Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 216 posts

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

#191

Post by voltagex_ »

bobwaycott wrote: post #144
voltagex_ wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What figures were you using? I'd like to put the current New South Wales, Australia electricity price into the equation.

My calculations are here[1]. Basically, $2/1000 gallons of water & $0.10/kWh for electricity (I did not bother calculating for gas dryers) were the most recent US averages I could find, and that was rounding up (e.g., electricity was actually > $0.09 but I used this calculator[2], and plugged in appropriate values where I could find most current data. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6107020 [2] http://michae…

Sorry, I missed your initial comment.

Even with lowball estimates, my cost for washing is double yours - 30+c/kWh... sigh.

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

#192

Post by ihnorton »

bluekite2000 wrote: post #185
nikster wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is, there is no inconvenient tasks. The only way to remove inconvenience is to enjoy the things that you do. The only way to do that is to be completely present in the here and now - concentrate on setting one foot in front of the other on the way to the convenience store. Notice the miracles all around you - the plants; the other people; the raindrops; etc. You don't need anyone to teach you this, you alre…

Your story reminds me of this story. An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer…

Sounds like this Onion article:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/unambitious-loser-with-happ...

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

#193

Post by cbhl »

icebraining wrote: post #123
Lewisham wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

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

#196

Post by icebraining »

cbhl wrote: post #193
icebraining wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

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

#197

Post by marknutter »

Felix21 wrote: post #107
marknutter wrote: post #10

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?

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.

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.

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

#198

Post by icambron »

bobwaycott wrote: post #114
icambron wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

> 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.

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

#199

Post by marknutter »

bluekite2000 wrote: post #185
nikster wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The truth is, there is no inconvenient tasks. The only way to remove inconvenience is to enjoy the things that you do. The only way to do that is to be completely present in the here and now - concentrate on setting one foot in front of the other on the way to the convenience store. Notice the miracles all around you - the plants; the other people; the raindrops; etc. You don't need anyone to teach you this, you alre…

Your story reminds me of this story. An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer…

The part that's left out of the story is what the fisherman does when suddenly the fish aren't biting. Part of becoming wealthy is being financial secure and comfortable in any situation, not just when times are plentiful.

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

#200

Post by bbzeven »

bobwaycott wrote: post #134
mbesto wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This already exists - http://www.oberweis.com/web/default.asp My parents (suburban middle class family) still use the service to this day. How do they justify it? The milk is better quality then anything that's mass produced in the grocery store (and my parents still go to the grocery store regularly) and doesn't contain all of the growth hormones. I would argue it is very niche though.

Touché. I should have googled beforehand. Of course, a $3.00 delivery fee hardly seems extravagant compared to Prim charging ~33x the average cost of completing a load of laundry in one's home. Any reason they don't just buy organic milk?

No one is going to argue that this is cheaper than doing your laundry at home. The simple fact is: people pay a premium for convenience. You should be comparing Prim's pricing with other laundry delivery services not the cost of doing laundry at home. Many laundromats deliver for free and charge between $1-1.25 per pound. If you figure that 20 lbs of laundry fits into a standard laundry bag, then Prim's per pound rate is $1.25; on par with many laundromats offering "free" delivery and pick up. Now, assuming you send your laundry out already, and Prim is offering a superior service (better customer service, an easy to manage online UI, etc) than other laundromats, selecting them as your provider is a no brainer.

*Disclaimer: I've been working on the same model as Prim for a few months and will be launching in a major city in the next few months. The economics are there, even on a small scale. Scaling up is where things get really interesting.

Post reply on HN