups grab the headlines. That seems like a really precarious position for those startups to be in. First there's quality-control: the #1 thing that's going to wreck your relationship with a laundry customer is if you mess up their clothes, and if all the clothes-handling is outsourced, how much can you do to prevent that from happening? And second, if all the value you bring to the table is a thin layer of code over someone else's service, at some point that someone else will just write their own app and cut out the middleman. "Climbing the value chain," the MBAs call it -- start off as a provider of outsourced services to companies whose executives' noses are too high in the air to do their dirty work themselves anymore, and then slowly shoulder those companies out of the way by establishing direct relationships with their customers at a lower cost. It's a strategy Asian hardware OEMs have been pursuing with success for decades -- there's no shortage of people who used to be IBM and Dell customers who are Lenovo and Asus customers now.
- freehunter 12y agoThe problem with your suggestion that these laundry companies will write their own app is that they probably won't. They're probably eking out a small profit, and adding the cost of hiring a programmer as well as technical customer service and delivery drivers massively out of their reach. What makes me say this? Well, are there any nationwide dry cleaning chains? What is the markup on dry cleaning? How successful are the best dry cleaning shops? And, as mentioned, they lean towards being run and staffed by immigrants. They can make a living, but I would doubt it affords them enough of an income to run a silicon-valley startup.
- dllthomas 12y ago"Well, are there any nationwide dry cleaning chains?" Yes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinizing_Dry_Cleaning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinizing_Dry_Cleaning
- stevetjoa 12y agoI like wash.io. I can't afford to use it every time (I think I've used it only three times so far?), but each instance left me satisfied. I find it especially useful for wash+press and dry cleaning where the alternative is to bring your clothes to a dry cleaner -- not convenient without a car. A good strategy is to wash towels and pants yourself (these are heavier and therefore costlier to wash, and relatively easy to fold and put away yourself), and give the shirts and jackets to wash.io to wash, press, and fold.
- brian_cloutier 12y agoThis author is almost showing off, they can be funny on demand. First they front load with some great jabs at startups and the hedonic nature of man to get you interested, then call back to them just before they expect you to get bored. The pacing is a little slow near the end, but otherwise the writing here is quite good.
- dinkumthinkum 12y agoWhy does it seem like Washio paid for this article. ? I imagine they did not but it just seems odd.
- harryh 12y agoObligatory pg link: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- Pxtl 12y agoReally? The whole article had such a thick layer of sarcasm and derision about the whole start-up world it's hard to imagine any start-up paying for this.
- dinkumthinkum 12y agoI guess, I admit I didn't read the whole thing. It seemed like a typical startup worskup TechCrunch type so I have up half way in.
- normloman 12y agoAdmittedly, it's unfair to print the quotes without editing out "like". Most people fill empty space in their speech with "like", "um", or some variant. And most reporters edit them out from quotes, to keep their sources from sounding like total morons. That said, if you're running a business described as "uber for laundry", hiring "ninjas", and paling around with Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, you've already forfeited the right to be taken seriously by anyone.
- dredmorbius 12y ago"to keep their sources from sounding like total morons" That's, like, the point.
- enraged_camel 12y agoI thought Kunis and Kutcher are actually decent people? Why is hanging out with them a problem?
- normloman 12y agoIt doesn't matter how nice they are. It's still pretty surreal to be talking to them about your laundry delivery app. At that point, you realize how absurd your life has become, and give up any hope of being taken seriously.
- noonespecial 12y agoUp next, the Airbnb of the Uber of laundry! Connecting people who do laundry to those who need it done. It all comes back around to mom doing your laundry. It just doesn't have to be your mom anymore.
- daktanis 12y ago"Making the wold a better place."
- peterwwillis 12y agoThis 'hedonic treadmill' reminds me of the constant battle i'm in to reduce the bullshit I don't need in my life. It started with canceling my cable service and terminating my Xbox Live subscription. Later it led to giving away all my furniture and moving, only taking as much crap as I could fit in my car (and a bike on the car). Now i'm feeling the creep of excess crap again. Entertainment systems I don't use. Drawers of clothes and shoes, racks of jackets and suits I don't wear. A small mountain of various bags, boxes, knick-knacks, toys and other junk I haven't looked at in 6 months. I tried to live without a smartphone for a few months but it was just too fucking convenient, and CHEAP at $70 cash! I'm back on the Android again. Why is this seemingly the fate of all modern industrialized middle-class Americans? Like George Carlin said, a house is basically just a place to keep all our stuff. But why we need all that stuff, while the majority of the world doesn't seem to be so materially obsessed, I used to think was anyone's guess. Now i'm starting to think the hedonic treadmill might be a kind of social disease that needs to be treated more seriously.
