Laundry as Work-from-Home Franchise

Poplin launched as SudShare in 2018 as a tech-enabled solution for laundry, and expanded to Phoenix in 2021. “The goal was to make outsourcing laundry the norm,” says CEO Mort Fertel. Now, outsourcing laundry is estimated to be a $100 billion market, and growing fast. And Phoenix, Fertel says, “is one of our top markets, with thousands of customers and ‘laundry pros,’ and over a 99.9% liquidity (match) rate.”

The recent rebrand to “Poplin” better reflects users’ sentiment about the professional laundry service, Fertel explains. “The new brand is a celebration of finished laundry, and the creative direction a reflection of the satisfaction consumers feel when they receive pristine stacks of perfectly folded laundry.”

Fertel describes Poplin as the first-ever manual labor work-from-home gig in the world. “Other marketplaces offer gig work, but you have to be out on the road. And there are, of course, other work-from-home jobs, but for them you’re tied to a desk with your fingers on a keyboard all day. With Poplin, you work from home but you’re active; can do the folding from anywhere in your home and watch TV, listen to a podcast, or keep an eye on the kids at the same time.”

To control uniformity of the service, Poplin uses videos and articles to promote best-practices to its laundry pro community, and built an algorithm that monitors and rewards fidelity to those best practices. 

Kathleen Flick, a local Phoenix laundry pro for Poplin, shares, “Poplin has provided a way for me to bring in extra income while staying at home through an on-demand service app. From the first day I started with Poplin, I found the app has been overall user friendly for both the customer and laundry pro. … I’ve always enjoyed doing laundry and thought it would be a great side gig since I was already home with my kids (and already doing lots of laundry). Since starting in February, I’ve built a great group of regular customers and have been able to bring home a decent amount of extra money each month.”