Alex is one of the founders of 2ULaundry, one of the hottest startups in Charlotte that just raised a large round of funding successfully. In this episode John and Alex discuss leaving a successful consulting job to start a company based on an experience in under grad. Alex tells the story of starting a company at 24 and growing it quickly and beating a couple of much more well-funded Silicon Valley companies.
00:01:30-00:08:40 Alex explains 2U’s brand and mission-“To create the first nationally recognized brand in laundry and dry cleaning.” Alex walks us through 2U's start on college campuses to where they are now- “Saving the average family of 4 about 30+hours/month doing their own laundry." John asks Alex what needed to be done in order to make his idea a reality: Gaining confidence in myself- “I knew that I had to do this. I didn’t want to hit 30 and regret not going after this with everything I got." Surrounding myself with the right people that were willing to take the risk with me. Studying the market and other companies that had the right idea but wrong business models to learn from their mistakes.
LINKS
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/30/washio-on-demand-laundry-service-shuts-down-operations/
00:18:00-00:22:41 Alex describes how he ran the company from his car in the early days of 2U John highlights the similarities between 2U's and Dominos Pizza's origin stories Alex on building a founding team based on this advice- “You need a hustler, a hacker and a hipster to build a successful company."
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00:29:34-00:34:22 We find out what Alex plans to do with this round and the next round of funding. Alex explains his 3 pillars of a successful founder that are necessary to keep a company funded: Hire the best people, establish a clear vision, and make sure to articulate that vision. The discuss where Alex sees 2U in 5 years.
00:44:00-00:51:35 Alex compares his experience building their first brick and mortar to a scene from McDonald’s movie ‘The Founder’. John asks Alex to talk about what it means to have someone like Beck on the 2U team because of his generations of laundry experience. Alex- “I feel like everything happens for a reason. Coincidentally, Beck was one of my fraternity brothers.” John - “Having someone that understands the fundamentals of the business is enormous." Alex discusses the unexpected effects of combining a laundromat retail and wholesale operation.
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