To New Beginnings
Bored of doing your laundry or running out of time trying to check your weekend to-do list? Worry not, Pick My Laundry comes to your rescue! Pick My Laundry is an IIT alumni startup that provides laundry and dry-cleaning services at the convenience of your doorstep!
Working professionals Gaurav Agrawal, Ankur Jain, and Samar Sisodia, found the task of doing their laundry a real pain in their neck and wished there was some company that offers its laundry services to people in big cities. And as they say that necessity is the mother of all inventions, the three started researching on ways to resolve this problem in Delhi. Their research findings were further supported when friends in Gurgaon said “We will be your Customers”, when asked if they would avail such services. With a Vision of Making Lives Simpler and allowing People to have More Free Time on their hands; and all things business they set out to start their own venture – Pick My Laundry.
Start me up!
The start up was established end of January 2015, and began its operations at Vasant Kunj, New Delhi and later grew it’s network to cover the South Delhi and Gurgaon region . Finding customers was never a challenge for this trio because the service is such that everyone needs it. The team worked on different models for handling logistics initially, and zeroed-in on a system where the routes are optimized and mapped in a manner that allows for maximum pick-ups and deliveries in time slots that are chosen by the customers.
At present the start up works on an aggregation model and has tie-ups with vendors across different localities who provide quick service to their customers. Their unique selling proposition is that they provide convenient, hassle free pickup and delivery and offer high quality laundry services to the customers.
The company offers services like Wash & Fold, Steam Ironing, Dry Cleaning, Starching, Bleaching, Shoe Servicing, Door to door Pick-up & Drop of the Laundry that mainly targets Students, Working professionals, Housewives and Senior Citizens.
Competition and Future Plans
Although, there are a lot many players that have sprouted in this space, the company feels that its in-house Operational expertise is hard to match. The company differs in it’s strategies on increasing the customer base, in creating targeted Marketing Channels & Viral Campaigns and of course in their business plans for the next few years and hence is confident that it can tap into this market more effectively. Pick My Laundry (PML) envisions to cater to each and every household in this world and make the concept of doing laundry at home a passe’. Currently PML operates out of offices in South Delhi and Gurgaon, and company plans to completely penetrate the Delhi NCR region by August 2015. The company is aiming to expand its operations in Major Tier I cities by the end of 2016.
PML plans to expand and extend its services to customers worldwide once its India operations are smooth. Execution of the business plan has not been an easy affair for the founders because after having identified the problem, figuring out the solution was a rather difficult task. The market was huge and it was difficult for the trio to quantify the size of the market. Since the size was unknown and the opportunity appeared big, the company decided to go for an aggregator model that could cater to the masses faster. Finding laundry partners was a challenge but after some ground work, PML was able to zero in on a great vendor in South Delhi and partnered with him.
And like all start-ups, the three founders ended up doing the pickups and deliveries themselves for the initial three months! Field work also meant a greater understanding of customers’ requirements, logistical problems associated with the service, learning various techniques in garment processing on the go and also learning techniques in packaging, processing etc. Initially PML got 2 orders per day but now the orders seem to have multiplied. The start up also plans to work on several strategic partnerships that will enable PML to acquire a larger customer base.
Gaurav Agrawal, is the CEO of PML and is from IIT-BHU (2011 batch), and has previously worked on Tata Steel’s greenfield project. Ankur Jain is the COO and is from IIT-Bombay (2011 batch), and has previously worked with Gaurav at Tata Steel. Samar Sisodia is the VP Marketing and is from IIT-BHU (2011 batch), and has worked with the Jindal Group in Chattisgarh in the past. The Pick My Laundry team has 20 members that work across roles such as Operations, Call Support, Marketing, Business Development, Designing etc.
Culture and Values
PML has a pretty simple motto – Work Hard and Party Harder. And for employees who do an awesome job at the company, PML takes care of all their needs, quite literally. The company values strict adherence to the delivery deadlines and appreciates people who are focused and willing to innovate and lead. PML wants to work in a way that they no longer have to introduce themselves to their prospective customers. The company also rewards it’s delivery staff on a weekly basis depending upon their performance against set targets.
Challenges
Although PML seems to have made it through the initial hitch of starting up and expanding its services across a larger geography, it had to face challenges that had to be seriously addressed before it got here. Their first and foremost challenge was to find well-trained Delivery staff for their laundry pick up and delivery services. Their selection criterion is designed in such a way that it eliminated a majority of the delivery boys that lined up for the interviews and in order to tackle this, PML had to seek help from expert store managers and recruit it’s delivery staff from established startups. The second challenge was to find resources that are affordable and skilled in technology, something that the company believes is a universal problem at the moment.
To know more about the company or avail its services visit www.pickmylaundry.in