If your business plan involves getting customers to pay money for you to mail them less money, you may be a fool or a genius.
Or you could be Caleb Brown, founder of Washboard, a startup that mails you quarters for laundry.
According to Valleywag, Brown is somewhat aware of the absurdity of his business. He does have a few takers, though. “It is a legit business,” he said. “We do have customers. A few. Very few. Less than 10.” Brown cofounded Washboard with Shaun Chapman, an interface engineer.
The company will ship you any amount in quarters, or have you subscribe to a monthly quarter delivery service. It collects a small fee and pays for two-day shipping, which is why the premium exists.
Brown wants to expand into other laundry-based services. “I want to do laundry detergent, I want to do fabric softener delivery. We started with kind of the quirkier aspect, which is mailing money,” he said.
Laundry-centric startups are as numerous as social networking apps, especially in Silicon Valley. But Washboard thinks you’re mature enough to do your own laundry, but too busy to find a change machine.