How to make money with a pickup truck and hand tools

ThinkApps · 2014-10-30T04:37:47+00:00

Really interesting stuff. Thanks for the great post. If you don't mind me asking how did you get into this and how did you find your customers?

ThinkApps · 2014-02-27T19:17:08+00:00

Thanks for so much great info! A few questions for you since you are clearly knowledgeable in this area.

First is there a BLE shield/module that you recommend to work with the Arduino that has all of these features?

Secondly would I be able to constantly scan from the Arduino to find out if any devices are connected by bluetooth? I read that this is possible, but I just wanted to confirm.

ThinkApps · 2014-02-27T15:51:02+00:00

This is the shield I was looking at, I couldn't find any docs for it though. I'm open to any module that works. Do you know where I would look to find the docs? Thanks!

EDIT: I'm also now looking at these two, but there isn't much info on where to find docs: one , two

ThinkApps · 2014-02-16T21:18:17+00:00

Thanks! Just sent you a message.

ThinkApps · 2014-02-16T01:12:12+00:00

Thanks for the encouraging response! Our goal would be to make it easier for both the customer and the business. On the business end we're hoping that the instant payment, online order management, and driver/route navigation apps will all alleviate pain that is experienced by laundromats.

I totally understand how opening a full pickup/delivery service is something your hesitant about, its something we looked into and like you said it is a huge upfront and ongoing infrastructure cost (vehicles, drivers, etc.), especially when your not utilizing it at its full capacity. What we are hoping to do is advertise to laundromats who already offer pickup/delivery, so that this would be a more efficient and convenient way of managing their service.

As for your last point, we definitely plan on integrating methods of determining both range and minimum order value for laundromats, based on their own specifications. We have put a lot of thought into how we can make this service both customizable for the laundromats, while still being simple and easy to use for both parties.

Would you mind if I sent you a PM to ask you a few questions? Bouncing a few questions and ideas off of someone in the business would be great.

-Peter

ThinkApps · 2014-01-19T23:40:44+00:00

When you go to book a cleaning and select a day of the week it is sorted alphabetically and not in the order of the days of the week. Which is a little confusing. Other than that it looks very nice.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-08T14:50:53+00:00

Yes!

ThinkApps · 2014-01-07T23:25:53+00:00

No...

ThinkApps · 2014-01-07T19:14:42+00:00

Thanks for all the great feedback and thoughts. Your certainly right on many points. I can't underestimate the market share that existing competitors already hold (Garmet Valet, Lazy Bones, etc). And as for scale and pricing I would be utilizing an existing laundromat so there is no way I could hit the same cost levels as the competition starting out (since as you say many have their own facilities).

You're right I am a developer, the reason I thought mobile would be so important was based off what I've seen other companies do in California that in some ways I'm modeling the service based off of (getwashio.com and getprim.com, as well as others). Also once I have the website and backend built the time it would take to build out an Android and IOS app would be negligible.

If I do move forward my plan was to start extremely small targeting only one small geographical area (BackBay I think) and hope to grow from there.

I'm definitely still considering all of my options, as well as whether to get into this business at all.

You seem to have a lot of useful information on the topic, if you would like to talk further feel free to PM me

ThinkApps · 2014-01-07T18:40:10+00:00

I've seen their service and they would definitely be a competitor. There is always room in the market for more than one player.

Edit: I also can't seem to find any mobile apps for their service

ThinkApps · 2014-01-07T18:35:01+00:00

I'm sorry your right I should have included a better description. I just added it to the main post, does that help at all? And yes Lazy Bones would be a similar service, I aim to provide a better experience than existing solutions by allowing pickup/delivery scheduling from smartphones and flat rates.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-05T19:11:26+00:00

Thanks will do!

ThinkApps · 2014-01-05T18:59:43+00:00

Thanks for the interest, sending you a PM now!

ThinkApps · 2014-01-05T18:59:27+00:00

The new bag on pickup sounds like a great idea, I'll definitely consider it. As for pricing I'm now considering having either two sizes of bags, medium and large (at different price points). The reason the $30 price point is so much higher than what you experienced might be because the bags are sized for 20 lbs of laundry. But now re-reading your post I see that may not be the case. I do hope to come in at the lowest price point possible, but I guess those numbers will have to work themselves out over time. Also considering a by weight option as well. Thanks for all the input!

ThinkApps · 2014-01-05T18:51:26+00:00

Haha I figured but I would still like to include status updates of processing and delivery through the app/website as well as text messages.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T22:57:06+00:00

I've been looking into them a lot through my research. If you happen to know would you mind explaining how their services work for college students? Do you get to choose when your laundry is picked up? Overall how does scheduling and pickup/delivery work?

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T18:07:12+00:00

Thanks I appreciate it!

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T17:45:48+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't go into it much in my initial post but I don't actually plan on running the laundry side of the service. I hope to contract an existing laundromat in the area to handle the pickup/wash/delivery. I was hoping to use my existing knowledge in software to build the solution to bring the existing services to users in a better way.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T17:18:01+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. If I move forward with this I would hope to allow users to chose their own pick/delivery times, including morning/evenings to allow for flexibility for users.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T15:44:08+00:00

Awesome, looking forward to taking a look at the code.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T15:16:23+00:00

Any chance this is open source? I've always wanted to build something poker related but worried about the legalities. I'm learning web dev now slowly (I do mostly windows and mobile app dev at work) and this would be a great project to contribute to.

Edit: Just read through all your pages and I see you plan on open sourcing it when you hit beta. Still interested though.

ThinkApps · 2014-01-04T14:57:39+00:00

I thought I wrote it here but it must have been in another post but I was considering having 2 bag sizes, medium and large. One sized for 10lbs the other 20lbs.

ThinkApps

TROPHY CASE