2025.10.30 Patrick Elverum_Building Dallas_Full
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[00:00:00] Patrick Elverum: When people walk into one of our laundromats, ~it's, it's ~this fun shock factor to see on ~their, ~their face.
[00:00:04] Like, whoa.
[00:00:05] the wash cycle and the dry cycles are so fast.
[00:00:08] I was on this trajectory to be an underperformer, to not believe in myself, to believe the lies of the world about [00:00:15] who I was and did I matter and. God inserted this man into my life who spoke truth to me every single day. ~Wow. You know, ~he said, you're loved. You do matter. You have what it takes. You're enough
[00:00:25] Chase: you're listening to Building Dallas, hosted by Arrington [00:00:30] Roofing. With 42 years of roofing, north Texas, Arrington Roofing is building a better roof for you.
[00:00:35] Chris Arrington: Today's guest is a leader, entrepreneur, and father of five who loves building things that grow. Patrick Elverum helped scale a [00:00:45] SaaS company from under 500,000 to more than 5 million in monthly recurring revenue,. He calls himself a thinker, a doer, and a dad. And he's honest about the challenge of being.
[00:00:57] World class at all. Three.
[00:00:59] [00:01:00] Please welcome Patrick Elverum.
[00:01:02] .
[00:01:02]
[00:01:11] Chris Arrington: Patrick's running. Cleaners. ~Yep. What, what, what, what's, what's the gen, ~what would be the generic term? Just [00:01:15] it's cleaners. It's, it's not dry cleaning?
[00:01:17] Patrick Elverum: ~No. Well, so we, ~we own cleaners as well, ~so ~we own all the Tide franchises.
[00:01:21] Own and operate all the Tide franchises in Dallas. ~So ~both cleaners, we call 'em cleaners now, not dry cleaning. ~Okay. ~It's falling outta favor. And we're building laundromats all over [00:01:30] Dallas. ~Like, like crazy. ~And ~if, ~if you would've. Rewound 10, 12 years and asked 30 5-year-old Patrick who was running a software company and coming off his time in the Navy, Hey, you think you'll ever run laundromats?
[00:01:41] He would've thought you were crazy. ~Um, ~and here we find ourself.
[00:01:43] Chris Arrington: ~Yeah, and it's, and it, I'm, I'm ~looking at your [00:01:45] mission statement that says, we take laundry, give life. ~Where, how did, where'd you get, ~how'd you get there?
[00:01:50] Patrick Elverum: ~So that, I spent a lot of time on that, believe it or not. So, yeah. Um, ~real simple. ~Our, ~our mission is to take as much dirty laundry as we can in the city of Dallas, and that could be a family who's coming in on a Sunday ~to, ~to get ready for the week [00:02:00] of school and work.
[00:02:01] It could be a professional who's dropping it off at the counter for us to do. It might be a restaurant or a spa or gym next door. ~So ~commercial, as much dirty laundry as possible. That's our mission. ~Um, but ~our purpose is, ~you know, so that I'll just say that mission. Matters. Right? ~Laundry has to get done.
[00:02:14] ~Yeah. ~Dirty [00:02:15] clothes have to get clean, dirty linens have to get clean. ~So it's, ~it's rewarding to have work that matters that people need ~it. ~It's real simple work. It's kind of dirty work, but it's rewarding to be that close to work that matters. ~And so ~we're proud of that work. ~Um, but ~we think what makes us special and maybe different ~is, ~is the purpose behind [00:02:30] that work.
[00:02:30] Because the mission is to take that laundry. And the purpose is to turn around and give life in return. ~And so ~give life means a lot of things for us, but ~uh, ~it starts with giving life to our customers by making laundry less dirty, by making it more enjoyable, by giving them a space that's safe and [00:02:45] clean, where they're gonna come in ~and, ~and be loved on.
[00:02:46] ~And. ~By our staff. ~Right? It's a real easy way to give life. And we think that, that, that ~that mission and purpose, ~we, ~we think ~it's, ~it's biblical. ~You know, you, ~you take someone with dirty laundry and what do you do? ~You, you ~turn around and give 'em life. Who did that best? Well, Jesus Christ. ~Mm-hmm. ~So for us, it applies not just to our customers, but it applies to our coworkers, ~right?~
[00:02:59] So we [00:03:00] wanna hire people who come in and believe in the mission. Buy into the purpose and give life to each other. ~'cause ~it's all about building relationships. If we can build relationships with each other, our coworkers, and begin to build relationships with our customers, ~then, then, then ~what happens?
[00:03:14] [00:03:15] Growth. ~Um, ~growth in the business, growth in the people, growth in the community. ~So, well, and I'm okay. ~
[00:03:18] Chris Arrington: ~I, ~I'm already intrigued. Because ~we, ~we put up, the way we met Patrick is we put the roof on a building that he's, ~uh, ~just started a new franchise here in Oak Cliff just [00:03:30] down the street from us. And the owner of the building has been one of our clients.
[00:03:33] So I went over, ~actually, ~I was introducing, ~uh, ~a new employee to the job and we went over there to look at and we went inside and it's like, ~uh, ~there's this spotless lot of [00:03:45] white clean. Laundromat what I'm thinking. But now you're saying ~I ~I had no idea. Y'all took in laundry from people and actually had a staff there working on it.
[00:03:56] Oh yeah. So ~this is, ~this is way more full serve [00:04:00] because at my age I'm thinking, ~you know, ~you walk into a laundromat, that's what it is. People are in there doing their laundry. ~Yep. That's it. ~You come and do it and you leave. So you've got. Actual, you don't call it dry cleaning, but you've got cleaning service.
[00:04:14] I didn't [00:04:15] know that. ~I mean, ~I had no idea.
[00:04:16] Patrick Elverum: We do, and it is dry cleaning. ~We don't, ~we don't call it that much anymore. But ~it's, it's, you know, ~you bring in ~your, ~your press shirts or your nice suit and ~we, ~we do dry cleaning as well, and kind of our thought is, ~Hey, ~laundromats, probably not unlike roofing. It's a real fragmented business.
[00:04:28] ~Mm-hmm. You know, and, and ~for a long time it's [00:04:30] been a business that's under invested in, people view it as a side hustle, so it's passive income. So they're gonna open a building, do the minimum ~to, ~to keep it running and just. Collect checks,
[00:04:41] Chris Arrington: they're gonna throw some machines in there. That's right. And hopefully it makes more money than they have [00:04:45] to spend if you're on
[00:04:45] Patrick Elverum: repairing machines.
[00:04:46] That's right. ~Yeah. ~If you're lucky, ~they'll, ~they'll repair machines. ~If you're lucky. They'll, they'll ~get in there and clean it. It's probably not attended. So, ~um, ~we want to be fundamentally different when we get it all the time. When people walk into one of our laundromats, ~it's, ~it's this fun shock factor to see on ~their, ~their face.
[00:04:59] Like, [00:05:00] whoa.
[00:05:00] Chris Arrington: ~Yeah. No, ~
[00:05:00] Patrick Elverum: ~I was, I, I ~
[00:05:00] Chris Arrington: mean, I couldn't, like, I hope these guys make it, 'cause this was really cool. I, this is a cool place. There may be people just in there hanging out, I dunno. But yeah, they were, it, it was, it was a
[00:05:10] Patrick Elverum: fun place to be. ~Well, I, I ~tell people all the time, ~um, you know, ~when you walk into one of my laundromats [00:05:15] on the weekend, first of all, again, you're gonna be greeted by somebody ~who, ~who cares about you and wants to get to know you.
[00:05:19] ~But, ~but if you just spend some time on a Sunday in a laundromat, ~it's, it's. ~It's jamming. I mean, it is high energy. There's a lot of people in there, and ~it's, it's what, ~it's what I think kind of America should be. It's this wonderful melting [00:05:30] pot ~mm-hmm. ~Of people from different backgrounds, from, ~you know, ~different neighborhoods, ~different, ~different experiences.
[00:05:35] ~Mm-hmm. And it's, it's like, um, you know. ~If you go to a really good service activity ~at, ~at your church and you start to really engage those people ~and ~and create connections that relationships, that [00:05:45] crossover boundaries, whether that's race or socioeconomic or age or whatever those boundaries might be like, that happens every day in my laundromats, and then on Sunday it happens.
