#73: Lean, Mean, and Clean with Ajay Prakash & James Joun
JAYSON WALLER UNLEASHED
Jayson Waller
4.4 • 649 Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2021
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on the show Jayson is talking with Ajay Prakash and James Joun, co-founders of Rinse, a laundry and dry-cleaning app started in 2013. Ajay was COO and CFO of Humble Brands, a consumer product startup. He also had experience at Bonobos, Berkshire Partners, the NBA and Bain & Company. James was a health care investor at Essex Woodlands, a product manager at Genentech, and a consultant with Monitor Group.
The company, founded by Ajay Prakash and James Joun, is headquartered in San Francisco. Rinse is a portfolio company of Green D Ventures and Yard Ventures. Rinse started serving customers in 2013, but it was actually 30 years ago when the story really started. Joun’s parents have owned a dry cleaning storefront for more than three decades, and for years he’d been wondering how to increase sales in a particularly static industry. Ajay Prakash, befriended Joun at Dartmouth university. James Joun has degrees from Dartmouth and Harvard Business School. Joun was schooled in operations, such as running contraptions like the topper, which presses pant tops, and in the finer points of separating dirt and stains from all manner of fabrics. Joun now competes against the people who brought him into the business who also happen to be his parents.
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Mentioned in the Episode:
Rinse’s Website - https://www.rinse.com/
Rinse’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/Rinse
James’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesjoun/
Ajay’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprakash03/
Ajay’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/aprakash03
Timestamps:
1:38 - James’s Childhood Experience
3:31 - How James and Ajay Met
6:13 - James and Ajay’s Relationship as Business Partners
7:10 - Bootstrapping the Business From the Start
9:25 - How Rinse Differentiates Itself From Others in the Market
13:46 - 2 Minute Pitch for Rinse
16:33 - Hardest Thing That James and Ajay Have Had to Overcome While Running Rinse
21:11 - Growth Strategy for Rinse Moving Forward
23:08 - ‘Covid Proofing’ Your Company in the Future
26:22 - Cow vs Buffalo
28:17 - What Ajay and James Are Most Proud Of
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Jason Waller here, True Underdog podcast and YouTube channel. |
| 0:03.8 | Listen, make sure you subscribe today. |
| 0:05.7 | You can go to IHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcast. |
| 0:09.4 | You can go to our YouTube channel, True Underdog, or you can visit trueunderdog.com and subscribe to all of it. |
| 0:15.1 | Damn, bam, damn, true underdog. |
| 0:18.3 | Bam, bam, unleash the power with him. |
| 0:21.4 | Damn. |
| 0:21.6 | Jason Waller here. |
| 0:27.9 | True underdog podcast. |
| 0:29.7 | I have got a show for you guys today. |
| 0:33.2 | All the underdogs, all the listeners out there. |
| 0:34.9 | Listen, we've got two gentlemen right here. |
| 0:37.5 | And today's theme is lean, mean, and clean simplicity wins. I've got Ajay Precash and James June, |
| 0:45.4 | co-founded Rince, a laundry and dry cleaning app started by college friends in 2013. Now, |
| 0:52.1 | Jay, you were the C-O-O and CFO at Humble Browns, a consumer product startup, and you had experience at Bonobos, Berkshire Partners, the MBA and Bain & Company. And then James was a wealth care investor at Essex Woodlands and a product manager at Green Tech and a consultant at Monitor Group. Guys, how are you guys doing right now? Doing great. Thanks for having us. |
| 1:11.5 | Well, hey, I bring the energy, so I hope you guys are ready to have some energy, right? |
| 1:14.9 | There's nothing small about this show. We like to go big all the time. So let's jump right to it. |
| 1:21.1 | So, you know, welcome to the show. And listen, it's over to you, James. You got your MBA from |
| 1:26.9 | Harvard Business School, |
| 1:28.3 | but it was your parents owning a dry cleaning storefront |
| 1:30.9 | where you helped them as a kid and as a real link to the story. |
| 1:34.0 | Take us way back and share with the listeners, |
... |
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