Sudshare

About Sudshare

Poplin, formerly Sudshare, operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for laundry services, positioning itself as the 'Uber for laundry'. The company was founded in 2018 in Baltimore by the Fertel family. The inspiration came from Ari Fertel, who, overwhelmed with laundry for her five children, questioned why technology hadn't simplified this household chore. Her then 17-year-old homeschooled son, Nachshon Fertel, took on the challenge, developing the app and its underlying technology, becoming the CTO. His father, Mort Fertel, a serial entrepreneur with a background from the Wharton School of Business, serves as the CEO, while Nachshon's triplet siblings are involved in operations and bookkeeping.

The business model connects customers needing laundry services with a network of gig workers known as 'Sudsters' or 'Laundry Pros', who wash, dry, and fold the laundry from their own homes. This model circumvents the need for capital-intensive infrastructure like laundromats, relying instead on the underutilized capacity of home washing machines. Customers use the Poplin app to schedule a pickup. A local Laundry Pro collects the laundry, processes it according to the customer's preferences (e.g., specific detergents, hang-drying), and returns it clean and folded, typically within 24 hours. The company's revenue is generated by taking a commission from each transaction. Customers are typically charged $1 per pound of laundry, while the Laundry Pro earns about 75 cents per pound, plus any tips. This structure provides a flexible, work-from-home opportunity, which the company highlights as the first of its kind for manual labor.

Initially launched as Sudshare, the company underwent a significant rebranding to Poplin in 2023. The change was driven by a desire to move away from a brand identity focused on peer-to-peer functionality and low pricing towards a more professional and emotionally compelling narrative that emphasizes the skill and care of the service. The name Poplin, a type of crisp cotton, was chosen to evoke cleanliness and professionalism. Following a period of perfecting its systems and procedures, the company experienced rapid growth, expanding to over 400 cities by 2021. In March 2022, the company secured $10 million in a seed funding round from investors including Headline, Origin Ventures, and notable angel investors like Max Mullen of Instacart.