[00:05:55] All the time. 'cause people are gonna be there for a while. ~Mm-hmm. ~So you've got a chance to get to know someone. And when they bring [00:06:00] their dirty laundry in, Chris, ~it, ~it's not just the dirty jeans and the dirty jacket. A lot of times they're bringing in hardship. My kid's sick, you know, my husband lost his job.
[00:06:10] ~Um, well 'cause ~
[00:06:10] Chris Arrington: there's a staff there, right? Which typically staff is [00:06:15] the guy sitting in the corner reading a magazine 'cause somebody's gonna lose a nickel somewhere.
[00:06:20] Patrick Elverum: ~He's gonna have ~
[00:06:20] Chris Arrington: ~to find it or something. It's been ~
[00:06:20] Patrick Elverum: such a blessing because that having ~a, a, ~a mission that matters and a purpose that people believe in, ~um, ~we get access to people that we shouldn't.
[00:06:29] They're, ~they're wonderful, ~[00:06:30] wonderful people and they're there to give life. 'cause ~what, ~what happens when you give life? You get life. Mm-hmm. Right? These relationships. So, ~you know, we, ~we train ' them how to, ~you know, ~fold clothes. ~We train 'em how to ~clean machines and clean dryer vents. But the primary request, ~the primary, ~are you doing a good job?
[00:06:44] ~You know, ~are you performing [00:06:45] in the position is, are you giving life? And what does that mean? Are you loving on customers? ~You know, ~do you know their names? Do you know their kids? And ~so when our first Yeah, 'cause ~they're gonna have regulars. ~Oh my gosh. Like, ~these are real relationships, Chris. ~Yeah. ~When you walk into our first laundromat, which ~is, you know, ~celebrated, its one year anniversary, a couple months back.
[00:06:59] Everybody knows [00:07:00] Mary. ~Okay. ~Everybody knows Michelle, ~you know, and, ~and there's a lot of folks who, ~you know, ~won't come unless Mary's gonna be there. ~Yeah. ~'cause they wanna spend an hour with Mary and catch up. ~Um, ~and it's awesome.
[00:07:08] Chris Arrington: ~Okay. ~You know, since it's, ~uh, ~I didn't realize it was that new either. So just ~a, ~a year from ~your, ~your first one.
[00:07:14] [00:07:15] Now ~are there, ~are there more ~of, ~of this Tide concept other places?
[00:07:18] Patrick Elverum: Great question. ~So ~it is a very new concept. ~So ~the test stores were in Chicago. ~Okay. ~And then we were ~kind of ~the first growth market to come alongside Chicago. They've since doubled down and they're building a bunch of stores up in Chicago.
[00:07:28] But this concept only [00:07:30] exists in Chicago. In Dallas. ~Okay. ~
[00:07:32] Chris Arrington: ~Yeah, we were so, so how would, ~how would somebody in Dallas, ~just, just to ~get this right off the bat. How would they find your store? Are they look for Tide one or what?
[00:07:39] Patrick Elverum: ~Yeah, so ~great question. ~I mean, ~if you Google Tide laundromat, that's the easiest way.
[00:07:42] But we're also proud to say if you just Google best [00:07:45] laundromat in Dallas, you're gonna see, ~oh my gosh, ~what's this laundromat with? 805 star reviews. ~This, this ~must be fake. No, it's not. It's tide laundromat. Come on down.
[00:07:53] Chris Arrington: ~Okay. Yeah, ~so brand new everybody. So this is something that, ~you know, ~we're really on the cutting edge ~of the, ~of the country [00:08:00] on getting ~this, uh, ~this concept, which it really is.
[00:08:03] I'll just say to our listeners, just go and see one, it, it is just fun to go in. I don't care if you have any laundry to do, just go in and take a look at it. It, it really
[00:08:13] Patrick Elverum: is. It's interesting. ~Well, the interesting thing too is ~Chris, ~like you, ~you think of a [00:08:15] laundromat and you think, okay, ~that's, ~that's what ~this certain, certain ~segment of the population uses, right?
[00:08:19] ~Mm-hmm. Like you have it in your head, okay? They're, ~they live in an apartment, they're struggling to make ends meet. Those are laundromat customers. I would tell you that's changed. ~We, ~we have a lot of, ~again, ~professionals who will just bring their laundry to us. Not just the dry cleaning, but the laundry.
[00:08:28] Drop it off in a big bag and [00:08:30] come back later that day and pick it up perfectly folded in a shrink, rock wrapped brick so they can just drop it in their, ~yeah. ~We've got ~a lot of, lot of, you know, ~upper income moms who come in to do the big bedding 'cause ~they're, ~their washer at home won't handle it. So we see 'em once a month and they bring in all the big linens and they're in and out of there in an hour and they.[00:08:45]
[00:08:45] They love it. 'cause it's clean. It's safe. The WiFi's rocking. ~Yeah. ~It's awesome. ~And when ~
[00:08:48] Chris Arrington: ~you're, ~
[00:08:48] Patrick Elverum: ~and when you're ~
[00:08:48] Chris Arrington: doing all your towels and stuff, they never get dry. That's exactly right. ~That's exactly right. I, I've ~
[00:08:51] Patrick Elverum: ~got, let's get down to the nitty gritty people. I, I, ~the number of people have said, well, my washer's broke.
[00:08:54] ~You know, ~'cause I feel like they need ~a, an ~excuse for being in a laundromat, which ~is, is is ~funny to me. ~You don't, yeah. ~You don't need an excuse. This is a good place to be. ~Right. ~[00:09:00] But then they turn into customers 'cause they're like, it's just easier here. I've got three kids. It takes me four hours on the weekend.
[00:09:04] I'm in and outta here in an hour. ~And so. I'm ~
[00:09:05] Chris Arrington: not fixing the washer. I got my, one of my questions was, and you, you've kind of already answered it, but I'll, I'll go a little deeper on it. Is, is fast. I [00:09:15] mean, when you go into the store, it's really clean and I think one of the feelings I got was, well, this is gonna be quicker.
[00:09:22] I don't know why I thought that because ~I, ~I didn't really play with the machines or do anything. ~Yeah. ~I didn't do any laundry. [00:09:30] But ~So te ~tell us about. Speed if that's, it's a huge
[00:09:33] Patrick Elverum: deal.
[00:09:33] Chris Arrington: That's
[00:09:34] Patrick Elverum: part of, it's a huge deal. ~So, um, ~these things are ~not, ~not cheap to build. ~I will tell you that. And the biggest part of that cost is, ~the biggest part of that cost is these machines ~that, ~that we're installing and bringing to market.
[00:09:41] ~Um, ~they're the latest and greatest. ~They are. ~We call 'em smart machines. ~So you, ~you can't find [00:09:45] another laundromat in Dallas where you don't have to bring detergent. You have to bring your detergent 'cause you gotta pour it in a little cup up top and it's disgusting and you're like, ah, is this even clean?
[00:09:53] Not ours. You take your dirty laundry, you stuff it in the machine, you close the machine, select the cycle, the [00:10:00] detergent you want, the softener you want included in every load. Do I want Oxyclean? Sure, I'll take some of that. And it is automatically dosed into the machine. So the machine weighs the clothes.
[00:10:08] It says, okay, you've got 45 pounds of laundry here, so we're gonna put in the perfect amount of water, the perfect amount of soap, and it's [00:10:15] gonna wash those clothes perfectly. ~You know, so it's, it's, ~it's not just a better experience, it's a better wash.
[00:10:19] Chris Arrington: You know what it makes me think, ~uh, ~because I haven't been to the laundry, Matt, in a long time.
[00:10:25] ~Uh, but yeah, ~somebody else is using a detergent that you go. I'm allergic to that. Right. And I just [00:10:30] put my laundry in. What they just got through cleaning. Totally. Am I gonna be scratching the next day or two? So you, you've got probably the best, I mean, tide. ~Yeah. ~So your products
[00:10:42] Patrick Elverum: are, it's top shelf. ~I mean, it's, ~it's the most [00:10:45] trusted consumer brand in the world.
[00:10:46] And the reason is they've got the best cleaning chemistry ~Yeah. ~In the world. So that's put into the machine. And those machines, once it's done cleaning, ~you know, it, it. I won't get into the nerdery of cleaning unless you want to, but, uh, we might do that later on because I, that's kind of fun for me. But yeah, ~go ahead.
[00:10:53] Well, ~it's, ~it spins them at 400 Gs, believe it or not. ~So it's, it, you know, ~makes top gun look silly, 400 Gs. And what that does is the [00:11:00] water extraction that happens in the machine gets those clothes almost dry. So after a 25 minute or 30 minute cycle, you pull out the clothes, they're just about dry. So you might need 10, 15 minutes in the dryer.
