WashBox24 started like many startups, as an idea at the bar in the middle of the night. From a few beers and some thoughts on how to make the world a bit better, Washbox24 is the new Uber for laundry, now in over 14 locations and quickly growing. Nonetheless, it did not start out rosy as with many startups. Most friends were stunned that Bond was going to pursue this idea serious. Why laundry? Isn’t this a female thing? It sure is, in a way. So it was quite brave from Bond to create this service on his own, despite friends who are cofounders leaving along the way. One of the problems that he mostly wanted to solve was when people have to deal inconsistent service experience and unprofessionalism of many mom and pop laundry stores, and especially with the opening hours of laundry shops. Not all of the potential customers have the time to get to their laundry shop during service hours, and sometimes those shops are far away or the traffic is bad. Bond wanted to emphasize on important part of laundry that was always missing convenience.
According to Bond, convenience is reached the best way by installing lockers at public places and in condominiums that are highly accessible and secure. From He purchased the lockers from a manufacturer in China. “‘You know what, let’s go to China to see the suppliers,” said Bond to his cofounder. This is where they found the right manufacturer after various unsuccessful attempts. “No company had the right lockers, so we went to alibaba.com and found a supplier in Luoyang. This city is far off, so we had a long ride, but at the end we had our first set of lockers”. This is how it all started.
Staffing was a challenge like most startup as well. To recruit staff, Bond began with two girls which he knew from a Japanese restaurant. They left after the first three months. Gradually as the business model grew and they became more successful, more staff came to join the team and now Washbox24 boats a team of four full time (three of them male) and three part time employees which takes care of picking up, washing, and delivery the laundry.
Lastly, like most startups whose ideas are ahead of their time, Bond funded the whole startup from own assets, which, as he admitted himself, was very risky. He explained his decision of not to get funding from outside which he believe initially would distract the company since most potential investors were not as passionate about his idea as he was. His believe is the lack of investor capital allowed him to take his time and experience and saved him from having to pay back investors if the investment goes sour. In the end, Bond wants to build his business his own way and all the research that went into it made him come to the conclusion that when the marketing and positioning is done right again, every idea can be worth a million dollars.