Three years after it launched, Washio, the Uber for laundry, is closing its doors. (Or its lid? If its a top-loader.) As per a letter posted to the company website today, “no more orders will be accepted and outstanding orders will be returned promptly to customers.”
Since 2013, Washio dry cleaned over one million items of clothing and washed and folded over 21,000 tons of laundry, the letter also explains of the former 24-hour laundry on demand startup. It also inspired this truly bonkers profile of the company’s founders Jordan Metzner, Bob Wall, and Juan Dulanto:
Convinced they were the only members of their demographic who had discovered this particular market inefficiency, they started to imagine a future of wealth and power. Maybe one day Washio would get bought by a larger company like Amazon, or Uber itself. Maybe they would strike out on their own. Go public. Use their delivery infrastructure to offer other products—maybe even overtake the Amazons and Ubers of the world. “But first,” Metzner said, “let’s, like, demolish laundry.”
Sadly, it looks like laundry wound up demolishing Washio in the end, instead of the other way around. (Though a cryptic section in Washio’s farewell address – “We are not alone in believing in Washio’s core business, technology and team, and hope it lives on in some shape or form in the future. But, that story has yet to be told…” – leaves us some hope for a brighter and better starched tomorrow.)