[00:11:12] People say that all the time. ~So they're ~
[00:11:13] Chris Arrington: faster. This is just [00:11:15] a faster clean and dry.
[00:11:17] Patrick Elverum: It literally ~is ~cuts in half, at least the time you're gonna spend in a laundromat, just because the wash cycle and the dry cycles are so fast.
[00:11:26] Chris Arrington: Yeah.
[00:11:27] Patrick Elverum: ~Yeah. It's, ~people love it. ~It's, it's, it's ~been really, ~you know, I ~
[00:11:28] Chris Arrington: ~would, I would ~think, ~let's, ~let's do a little [00:11:30] nerdy.
[00:11:30] A little nerdy. So if you're getting the clothes dryer from the wash. Does that mean there's less residue on your clothes when you go to dry? ~Yeah. So here, I'll, I'll ~nerd out on this a little bit. ~Yeah. Because I've ~
[00:11:42] Patrick Elverum: learned a lot about cleaning laundry the last couple of years. ~No, I ~
[00:11:44] Chris Arrington: mean, ~this is a, ~[00:11:45] this is a technology obviously with the smart machines,
[00:11:48] Patrick Elverum: ~so I'll give you kind of a, a.~
[00:11:48] A comparison. So if you go into an aged laundromat that maybe hasn't been kept up and those machines ~are ~are older ~and, and ~who knows how the water heater's performing, you're gonna throw your clothes in there. That machine has no idea how many clothes is there. So ~it's gonna, ~it's gonna fill it [00:12:00] to the top.
[00:12:00] Maybe that water's hot, probably not. And what the clothes aren't able to do in that scenario, it's come into and out of the water. Right. So that's really ~what, ~what cleans those clothes is coming in and outta the water and actually rubbing up against each other. ~Mm-hmm. ~Agitating that knocks the dirt [00:12:15] out of the clothes and into the water.
[00:12:17] The other thing that's gonna happen in that older laundromat is that, ~you know, ~they're gonna say, well, I want these clothes really cleaned, so they're gonna put a ton of soap in there. ~They're gonna, they're gonna ~over soap, that thing like crazy, and they're gonna see all those suds in there and they're gonna be like, that's clean.
[00:12:28] ~Yeah, I got it. ~Here's the thing though, suds don't equal [00:12:30] clean. ~In fact, ~when it's over suds like that, when it's over soaped, what the chemistry does is it holds the dirt in the water. ~So if that water is all suds, ~it's way less effective ~and holding the, the ~dirt and grime in the water, so it goes back into the clothes.
[00:12:40] ~So ~you finish this big ~wash, ~wash cycle and you never actually extract the dirt and grime, they just go back [00:12:45] into the clothes. ~So. ~That never happens in our washers. ~They're, ~they're calibrated to eliminate that possibility. ~Um, ~so unless ~you, ~you stuff them in so full that the clothes can't move at all, then your clothes are gonna come into and out of the water.
[00:12:57] ~They're gonna have the perfect agitation against each other. The water temperature's gonna be good, and the chemistry's gonna be perfect. So you're just gonna see a little bit of suds and all that, all that dirt and grime. When that thing's spinning, it's leaving the washer so it will not be in the washer when you pull your clothes out.~
[00:12:57] ~You, you, ~
[00:12:57] Chris Arrington: I should have thought. Obviously in the [00:13:00] technology age that we're in, somebody's going to get down to the basic things and go, okay, how are we doing laundry? How can we do laundry better? That's really ~what, ~what this franchise has done and what ~you, ~you guys, when [00:13:15] the stores you're putting in, it's.
[00:13:17] It's better. It is just a better clean. And you're saying you can come and do it yourself? Yeah. You can come in and have our staff do it. Yep. You can do the dry cleaning on the special things that you're not gonna [00:13:30] put put in a washer or dryer. ~So is there, is there anything on cleaning clothes that you like when you start getting into leather jackets and things like mm-hmm.~
[00:13:32] Is there a point where you guys go. That's not us. That's
[00:13:36] Patrick Elverum: a great question. So, ~uh, ~we've got, ~man, I'm, I'm ~so blessed with so many talented, great people ~and, ~and some of those talents are taking great care of customers and giving life. ~But, you know, Margarita's talent is not that, but what ~margarita's [00:13:45] talent is, soft goods.
[00:13:46] So if you, you brought in your Gucci purse that you don't trust anybody. To put water or cleaning chemicals on, but you accidentally dropped it, dropped it in the mud, and your clumsy husband stepped on it, and you're like, how? What am I gonna do? This is a $4,000 purse. [00:14:00] Where do I take this? Yeah. Well, yeah, we can handle that.
[00:14:02] You know, the, so there are some specialty items. If you brought us a Persian rug, we've got a partner who just does rugs. Are you
[00:14:09] Chris Arrington: kidding me?
[00:14:10] Patrick Elverum: Yeah. ~So, but if, ~if it's dirty and it's a textile, bring it to us. Could I bring in my [00:14:15] La-Z-Boy chair? ~That's a, you know, I, ~we, we actually do have a restoration team, um, and they take a hard look at it.
[00:14:20] They'd probably take care of it for you. Yeah.
[00:14:21] Chris Arrington: ~Okay. I won't bring it into the store, but now I, I know you've got somebody now. Okay, well on that. I never thought about this. Uh, say I came in and I'm, I'm like, talk, talked to one of your employees, Patrick, and it's like, I do, I, I have some furniture that I would love to get cleaned.~
[00:14:21] ~I'm not bringing it into your store. But, ~so do you have partners within the marketplace that you refer?
[00:14:27] Patrick Elverum: Uh, we do. ~So that you, ~that's a very niche part of our [00:14:30] business. Yeah. And so we have, we have a whole team that, handles restoration when you're the unfortunate victim of a flood at your house or a fire. Um, yeah. And so closer damaged.
[00:14:39] Well, that's huge. You know, your, your favorite lazboy smells like [00:14:45] smoke. ~Mm-hmm. Um, so, so our team go in, pack out that house. And again, for some of those specialty items where, you know, maybe tools or ~partner with
[00:14:45] ~but ~that is a tiny piece of our business. Okay. Okay.
[00:14:48] Chris Arrington: That could be a lot more. 'cause in the roofing business when we're getting, like sometimes we'll do a roof and it's because of a fire or because of a storm or a flood or [00:15:00] whatever. And we do have, uh, partners that we partner with on getting all that stuff clean and, and really, so in my mind, we're talking about this cleaning stuff.
[00:15:09] I'm thinking in my world. It is, it's a major, yeah. It's taken everything out of your [00:15:15] closet, everything hanging on the walls. It your furniture, it's your carpet. It, it's a huge deal. And if anybody's been through that, they know what I'm talking about. So it's nice to know Yeah. That you guys do have an avenue for that, even if it's just gets someone in the right [00:15:30] direction.
[00:15:30] We do. And we were just because you're giving life,
[00:15:31] Patrick Elverum: ~you know, ~it's funny that, ~um, ~the laundry business and the roofing business actually have a lot of crossover, ~you know? Um. ~That restoration piece, it's all about working with ~the, ~the homeowner and the insurance company to make sure that they get their home restored correctly.
[00:15:43] ~Yeah, right. And, you know, ~a roof and clean laundry, [00:15:45] those are things that everybody needs, but it's ~kind of ~viewed as a ~co ~commodity. ~So it you really to, ~to differentiate yourself. ~It's, it's, it's ~like a three-legged stool. ~It's like, ~Hey, my product has to be best in class. Mm-hmm. ~You know, you gotta build great roofs.~
[00:15:52] ~Yeah. Quantity or not. Yeah. ~You gotta build great roofs. ~Mm-hmm. ~The experience of getting a new roof. It has to be great. ~You know, ~you've gotta make sure that you've got your catchalls there [00:16:00] and you're taking nails outta the yard so that I don't have ~my, ~my 7-year-old running through the yard and catch a nail.
[00:16:05] ~And, ~and then the third leg ~is, ~is what we talked about previously. ~It's, it's ~the relationship. Mm-hmm. ~Who is, ~who is the guy that I'm gonna trust to get on my roof, to come in my home. [00:16:15] And take care of my home, ~my, my ~most valuable possession. And for us ~it's, it's, it's ~laundry. ~It's, it's ~who is the person that I'm gonna hand my laundry to?
