How a Solo Founder Built SaaS Selling to Laundromats

**Fexingo** (0:01)
When most people think about building a SaaS, they think about some massive horizontal market project management CRM HR software. But a lot of first time founders find traction by going really, really narrow. Today, we're talking about a SaaS for laundromats.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:17)
Laundromats? I have to admit, I've never thought of them as a target for software. What's the pain point?

**Fexingo** (0:25)
Well, it turns out there's a lot. Our guest today is Maria Silva.
She built WashTrack, a platform that helps laundromat owners monitor their machines, accept digital payments, and get alerts when a washer breaks down. Maria started with zero coding experience and spent two years teaching herself to build the first version.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:45)
So a total bootstrapped, learn as you go story. Where did she get the idea?

**Fexingo** (0:51)
She was working at a coffee shop near a laundromat and kept hearing the owner complain about the same problems.
Coin machines jamming, customers calling about broken dryers, and having to manually track maintenance. Maria thought, there has to be a better way. She bought a Raspberry Pi, connected it to a washer, and built a prototype that could detect when the machine was running and when it was idle.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:15)
That's impressive for a non-coder. Did she have any technical background at all?

**Fexingo** (1:21)
Not really. She had taken one online Python course, but she was determined.
She spent six months building the first hardware sensor and a basic dashboard. Then she went door to door to laundromats in her city, Chicago, and offered to install the system for free for three months. Only two owners said yes.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:41)
Two out of how many?

**Fexingo** (1:44)
She visited about 50 That's a 4% conversion rate, but those two became her design partners. They gave her feedback on everything.
What data they needed, how they wanted to see it, and most importantly, how much they'd be willing to pay.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:00)
What did she learn about pricing?

**Fexingo** (2:03)
That's the interesting part. She initially thought a flat $50 per month per location was fair, but one owner told her, I'm spending $400 a month on coin counting services and lost revenue from broken machines. If you can reduce that by half, I'll pay $150.
So she realized she was underpricing. She settled on a tiered model, $79 per month for basic monitoring, $149 for digital payments integration, and $249 for the full suite, including maintenance alerts and reporting.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:40)
And those first two customers stayed?

**Fexingo** (2:43)
They did.
One of them actually upgraded to the $249 plan after six months, because they saw a 20% reduction in machine downtime. Maria told me that the biggest challenge wasn't building the software. It was educating laundromat owners on what was possible. Many of them are older, cash-based businesses, and they weren't comfortable with subscription billing.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:06)
So how did she overcome that?

**Fexingo** (3:08)
She offered a 30-day money-back guarantee and spent hours on the phone walking them through the dashboard. She also built a referral program.
Existing customers got a month free for every new laundromat they referred. That became her main growth channel. Today, WashTrack has 150 laundromats in 12 states, and about 40% of them came through referrals.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:32)
That's a solid go to market strategy. But 150 locations, what's the monthly recurring revenue?

**Fexingo** (3:40)
She's at about $12,000 MRR. Not massive yet, but she's still a solo founder working out of her apartment. And she's profitable. No outside funding. She told me her churn rate is under 5% per year, which is incredibly low for a small business SaaS. The reason?
Once a laundromat owner integrates digital payments, they hate going back to coins.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:05)
Once you've tasted that sweet cashless convenience, it makes sense. So, what's next for Maria?

**Fexingo** (4:12)
She's building a mobile app for customers, so users can see machine availability from their phone, add money to a digital wallet, and get notified when their laundry is done. She's also thinking about expanding into other coin-operated verticals like car washes and vending machines. But she's being cautious.
She doesn't want to spread herself too thin.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:34)
Wise.
So many founders try to go broad too fast. Maria seems very deliberate.

**Fexingo** (4:41)
Absolutely. And that's one of the lessons she emphasized.
Talk to customers early, ignore the noise about scaling, and build something that actually solves a real problem. If you can get even 10 customers who love your product, you have a business.

**SPEAKER_2** (4:57)
That's the kind of advice that only comes from actually doing it. Speaking of which, a handful of listeners support our show directly, and that's what lets us keep digging into these real founder stories without any ad interruptions.