Gwen Whiting: Co-Founder of The Laundress and Founder of The Fill Club

Second Life

Who What Wear

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4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gwen Whiting is the co-founder of The Laundress and founder of the new private members cleaning community The Fill Club. Gwen studied textile design in college and started her career at Ralph Lauren working in women’s and home design. As she began to grow her high-end work wardrobe, she grew frustrated with the lack of high-quality, effective cleaning products available. She realized there was a huge white space in the laundry category and knew she could do something about it. In 2004, she launched The Laundress with her co-founder, and over the next 15 years, grew the company without any outside investment. The Laundress came to be known for its excellent products and elevated design. In 2019, the company was acquired by Unilever, a move Whiting hoped would help bring its products to a global audience. In 2021, she left the company, and in 2022, watched in shock as The Laundress recalled all of its products due to elevated levels of bacteria. Before the incident, she had no desire to ever return to the laundry world, but after observing the scandal from the outside and realizing how much she still wanted to help her core customer base clean better, she decided to get back into the laundry game. The result is her new venture, The Fill, a private members cleaning community and collection of sustainable cleaning solutions. Head over to our Instagram @secondlifepod to enter our giveaway celebrating 7 years of Second Life! Giveaway ends Monday, January 27th at midnight PST. Terms and conditions apply.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. It's Hillary. I'm popping in here before we dive into the episode to say we have an
0:07.2	incredible giveaway happening over on our Instagram page right now. To celebrate seven years of
0:13.5	Second Life, we've put together seven self-care packages featuring products from some of our
0:20.0	phenomenal former Second Life guest brands.
0:23.2	We're talking rose hair, milk makeup, soft services, and more.
0:29.1	Head over to our Instagram, which is at Second Life Pod, to enter Terms and Conditions
0:35.0	Apply.
0:35.9	Okay, enjoy the episode.
0:42.7	Hi, everyone.
0:44.2	I'm Hillary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who What Where?
0:49.0	And this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers.
0:56.3	We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting
1:00.6	aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life.
1:06.0	Today on the show, I'm speaking with Gwen Whiting, who is the co-founder of the Laundress
1:10.8	and the founder of the new
1:13.3	private members cleaning community, The Phil. There are so many common denominators between
1:18.9	our second life guests, but one that always stands out to me is resilience, and Gwen has resilience
1:24.3	in spades. She co-founded the laundress while working at Ralph Lauren and bootstrapped
1:29.9	the company without any outside investment. She spent 17 years growing the brand, turning the brand's
1:36.9	simple, effective, and luxury, laundry and cleaning products into household staples. In 2019,
1:43.9	the company was acquired by Unilever, a move that Gwen Hope
1:47.5	would expand the laundress's reach into homes across the country and the globe. She stayed for two
	...

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