[00:16:21] 'cause that's very personal to me. Oh
[00:16:22] Chris Arrington: gosh. That's Patrick. That makes me think of ~the, the ~things that I have that are keepsakes from my [00:16:30] family. Mm-hmm. That. A lot of it, it's a clothes or a blanket that my grandmother made right there. ~Somebody something they quilted. ~And to lose that, if it's, if it's not a fire and you just go, mm-hmm guys, we just, we gotta give it up 'cause it's burned.
[00:16:42] But ~if, ~if I can get the water damage [00:16:45] out of it, which, ~I mean that's, ~that's kind of the, that gets back to the nerdy thing, how water is a real deterrent. Oh yeah. Things and it's also what cleans them.
[00:16:55] Patrick Elverum: Yeah,
[00:16:56] Chris Arrington: man. Isn't that ironic? That's right. And it does a lot of damage and it [00:17:00] does a lot of good and it's the only thing that does it.
[00:17:02] ~Um, okay. You, you mentioned, you um, I dunno what you mentioned just a minute ago, but something about, ~I want to go just for a minute, go to yourhistory. okay. Military. And you mentioned to me as we were meeting a few minutes ago that you were in a submarine. I was, yeah. Okay. I could never do that because I got claustrophobia and you're not [00:17:15] putting me in a submarine, but tell us ~how, you just ~tell us a little bit aboutyour life.
[00:17:18] About, sure.
[00:17:19] Patrick Elverum: ~So, um, yeah, I'll, ~I'll give ~the, ~the medium version, ~not the shorter, the long, so. Um, ~I was blessed to be born to a single mom, ~um, ~who was at Texas Tech and made some poor choices and had a child as a result. ~Wreck em, thank goodness. Yeah, rack them. And, and ~thank goodness ~that, ~that she [00:17:30] did. ~Um, and so I was on this track of, and I'm, I'm real passionate about this, so I'll just throw it in there.~
[00:17:30] So I was on this track of, I was on this track of being raised without a father, ~um, and then, you know. ~Through the grace of God, ~you know, and, and ~God throughout my life has been just a story of an understanding ~of, ~of my own ~frag, ~fragility ~and, ~and gentleness with me. So through the grace of ~the ~God, ~she, ~she met this [00:17:45] man who married her and adopted me, ~and, ~and that changed the trajectory of my life completely.
[00:17:51] ~Wow. ~I was on this trajectory to be an underperformer, to not believe in myself, to believe the lies of the world about who I was and did I [00:18:00] matter and. God inserted this man into my life who spoke truth to me every single day. ~Wow. You know, ~he said, you're loved. You do matter. You have what it takes. You're enough.
[00:18:08] And so dads are important. ~Oh man, I ~
[00:18:10] Chris Arrington: ~hear it ~
[00:18:10] Patrick Elverum: ~in your voice. So, yeah. ~You know, so that's affected everything that happened afterwards. ~You know, ~I've adopted [00:18:15] a daughter ~and, ~and so really proud ~of ~to carry on the tradition there. But one of the things is, ~you know, um. ~My dad was so good at so many things. ~He, ~he wasn't great at generating wealth.
[00:18:24] He just wasn't, we were poor growing up. ~Um, and ~so as we looked at college, he was great at coaching a son to be a [00:18:30] good athlete, good student. But I had like $32 saved for college. ~So, so, you know, ~there was, where's that school exactly. So there the options were, ~you know, um, ~don't go to college, take out huge loans or.
[00:18:39] Maybe you should consider the military. And so, ~um, ~I applied for a bunch of ROTC scholarships, got those, and then [00:18:45] was lucky enough to get accepted to the Naval Academy. So I went to the Naval Academy, ~um, ~and got my degree from there, which is ~Wow. Great. 'cause, you know, I was, that's an ~
[00:18:50] Chris Arrington: ~accomplishment. Well, thank you.~
[00:18:50] ~Yeah. ~
[00:18:50] Patrick Elverum: ~I was, no, ~I've got some friends, good friends that send a couple of signs
[00:18:53] Chris Arrington: to Annapolis.
[00:18:54] Patrick Elverum: ~Well, it, it was, ~it was an awesome experience for me ~and, ~and one I needed. ~Right. It was, got it. ~The structure. ~And, you know, ~I was. Determined to make as many mistakes as I [00:19:00] can ~and, and, ~and joining the military, ~gonna, ~the academy ~sort of, um, ~takes that sphere of possible mistakes and shrinks it down.
[00:19:04] ~Mm-hmm. To the, ~to a place where maybe they're not life altering, life ruining mistakes. ~So it was a, it was ~a true blessing for me. ~Wow. Um, and so ~coming out of there, ~um, ~all my buddies went pilot, I just was in San Diego to watch one of them take over [00:19:15] command of an aircraft carrier, which was amazing. ~Um, and I, ~I went submarines because I thought on the other side of the Navy.
[00:19:20] I wanted to build a family. I wanted to build businesses, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. ~So, um, ~I went subs because that was honestly more money for ~a, ~a poor kid 'cause [00:19:30] they had a signing bonus. ~Um, ~it was leadership, which was really important for me, ~um, you know, ~control of a division of a department. And it got me out faster to go join the private sector and, ~and try to ~build a life, ~um, ~somewhere.
[00:19:41] Chris Arrington: Awesome. That's cool. ~Um, ~okay, so back to the laundromat [00:19:45] on site selection. Yeah. This, ~and you know, ~this, the podcast is building Dallas. ~Mm-hmm. And, and ~we've had, ~uh, ~sign companies, we've had realtors, ~we've had, uh, uh, ~buddy Kramer whos, ~uh, ~Katy Trail Ice House. ~There's, yeah. ~There's so many things to building a [00:20:00] community, ~uh, ~besides just the buildings, ~but yeah.~
[00:20:01] ~Um, so. Just, ~just walk us through a little bit of that about how, ~how do ~you decide where to go? Yeah. In Dallas, where are you gonna
[00:20:08] Patrick Elverum: build this? It's a great question. ~Um, and ~one that maybe is the most important question ~to, ~to answer in the ultimate because it's gotta
[00:20:14] Chris Arrington: [00:20:15] still work.
[00:20:15] Patrick Elverum: Yeah. ~I mean, ~
[00:20:16] Chris Arrington: ~you know, ~
[00:20:16] Patrick Elverum: ~I can, ~I can do everything we've talked about ~up in, ~up until this point, and if I.
[00:20:19] Pick the wrong site, that business may not work, right? ~Yeah. So, um, you know, every, probably ~every business, but certainly every laundromat owner has ~like, Hey, ~here is our core demographic. ~Like these, ~these are our core customers. ~This is our ideal customer. Profiles. ~So ~that ~that has to do with median income.
[00:20:29] It [00:20:30] has to do with household size. ~It has to do ~are they a renter? ~Just like we talked about. So, so ~we do all ~the, ~the basics there, and that's really important. ~You know, ~Chicago's really different than Dallas. ~Yeah. ~Chicago has this density that Dallas just doesn't. ~Mm-hmm. You know, so, so ~that's a blessing when you're building a laund.
[00:20:40] If you build it, they will come. It's kind of the field of dreams. ~Like ~if you put it in a dense neighborhood, you're [00:20:45] gonna have a high performing laundromat if you keep the machines running and keep it clean. Dallas is a little different because it's a commuter city. It's spread. So we are looking for density, we're looking for ~those, those, ~those core demographics.
[00:20:55] ~Um, but ~what's been interesting to me to find, ~um, as, as. ~We allow the Tide brand ~to, ~to do what it [00:21:00] does in the marketplace, which is to provide a credible, we can trust. There's an assumed trust there, which is great. ~Mm-hmm. You know, and there should be. Mm-hmm. Um, it's, it, ~Oak Cliff is a perfect example.
[00:21:06] That's been our highest performing. Post opening story yet. And I think the reason there is it's the right demographic. ~Um, ~it's a [00:21:15] great corner right there on Jefferson and Adams. ~Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ~That is highly trafficked. ~Not just, ~not just for, ~I'm going from ~A to B, ~but, ~but people are there because that's the place to be.
[00:21:22] Chris Arrington: Yeah.
[00:21:23] Patrick Elverum: ~Right. There's, ~there's a lot going on right there. ~It's, ~it's right at the edge of Bishop Arts ~and, ~and Oak Cliff, and so there's this awesome community [00:21:30] there that's gonna respond when you bring a good product. Into it. ~Mm-hmm. ~And we've had this in all of our stores, but it's just been stronger at Oak Cliff.
