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Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

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51–60 of 216 posts

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#51
I've been using these guys and they're great. Obviously they're thinking hard about every element of the service experience.

While there are plenty of places that do this kind of thing, none are delivering great service at the scale they're shooting for.

No doubt this isn't the last service they're going to improve via service design.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#52
post #32
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But being snarkily sarcastic is lame while calling something out straightforwardly is not.

I'd say the downvotes you're receiving might mean this community disagrees with you... but I'm just a messenger. You asked the question.

Wow, I guess that's possible. But I wasn't that disagreeable with the post I replied to. I said it had some merit, identified a solid example to support my contention and then still hedged back towards the OP's side.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#53

Come on, Xuwen. You run a laundry service. Your shirt should not look like it's spent the last week on your floor. The guy with the faux hawk is wearing a shirt that looks how I want my shirts to look. The very least you can do is use your own product and show why it rocks, and that means wearing a freshly cleaned shirt.

Sorry that was a new shirt taken out of a box before we took a last minute photo. None of my other shirts were like that...

Don't sweat it Xuwen. Most people probably didn't notice, but I would email TC and do a re-shoot or photoshop it and replace the pic. I really like the name and branding.

It will probably come down to unbelievable consistency, ease of use / UX and customer service. As long as pricing is reasonable, you can win biz if the aforementioned is awesome. Have you looked into using a provider that uses non-toxic, eco-friendly detergents? Gotta push that hard and can run a premium level for it.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#54

Next, we'll see the return of the milk man and we'll almost be in time for living just like exactly a century ago. These are not fresh, new ideas.

Most good ideas have precedents. The iPad was not the first tablet by a long shot. Nor was Dropbox the first service to offer syncing and backup. The difference, as here, was in subtle implementation details. But, as here, a small difference in implementation multiplied by a basic human need = great value to users.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#55

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?

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.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#56

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?

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.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#57

Next, we'll see the return of the milk man and we'll almost be in time for living just like exactly a century ago. These are not fresh, new ideas.

The milk man was a great idea during time where fewer people had cars, and milk wasn't so well pasteurized that a single gallon can last a month without going bad.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#58
post #2

I'm under the impression that pick-up-and-drop-off laundry has been a common business in larger cities for the last, oh, century or more? Is this just a "...yeah, but this time it's on the Internet!" business model?

The crazy thing is, I kinda need a laundry service, but I have no idea how to find one. Do I just go on yelp? It's a form of business I've never used, so it makes me sort of anxious to try it.

Startups that make interactions with businesses less anxiety-provoking tend to get my money.

Take Uber for an example: there are Taxis all over SF. But hailing one is intimidating. So I'd rather push a button.

The difference in fees don't matter much to me. I'm paying Bay Area rent, remember! The money I spend on laundry and taxis and food delivery and whatever is basically a rounding error - too small to meter.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#59

Next, we'll see the return of the milk man and we'll almost be in time for living just like exactly a century ago. These are not fresh, new ideas.

When I read the headline I thought... is "Prim" the name of a robot?

If it's not a laundry robot, I'm horribly unimpressed.

Re: Prim (YC S13) Does Your Laundry. Pickup, Wash, Fold, Delivery, Awesome

#60
post #45

This looks like a horrible business. It's old (one of the world's oldest professions) and it doesn't scale (huge marginal cost). It uses unskilled labor with repetitive motion--factory like conditions. Competition is fierce: a dry cleaner already exists on practically every city block. Can someone explain the innovation? To me it looks like someone who wants to do a startup more than they have original ideas.

This is basically like Seamless, but for getting your clothes washed instead of getting yourself fed. It organizes and simplifies a very chaotic market and presents it with a nice brand, and what sounds like great customer service. Also, you send them a picture of your key and they'll come in and get your laundry. That's both innovative and awesome.
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