- ossreality 12y agoOh wah, live your life. You wouldn't fill your life up with stuff if you didn't want/need or think you need it. I live in a 1BR apartment with less stuff than it would take to fill the apartment. WOE IS ME.
- XorNot 12y agoI have tons of stuff - it's spare parts and materials to make other stuff. I never want to throw anything out until it's a tangled pile of shredded debris if I can avoid it. The alternative is just blunt consumerism - assuming I can buy things when I need them, and constantly being at the mercy of price-gouging suppliers. I don't even know why you'd reach the conclusion that you shouldn't have useful things - i.e. a smartphone.
- peterwwillis 12y ago> I don't even know why you'd reach the conclusion that you shouldn't have useful things A lot of things are useful. I'm sure there's a gadget out there that will wipe my ass for me and tell me what I had for dinner. Doesn't mean I need it, though. I think a simpler life is probably a happier one, and the things we find useful are often just used against us in some way or another. Instead of focusing on the things we could have that would make our lives better, perhaps we should focus on what truly matters and try not to use anything we don't need? Just an idea anyway.
- knocte 12y agowow, super expensive, I still prefer to do the laundry myself...
- curmudgeon224 12y agoMy advice: As long as the VC's want to subsidize bad business models that cater to narrow markets, I say, take advantage of it while you can cuz it ain't gonna last forever.
- mmcclure 12y agoI used Prim a few times, then they called it quits. At some point during the article I figured I'd see what they'd done with the Prim domain and found...a fully functional Prim. At first I thought I had just imagined it had gone under, but apparently not: http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/06/prim-laundry-shuts-down/ http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/06/prim-laundry-shuts-down/. Seems strange to not, you know, email your customers again if you decide to resurrect a product.
- IgorPartola 12y ago> We are living in a time of Great Change, and also a time of Not-So-Great Change. The tidal wave of innovation that has swept out from Silicon Valley, transforming the way we communicate, read, shop, and travel, has carried along with it an epic shit-ton of digital flotsam. Looking around at the newly minted billionaires behind the enjoyable but wholly unnecessary Facebook and WhatsApp, Uber and Nest, the brightest minds of a generation, the high test-scorers and mathematically inclined, have taken the knowledge acquired at our most august institutions and applied themselves to solving increasingly minor First World problems. The marketplace of ideas has become one long late-night infomercial. Want a blazer embedded with GPS technology? A Bluetooth-controlled necklace? A hair dryer big enough for your entire body? They can be yours! In the rush to disrupt everything we have ever known, not even the humble crostini has been spared. This. It feels like we are just trying to solve the smallest problems that will make us millionaires. With the resources available, why not tackle something a bit more fundamental than laundry?
- deciplex 12y agoOption 1: Split a few hundred developers into groups of 5-10 each, and throw money at them until you generate a few hits (we'll assume hardware costs are negligible because for this group they are). Offer low salaries and 'equity' in return, putting as much risk on the shoulders of your employees as you can - after all, for the successful ones you can always screw them out of their shares later. For now, if you do this at scale, you can be reasonably certain of profitability. Option 2: Form a single company where you have to manage that entire group toward a single goal, take all the risk, probably pay some non-negligible hardware costs if the problem is interesting enough, etc. Then you either solve the problem or you fail utterly, and even then you still get to find out if anyone really wanted the problem solved in the first place, so you can still fail utterly. Then once you get past that, you can deal with patent trolls and copycats, and for each case you have about 50% probability at best of getting any kind of justice at all. Option 3: Do the first to fund the second. Sadly there is only one Elon Musk, though.
- broabprobe 12y agoOr, instead of making it so those with disposable income no longer have to do laundry, innovate laundry itself so that no one is burdened by laundry. Making it easier for someone else to do your laundry so you don't have to is not moon-shot innovation. It's not worth doing.
- Jmetz1 12y agoHi All, Jordan, CEO of Washio, here. Happy to answers any questions.
- jpatokal 12y agoDid you realize that the article was going to be such a hit piece? And do you agree with his implication that the "laundry space" is bubblier than an overflowing washing machine?
- localhost3000 12y agoWe've had this in Boston for literally 10 years: Garment Valet (started by Northeastern undergrads as Husky Express). Great service. "Uber for laundry" before Uber. Surprised they weren't mentioned. Nothing new here.
- jobial88 12y agoThere's another earlier-stage one in NYC that I've used a couple times called LaundryPuppy -- guess they missed out on the article. What I think's interesting about those guys as opposed to Wash.io etc is they partner more closely with specific mom and pop cleaners (more like delivery.com), so the prices feel a bit more reasonable. Also, seems like they ditched the app in favor of SMS, which is sort of unconventional today but actually not terrible for laundry.
- ktf 12y agoReminds me of a real-life version of something from Pynchon's Bleeding Edge -- inching toward parody, but still believable. (In this case, unlike in the novel, because it's actually true...)