[00:21:36] And I think part of it is ~like I, ~I've told everybody ~there's, ~there's a pride of being. From Oak Cliff ~in Oak Cliff, yeah. Being, yeah. And, ~and I know that because a lot of our employees are in Oak Cliff. ~Yeah. ~And they were so excited [00:21:45] about building a store and bringing it to life in Oak Cliff. So, ~you know, ~if I can replicate that, a hard corner that's highly trafficked ~in a, ~in a community that is underserved on the laundromat side ~and, ~and will be proud of the
[00:21:59] Chris Arrington: building that, that [00:22:00] we.
[00:22:00] And, ~and are you guys, ~are you guys going in, 'cause like the building that I'm familiar with, that we've put the roof on ~mm-hmm. ~Is a standalone. ~Yep. ~So are you pretty much looking at standalone or are you gonna be in strip centers, or, ~or is, is, ~is that make any difference?
[00:22:11] Patrick Elverum: ~Um, it, ~it does. So ~we've, ~we've opened four in the last, ~I guess, ~[00:22:15] 16 months or so.
[00:22:15] ~Um. ~Three of those are in strip centers, ~um, and, ~and they're all doing well. ~Um, ~visibility is really key. ~The, ~the hardest store ~that's, ~that's been the hardest ~to ~to get growth at is in a strip center, but it's kind of tucked back ~and, ~and visibility from the road ~is, ~is tough there. ~And um, ~[00:22:30] and there's some really strong competi.
[00:22:31] ~So, so it's, ~that's a community that's not necessarily underserved by the market. There's some competitors who are doing a good job, they're worthy competitors, whereas, ~you know, um, ~we have one at the corner of Jupiter and Garland Road out in White Rock. ~Mm-hmm. Um, ~and so it's a great center. It's got a Home [00:22:45] Depot there.
[00:22:45] It's got a Marshalls and a Home Goods. And so it's this activity center. It's got good visibility from Jupiter Road. ~Right. And, ~and the laundromatI've got two laundromat competitors within a. Softball toss of me. ~Oh, wow. ~And we've just grabbed all the market share there because ~you know ~of those three [00:23:00] legs of the stool we talked about.
[00:23:01] ~Yeah. ~Ours is just fundamentally better. People are willing to spend a couple dollars more to come and get in and out of our place, ~you know, ~in an hour
[00:23:08] Chris Arrington: faster.
[00:23:09] Patrick Elverum: You're right. ~Yeah. So, um, ~site selection is a big, big deal. ~We, ~we put a lot of time, effort, thought, money, ~um, and, uh, ~making sure that. [00:23:15] When we go in there and spend ~what, ~what it takes to build a laundromat.
[00:23:18] ~Yeah. ~The CapEx out ~is, ~is tremendous. ~Okay. ~So you can't get it wrong.
[00:23:22] Chris Arrington: ~Um, so let me, now let me do this. So, so we, so we kind of got an idea of, you know, ~where you guys are going. Tell me ~what, ~what's the typical, it sounds like there might be ~two, ~two questions to this. Your [00:23:30] typical, I'm gonna go do my laundry there.
[00:23:32] ~Mm-hmm. ~And your typical, I'm gonna drop off stuff. What's their experience? ~Just, just, yeah. From ~from when they park until they're done. ~What, yeah. ~What's somebody gonna expect?
[00:23:40] Patrick Elverum: ~Man, that, that's a great question. So, um, so ~the. Do it yourself customer. The DIY customer is gonna [00:23:45] take their laundry hampers ~or, or ~stuff it all in their big tide bag.
[00:23:47] They're gonna put it in the back of their car or their trunk and they're gonna pull right up to the door. One of our attendants ~is, ~is hopefully gonna see 'em and come out with a cart for 'em, and it's gonna go straight from their trunk into a cart, and then a lot [00:24:00] of times while they're parking. Our attendant will bring it inside for 'em ~and, ~and put it next to a machine.
[00:24:04] So they're in, they've already been greeted. They're talking to the attend. I already like it.
[00:24:08] Chris Arrington: They came out to the car. ~It's ~nobody does it. Who comes out to the car anymore? I used to have, I used to get [00:24:15] gas. Remember when I was first ~Yeah. ~Driving and always somebody came out to the car. So it's like, we're going back to the sixties.
[00:24:21] ~Well, ~
[00:24:21] Patrick Elverum: ~it's, it's ~the easiest, lowest hanging fruit. To begin that connection and that relationship. ~That's, ~
[00:24:26] Chris Arrington: ~that's, that's ~cool. I just gotta say That's cool.
[00:24:28] Patrick Elverum: ~Yeah. And, and so that, ~that person, we hope, [00:24:30] within three minutes ~of, ~of driving into the parking lot is loading clothes into a washer. They're programming it.
[00:24:36] They hit start, they find a comfortable place to sit. ~And, you know, um, our newest one, we put TVs up to try that. The reality is everybody brings in their own device. So it's, it's better for us. And our TVs, we don't have sound. We don't want Jerry Springer pumping into the space. So we've got sports on TV for people who wanna watch sports, and we've got a fun little kids area that's got PBS kids on for them as they draw and play with the toys we've got back there.~
[00:24:39] But most folks are just enjoying 20 minutes to breathe and. Be on their device and watch
[00:24:44] Chris Arrington: [00:24:45] their show. Oh my gosh, I didn't think about that. Just like couldn't see you going in there and just saying, just want to be left alone.
[00:24:49] Patrick Elverum: ~Uh, you know, it, it, ~it is ~a lot of, ~a lot of folks, ~it's, it's, ~boy, ~you know, ~this is almost a guilty pleasure.
[00:24:52] I've got, ~you know, ~the next 25 minutes, ~all I can really do is, you know, ~catch up on my scrolling if I want to watch this show. ~Um, ~and so they'll sit there and 25 minutes [00:25:00] later they're loading a, ~uh. ~Dryer and 15 minutes later they're, ~we're, we're ~walking 'em back out to their car. ~Um, ~the other person, and this has been interesting on the drop off, we call it wash dry fold because we wash it, we dry it and we fold it.
[00:25:11] ~And, and ~Chris, ~you gotta, I, ~I'll pay for your order. Just try it out. 'cause our people fold it in this perfect, [00:25:15] amazing brick and they shrink wrap it. So you pull it out and it's like, this is amazing. I've never seen laundry look so good. ~And, ~and you take the shrink wrap off and you just put it in your drawer and you're like, wow.
[00:25:24] So those folks, they bring in ~their, ~their laundry. We wait real quick, check 'em in, give 'em a [00:25:30] tag, and they're out the door in three minutes. And then, ~you know, ~they'll come back after five and pick it up. Or they'll come back the next morning, pick it up, and they're on their way. So you can do same day service ~or, ~or next day.
[00:25:40] Same day. Yep. And it's a little bit more expensive on the same day. That's a dollar 99. Yeah. [00:25:45] Next day is a dollar 49 per pound.
[00:25:46] Chris Arrington: Okay.
[00:25:47] Patrick Elverum: ~Yeah. So, and the, the folks who use that, you know, we kind of thought, oh, this will be great for the busy moms, put time back in their day. Um, there, there are certainly those moms who are, use it, but you know, there's, there's a lot of generational habits to change before moms willing to give up laundry.~
[00:25:47] ~Like Yeah. You know, there unfortunately moms have been in, in May go ~
[00:25:47] Chris Arrington: faster now.
[00:25:48] Patrick Elverum: Well, I think so, ~but there's, there's been this kind of, I I, I'll say it's a lie, ~but there's been this sort of. Entrenched belief that, oh, to be a good mom, I've gotta do laundry. And, ~and I, ~I would tell you ~that's, ~that's not true.
[00:25:55] ~That's a, yeah, that's a, that's ~a subconscious belief that a lot of moms have. So it's been hard to get them to trust us with their [00:26:00] laundry. So what you do have is you've got busy professionals ~or, ~or college, kitchen, young kids. ~And so they, you know, and it's, ~it's all across the spectElverum. It's the guy who's working 80 hours of construction and he's got really dirty construction clothes, but he.
