Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jay Desai. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jay, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I love coffe and wanted to do community cafe as I was very much impressed with local community in upstate area. We got so much love from locals and everything happened good here in Greer SC so me and wife thought about a cocept where we can bring community, work with locals and help locals and it is kind of our pay beck to the community. I’m a huge Apple Inc fan and also admire Steve Jobs vision, they are great at reinveinting. So I thought how I can make an impact an reinvent something so I choose laundry industries as typical laundromat didnt change over so many years. So I start researching little more in 2016. When I deep down on my concept I saw that in parts of europe some laundromat have a coffee shop and couple laundromat in US has similar setup but not farm-to-table cafe. I also wanted to do something on environment side where our efort can help build sustainmability and protect environment. I reached out to my cousin Dr Utpal Desai and he loved the idea and immidiately supported me and also told me if we can do dry-cleaning. Because my mission was sustainbility I looked for the alternative to dry cleaning as it is not eco friendly and then we came up with bringing 100% sustainable wet clenaing techniligy for our setup. We made sure that coffee cups, food containers we use are all bio-degradable and made from highest quality. We used local agencies only to do upfitting, interior and construction. Used reclaimed wood for the furniture, couch made from recycled material. Local artist worked on mural.
This is 1st 100% sustainable laundromat in USA with Farm-to-table cafe and Organic Dry Cleaning. We offer organic wash & fold serivice and also have subscription for laundry services.
We partnered with local upscle restaurant OAK HILL CAFE as their mission is also sustainbility they have their own farm and source locally grown ingreadients.
Main issue with typical and traditional laundromat that they choose not so safe demographics to drive their business. Woman feel uncomfortable and dont want to use the facility especilly with kids. Laundry has lot of down time and users feel stress about the entire procedure. We wanted to change that and make boring chore into fun. At Green Laundry Lounge, we have book library, very great magazines, ipad stations, lounge area where guest can relax. Farm-to-table cafe for great specialty coffess, craft beer and sodas (locally sourced), outdoor patio and pocket park. Our guest have nice atmosphere and they feel safe.
We do wine and paint event as well.

Jay, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Green Laundry Lounge is about local community. Working with locals and helping locals for good. GLL mission is sustainabliity and by reinventing laundry industry they are providing safe and joyfull atmosphere to locals where boring chore can be fun and relaxing.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Never loose hope. I was new to business and as a startup we have our own challanges but we didnt loose our focus or commitment to quality. Even one of the local laundromat owner try to damadge our plans out of jealosly but they didnt succed, we know that we’ll come across hurdles and have to face multiple challanges.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

It is family and friends organization and that is what we love about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.greenlaundrylounge.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenlaundrylounge/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenlaundrylounge/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/gllcafe
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkVG-jb1FXYPi7o-j1XIuyw
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/green-laundry-lounge-greer

Image Credits
GLL