[00:26:12] He's light on free time. So [00:26:15] he's gonna bring us ~his, ~his clothes, let us handle it. ~Yeah. ~So he can get on. ~It's, it's the, ~it's a guy who's traveling Monday through Thursday, and he doesn't wanna spend time doing laundry on the weekends, so he's gonna drop it off with us. So ~that, ~that service is amazing. ~Uh, it's, ~it's still early in the season of market adoption for that service, but ~I think, I think ~more and more [00:26:30] people are gonna see value in their time.
[00:26:32] Chris Arrington: ~You know, I didn't, I didn't think about the, uh. Like my guys that really get soiled and just having a really,~
[00:26:32] ~for lack of a better word, a really good clean. Mm-hmm. They may not even know what it feels like. Yeah. Because my guys, in the summertime especially, they're, we're, we're ringing wet. Yeah. I mean, it's just, oh yeah. I don't, you know? Yeah. And if they can get a really good cleaning and see what that feels like.~
[00:26:32] For me if my guys are more comfortable when they're working. Yep. ~Uh, that's not even something I was really thinking about, but if they, but ~I do think about the guys being comfortable when they're working. Yeah. For having water, being hydrated, getting some shade and everything, but. [00:26:45] Just the feel of your clothes Totally against your body.
[00:26:48] Yeah. Especially when you're really working hard. If you've got a
[00:26:51] Patrick Elverum: little extra dirty, extra cent cycle, you know, for those, those really tough loads where, ~hey, ~this is a work shirt that's been worked in. ~It's bad, it's bad, you know? ~So [00:27:00] let's give that a little extra.
[00:27:01] Chris Arrington: Okay. Now I'm gonna go to, ~'cause you know, this, ~this is a big part of building Dallas is the construction process.
[00:27:06] Okay. Because you're building, yeah. Uh, now you haven't done a new building. You're going into existing, we haven't done ground up [00:27:15] yet. We would love to do ground up. Okay. So that's in the, that's coming, yes. Okay. But how, ~how, um, ~has there been anything with the city of Dallas or with building officials?
[00:27:23] That's. Anything unique about your system and getting through? Yeah, great question. The system, [00:27:30] because I mean, we got a lot of contractors listening and I'm sure they want to know. Well,
[00:27:34] Patrick Elverum: ~so, um, ~one of the partners in my business is a gentleman named Dylan Salvo and his background is construction and ~he's, he's the most, ~one of the more godly men I've ever met, and he's one of the best GCs I've ever met.
[00:27:43] ~Um, we are, you know, ~we are consistently [00:27:45] delivering on time, on budget. Construction project. So we're building these things in three months and he's hitting it. Wow. Which is, ~which is to, ~so to answer your question, the hard part of that, apart from the standard permitting thing, is when you walk into a white box that was previously in Aaron's Renta [00:28:00] Center, like this Oak cliff, Uhhuh.
[00:28:01] They don't have enough water for us. They don't have enough electricity. So ~the, ~the box that we walk into, we've gotta upgrade almost all of the utilities. Okay? So ~the, ~the dance between the city and Encore ~and, ~and the services side is really [00:28:15] important. So for us. ~He's gonna, ~he's gonna jumpstart that project as quick as he can demo.
[00:28:21] ~And, ~and a lot of times he's talking to the city before we've even got the lease finalized. ~Yeah. Um, ~so that he can walk through those upgrades, make sure the water's there and available. And ~we, you know, ~we learned on our [00:28:30] second one ~gas, um. ~Gas needs to start immediately.
[00:28:32] Chris Arrington: ~So, ~
[00:28:32] Patrick Elverum: ~um, I'm saying ~
[00:28:32] Chris Arrington: because you're changing, ~you're changing, so, uh, ~of income Yes.
[00:28:33] ~Your, ~your supply side. That's exactly right.
[00:28:35] Patrick Elverum: Probably larger pipes ~or, that's right. ~We got, we may have to go from a half inch to a two inch line. ~Um, ~
[00:28:40] Chris Arrington: ~yeah. ~
[00:28:40] Patrick Elverum: ~So, ~
[00:28:40] Chris Arrington: which is, that's substantial construction for all you guys that aren't in construction that ~we're, ~we're [00:28:45] excavating. Yeah. We're getting into the floors.
[00:28:47] We're getting into the walls. ~We're ~
[00:28:48] Patrick Elverum: doing a lot of saw cutting of floors. ~So, yeah, it's, ~it's a. ~You know, ~this is not a finish out of a restaurant. No. This is a, ~we're ~we're gonna completely modify this space. ~Um, and ~yeah, those guys have been phenomenal at it. ~And, ~and the [00:29:00] fact that, ~you know, ~if I show you ~day, ~day seven of construction as they're, ~you know, ~kind of finishing out demo and starting to saw cut floors.
[00:29:07] And then ~you, ~you've walked into a finished product ~to, ~to believe ~that, ~that occurred in about two months time, ~um, ~and stayed on budget. It's, he's phenomenal. ~So I, I would say, you know, ~[00:29:15] as we build ~this, ~this platform, ~you know, ~my company owns and operates tight franchises. I would say we've discovered that early on, that ~kind of ~our two superpowers are, ~um.~
[00:29:25] We're really good at construction. We've got the right team, the right methodology to get into a [00:29:30] site and turn it into something amazing. ~Mm-hmm. ~Faster than anybody else can. ~Mm-hmm. ~Cheaper than anybody else can. And then we're gonna staff it with some amazing people who, ~you know, ~drive five star reviews.
[00:29:40] I mean, go look at Google on Oak Cliff. A store's been open a month, it's got 500, five star [00:29:45] reviews. ~You, ~
[00:29:45] Chris Arrington: ~I ~
[00:29:45] Patrick Elverum: ~mean, ~
[00:29:45] Chris Arrington: I need to talk to you about how I get my guys to get more of. That's that. That's incredible. 500 reviews in a month.
[00:29:51] Patrick Elverum: Yeah.
[00:29:52] Chris Arrington: For people who don't, are in the world of getting reviews
[00:29:55] Patrick Elverum: ~a lot. And ~those aren't bots ~a lot are people lot.~
[00:29:56] And Google doesn't flag us 'cause those people are in our store given that review.
[00:29:59] Chris Arrington: [00:30:00] Okay. ~Um, ~that goes perfectly into, ~I was just looking at my questions here on ~your hiring process. ~'cause ~you've mentioned this all through. ~Interview so far ~about your people in the store, ~um, and, ~and your partners ~Yep. Um, ~that are helping you, ~that are ~doing the construction.
[00:30:12] ~But let me, let me, let me start with, 'cause I wanna, I wanna do a few questions on this. Um, ~what are you looking for? What's your process in [00:30:15] hiring The people that are on site? ~Yeah. ~The face, ~they don't, ~they're not gonna know you, ~they're not gonna know ~your partner that's building the thing. ~Right. They're not gonna know ~the investors ~and putting the money in.~
[00:30:22] The guy that they see his face. ~Yep. ~What do you guys do that you think is special?
[00:30:27] Patrick Elverum: ~Well, so I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna ~even pull back a little bit more ~to, ~to answer that question. ~So ~why [00:30:30] did I do laundromats? I was a tech guy running a software company. ~A lot of success was looking at different software opportunities and ~ended up saying yes to a laundry business.
[00:30:35] Why? ~Why would I do that? I a jump, ~there's a lot of days when I'm driving around ~and or, or, you know, ~dealing with ~a, ~a tricky homeless situation ~and, ~and saying, boy, what decisions did I make that led me here? ~But, uh, I digress. Yes, but, but there were, ~there were a few reasons why. One [00:30:45] was, ~Hey, ~I love this play.
[00:30:45] ~It's an execution play. It's a culture and execution play. And then speed of execution play. Love it, love it. It's a, ~it's a great business and if you can do it with speed ~and, ~and excellent ~ex ~execution, you can build a really valuable asset. ~Love that. I loved, ~I loved ~the, ~the partners behind the business.
[00:30:53] I don't have enough money to build these by myself. I needed capital partners, ~um, for, ~for entrepreneurs out there. ~I think ~there's enough of [00:31:00] us that have had bad experience with capital partners. ~That that. That it goes without saying that ~you've gotta be aligned on the things that matter most with your capital partners.
[00:31:06] ~Mm-hmm. ~So my capital partners, one of the guys who founded this private equity firm, I've taught bible studies with for 10 plus years, our boys have grown up together. ~Uh, ~he's one of the more godly men [00:31:15] I've ever met in my life. ~And, and ~he founded a private equity company that is overtly faith-based. They want to invest ~in, ~in operators and businesses.
[00:31:22] That make a kingdom impact as well as a profit and a return. ~Mm-hmm. Um, so that was really important. But ~the third thing ~is, is kind of to, to ~get to your question, is I've grown some, I've built some [00:31:30] really amazing cultures in the Navy. I built a really great culture and a software company ~and, ~and most of those people ~kinda ~self-selected into.
[00:31:37] That experience. ~Right. You know, and, and ~the folks that we hired at the software company are college grads who, ~you know, ~had a great upbringing of mom and dad in the home. ~And, and a lot, ~every advantage ~you could, ~you could [00:31:45] have growing up, I had never built a culture in a segment of the population that is historically underappreciated, under invested in, ~you know, ~hourly wage workers, many of whom, ~you know, ~we don't have the same native language.
[00:31:57] ~Um, and ~I thought to myself, ~right. ~I built great growth cultures elsewhere. [00:32:00] Could I do it here? ~Could, ~could we build a culture where somebody like that, who just needs a chance, if they came into our culture with our leadership, ~with our, um, ~encouragement and mentoring and coaching, could they, ~could they just ~take off?
[00:32:12] Could they fly? So as we hire on a site and hiring on a [00:32:15] site is really hard because this is, ~you know, this is a ~different, ~you know. ~You can't run a laundromat with $70,000 attendance. It doesn't work. ~Yeah. Right. ~So you're out there competing against the other hourly wage jobs. ~Mm-hmm. ~And so ~it's, ~it's highly competitive and getting that team is tricky.
[00:32:29] One of the [00:32:30] advantages we have is they come in, they're like, okay, this is different for all the reasons we've talked about.
[00:32:33] Chris Arrington: ~Yeah. ~
[00:32:33] Patrick Elverum: You know, as we get more scale and we're lucky to have the cleaners, we have a store lead in there that's, ~you know, ~ready to go. Differentiated. This is somebody who's been brought up in our culture knows that, ~hey, ~the biggest [00:32:45] part of your job is to, ~um, ~make sure that you are a multiplier of life through your people.
[00:32:49] Right. So, ~um, the, ~the real answer is, it's really hard. A lot of times it's like a week before open and I'm like, well, I'm gonna be working some shifts. ~And, and, and ~so far the experience has been, ~Hey, we're gonna, ~we're gonna hire six or seven [00:33:00] folks, and three of those folks are pretty quickly gonna decide that, ~that, you know, ~their life's headed in a different direction ~and, ~and they don't like cleaning dryer vents, and that's okay.
[00:33:08] But three or four of them are gonna stick. And then they're gonna tell people, I found this place. That's amazing. ~Like, ~they offer me benefits and [00:33:15] they always pay on time. ~Oh. And they, they, ~they encourage me and they're curious about who I am and what's happening at home. And so ~it, ~it always multiplies.
[00:33:21] ~Exactly. ~We always get other people coming in. ~'cause ~
[00:33:22] Chris Arrington: ~that ex that may have not been their experience the last That's right. Three or four jobs they've had. That's exactly right. When you, Patrick, when you just said, 'cause, 'cause we do this here, that ~you get paid on time ~mm-hmm. ~That you, the people that you're working with are interested in you.
[00:33:28] Man, ~that's, that's, ~[00:33:30] that's so huge ~and that, ~and that your equity company. Isn't just pressing you on ~sounds to me like Yeah, no, ~they're not just pressing you on the dollar. They really are interested in the people that are making it work. ~That that's, um, well Chris, ~that's
[00:33:43] Patrick Elverum: all that matters,
[00:33:44] Chris Arrington: ~right? Yeah. ~
[00:33:44] Patrick Elverum: At the end of the [00:33:45] day, ~yeah.~
[00:33:45] What we make on this, the returns we give to our investors, that'll be forgotten. ~Mm-hmm. ~The only thing in eternal about this. The relationships. ~Yeah. You know, ~in the business. ~Mm-hmm. ~So why do I do laundry? Well, this is where the relationships ~Yeah. You know, ~
[00:33:57] Chris Arrington: pulled me. ~So I, ~I tell all my guys, when we're [00:34:00] talking about sales and stuff, I go, guys, remember, we've never sold anything to a roof or to a building or to a house.
[00:34:07] We're selling to a person. Yeah. So it's the person that's the most important thing. And if they know that we care [00:34:15] about 'em and ~that we're. ~That we have their best in mind. Are we gonna sell everything? ~Yeah. ~No, but ~they're gonna, ~they're gonna consider us. ~Yeah. ~I guarantee you. And, ~and you know what, ~we get a lot of referrals from people that didn't use this.
[00:34:26] ~Mm-hmm. ~Later ~in, ~in our business, it's kind of. Then you go [00:34:30] with who you went with, and you get what you get. ~Yeah, and ~then they call. Then we get a call from someone. We go, where'd you hear from us? They heard from the person that didn't use it and said, don't use that again. Go with Arrington. ~So, well, ~I'll tell you.
[00:34:41] ~So ~
[00:34:41] Patrick Elverum: ~if I wanna, sorry to interrupt you, Chris. No, no, go ahead. ~I'll tell you a fun story because ~these are the, ~these are the best stories, ~right? ~Every meeting [00:34:45] that we have, I
[00:34:45] Chris Arrington: ~suppose that I ask story, ~every meeting
[00:34:46] Patrick Elverum: we have starts with take laundry, give life, ~like, like, let's, ~let's talk about how that's happening in the business.
[00:34:50] Every meeting, whether I'm talking with our investors or I'm talking with our leadership team, or I'm talking with a staff on site, but it's who we are ~and, ~and we're. ~You know, ~if you're not flamed for being a cult, your culture's not [00:35:00] strong enough. ~Yeah. And, and ~I am obnoxious about take laundry, give life.
[00:35:03] And so ~the, ~the vision was, ~hey, could, ~could somebody come into our environment and have a different life outcome that, ~that just ~wouldn't be available to them elsewhere? So I have a area manager, ~um, ~her name's [00:35:15] Darling Morales and single mama too. ~Mm-hmm. ~Her mother lives with her, ~so, um. ~To make things work.
[00:35:20] And, ~you know, ~she was in the business and ~the ~working for us in the cleaners came after I started. She came in shortly after and ~she was just ~made herself known ~for, ~for doing whatever it takes. She was ~a ~[00:35:30] yes, she was an above the line. Never complained, never a victim. ~Just ~say yes. She's not the most bubbly personality you'll ever meet.
[00:35:35] She's a little bit introverted and shy, but she's a really hard worker who, ~um. ~Is loyal and trustworthy and ~just ~says yes. So as we looked at store one, [00:35:45] we said, okay, hiring an outside store lead ~is, ~is risky. Do we have a good candidate? And we said, how about darling? ~And it said, ~we struggled with it because she's not the big give life personality, ~but, ~but what she is, is ~again, ~an above the line.
[00:35:58] See it, own it, [00:36:00] solve it, do it kind of ownership mentality. So ~we, ~we gave her a chance at the time she was making, ~you know, ~in the cleaners, ~I don't know, ~$13 an hour. ~Right. Um, ~really struggling to get by. ~'cause that's, ~it's a hard job. ~Um, ~so she took over a store lead and ~she did excellent. She, she was ~excellent.
[00:36:13] ~So she, ~she got a raise. ~She did excellent. ~As we looked at store [00:36:15] number two ~and we said, ~okay, who's available? ~What can we get in? Um. ~I said, well, could darling manage two stores? She's the best person we have. ~Like, and, and ~the whole time we're training her, we're developing her, she's asking great questions.
[00:36:23] She's so curious. She wants to be great, ~right? Yeah. ~Never had a chance to be before. ~Yeah. And so, um, ~we give her the opportunity, ~Hey, ~you are ~gonna, you're ~gonna be over these stores. You're gonna [00:36:30] share time. And ~so ~without belaboring the point, fast forward, ~you know, ~darling just moved to salary. ~She's, ~she's area manager over these four stores.
[00:36:37] She participates in our leadership meetings. ~She's, you know, ~she's got her own set of goals and OKRs. This is, ~you know, ~somebody who grew up in California, [00:36:45] barely got out of high school and ~was, ~was headed towards a life of just trying to get by ~and, ~and she's fundamentally transformed not just her life, but her voice.
[00:36:55] Mm-hmm. And it's just been awesome.
[00:36:57] Chris Arrington: Chase, will you take a break? Oh, [00:37:00] Patrick, that's, Hmm.
[00:37:01] Patrick Elverum: It's funny, the older I get the easier I tear up.
[00:37:03] Chris Arrington: Yep. Same here. I'll, I'll shout out to Rick Lawson, one of my best friends. ~I, ~I cry on every podcast. We do. I can't help it. But you know what, when, ~when, um, you know, ~stories like [00:37:15] that make.
[00:37:16] Being ~business ~a businessman, not a bad thing. Right? 'cause there's so many people that look at being a businessman. You're trying to rip people off. You're trying to get something from 'em. ~You're, you're just, ~you're all about yourself. ~And, ~and I think ~the, you know, ~[00:37:30] your stories today and ~just, um, ~the time we've had, ~um, ~just reassures me that.
[00:37:35] Most businessmen, I would say, are interested in the greater good. Mm-hmm. ~And, ~and want to do well. You've mentioned a couple of times, ~you know, ~your ~MI ~mission [00:37:45] about giving life, but the store has to make it. Yeah. It has to make a profit ~or the, ~or then you don't even have it. ~So, yeah. ~You know, building Dallas ~and that, ~and that's ~a, um, ~a hard line to walk sometime.
[00:37:56] ~Uh. ~You've got ~a, ~a story or anything you wanna say about your investors. [00:38:00] 'cause you told me earlier that they have really meant a lot to you. And that's the guys that nobody's gonna see. They're gonna say they're just the rich guys over there. They get everything handed to 'em. Nobody likes 'em. ~You know? ~But when it comes down [00:38:15] to business, all the business people that are listening to this know if you don't have capital, yeah.
[00:38:21] There's not a lot you can do. It takes forever to build something from nothing.
[00:38:27] Patrick Elverum: Well, ~for, ~for entrepreneurs, this is true of every [00:38:30] business. It wasn't necessarily true in the Navy, but it's certainly true at the software company in here ~is is, you know, ~the taking laundry part of our mission, really the revenue side of our mission, ~that ~that earns us the right to give life.
[00:38:41] Yeah, right. ~You, ~you've gotta take laundry, you've gotta have revenue. ~Right? The, the. ~The vehicle ~to getting, ~to [00:38:45] build relationships, ~to getting, to ~add people to your team, ~to getting, to ~build, to create these amazing stories is create a profitable business. You have to do it. ~Um, you know, ~these guys who are behind me, ~um, ~I think what makes them different is, ~you know, ~capital Partners will get a bad rap because they only wanna see the spreadsheet.
[00:38:59] And if the [00:39:00] spreadsheet doesn't look the way it's supposed to be, then they're gonna be on you about. Every decision you make about every expense that is incurred. ~Um, ~these guys care about the spreadsheets, but they care about the people more. So again, ~um, when, ~when we talk about the business, ~we're, we're, we're ~gonna talk [00:39:15] about the revenue side.
[00:39:15] We're gonna talk about how much ~is that ~has fallen to the bottom line, right? ~Um, ~but we're gonna talk about the people stories when they're talking to the people who are writing checks for the fund. They're telling those stories and not only are they telling 'em they're leading with them, ~I mean, ~it's a key part of their [00:39:30] differentiation in the market ~is, ~is they go to check writers and say, here's who we are.
[00:39:33] ~Um, the, the ~one of the key parts is like, Hey, we think we're gonna generate this amazing return for you, but that's not the best part. Let us tell you about what's gonna happen to the people ~who flow through our, ~who flow through this business. ~Who, who, ~lemme tell you about this operator. ~And, ~and where he's [00:39:45] from, what he believes in, what's important to him ~and, ~and what he has done previously.
[00:39:49] And so I just couldn't be more appreciative of, ~um, you know, ~portion capital shout out to you guys. ~You guys, um, ~they're the best possible capital partner ~I, ~I could have ever prayed for.
[00:39:58] Chris Arrington: Awesome. Yeah. [00:40:00] Okay, so to wrap up, ~uh. What, ~what are we gonna be looking for in the future? Yeah, with the tide cleaners.
[00:40:08] What and what, what's, what's the official name?
[00:40:10] Patrick Elverum: So Tide Laundromat is the laundromat, ~tide Lama, ~and Tide Cleaners is the cleaner side. ~So, um, you know, one, ~one brand, but [00:40:15] sister services and sister companies. So, growth. Growth. This is a growth company. We've
[00:40:19] Chris Arrington: got four right now.
[00:40:19] Patrick Elverum: We've got four right now. ~You know, the, the ~thesis is we think we can do 30 plus in the greater DFW.
[00:40:25] Marketplace. ~Marketplace. And is the, is that, is that ~like inside LBJ? No, ~no, no, no. That's, ~that's pushing out to Fort Worth ~and, and, um, ~[00:40:30] okay. But we
[00:40:30] Chris Arrington: metroplex
[00:40:31] Patrick Elverum: Right. The entire metroplex. ~And, ~and we've got. The ability with ~our, ~our partners at Procter and Gamble to push all the way up into Oklahoma and Oklahoma City, ~down, ~down through Waco and East and West.
[00:40:40] So, ~um, ~it's a growth company, ~you know, like, like ~you said in that beautiful intro that I wrote. ~Um, um, you know, if, ~if you [00:40:45] get into a business ~and, ~and you focus on growing yourself and grow in your people, ~um, ~then the customers are gonna grow and the business is gonna grow, and you're gonna get to fill that funnel again.
[00:40:53] ~It's this, ~it's this awesome virtuous feedback loop. So our plan is to grow, ~you know, ~you've got. Four today. I hope when we talk [00:41:00] again, ~you know, ~next year ~we, ~we've added five or six to it. Got it.
[00:41:03] Chris Arrington: ~And, ~and it's not like the competition's gone away. No, ~it's, it's, ~they have,
[00:41:07] Patrick Elverum: ~yeah. ~Laundromats are ~the, it's the, ~the hot thing right now.
[00:41:09] It's a very frothy market and there's some good competitors entering the space, so that's great. Forces us to ~be, ~be who we say [00:41:15] we are.
[00:41:15] Chris Arrington: ~That and that. I'm, ~I'm so glad you mentioned that. Another thing about being in business is I think as business, good business people, you appreciate the other businesses that are really good because without them, [00:41:30] sometimes people aren't gonna see or believe that there is something better, right?
[00:41:34] And so they just reinforce that, ~that, you know, ~there's a bunch of good companies out here, but Tide's coming ~and, ~and from what I've seen of your product. It's an amazing product. [00:41:45] It will make the good companies better and probably put some of the bad ones out of business. That's exactly right. Which is always good that the general public, ~the, ~the metroplex will thrive more from everybody just [00:42:00] raising their game a little
[00:42:01] Patrick Elverum: bit.
[00:42:01] That's right. ~You, you know, um, you're, ~you're a hundred percent right ~and, ~and there's no better place to do that in Dallas. ~But, you know, you, you asked a little bit about construction and what it's like working in these communities in the cities, and the answer is just awesome. I, I, you know, ~I wouldn't trade places with the guys in Chicago for anything.
[00:42:08] Yeah. ~You know, ~there's, there's no place I'd rather be executing on this, ~you know, ~business friendly operators. It's an entrepreneurial city and, and there's a bunch of awesome [00:42:15] builders, just like you just said.
[00:42:16] Chris Arrington: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Patrick, anything else that you want to say? Leave us with. ~Uh, ~
[00:42:20] Patrick Elverum: no, ~I, I ~would just say thank you.
[00:42:22] This has been really fun. I've never done a podcast before. So ~the, ~the chance to get on here and talk about what it means to give life ~at, ~at Tide laundromat [00:42:30] Dallas and Tide Cleaners Dallas ~is, ~is a blessing to me, and I'm just very appreciative.
[00:42:33] Chris Arrington: Got it. And ~I, ~I like to tell everybody that's listening to look for Tide laundromats and just go experience it.
[00:42:41] And if you are looking for a place to work. And that's where [00:42:45] you wanna work. You need to call these guys and you need to go see 'em. You need to go see 'em now. This is Chris Arrington with Building Dallas. We're glad you watched. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye.
[00:42:55] Patrick Elverum: In front of others when I'm like, Hey darling, and I'm like, that's her name.
[00:42:58] Yeah,
[00:42:59] Chris Arrington: I'm married. [00:43:00] I'm happily married. I have five kids.
[00:43:02] That's.