Rinse

I had a great time in Palm Springs last week at the Inc. Magazine 5000 Conference & Gala. I joined Tieghan Gerard and Ann McFerran on stage for a panel discussion on building inclusive brands that resonate with audiences of all ages. It was a great discussion and really insightful to hear from other entrepreneurs (with very different businesses) who share the same passion for innovation, disruption, and delivering real value to customers. Thanks Ben Sherry for moderating! #Inc5000

Thanks to Inc. Magazine for publishing my article on three of the most important lessons I've learned so far from my entrepreneurial journey. As I noted in the article, "Leading a successful business doesn’t have to be complicated. Even though there is a lot to do to make a company successful, you don’t necessarily have to do a lot." Here is a quick summary of the three lessons: (1) Manage your psyche - you will face so many challenges along the way, so managing your psyche is critical. If you aren't in a good place, you can't lead your company to a good place. (2) Ask for help - don't hesitate to ask for help. Anything that can help reduce the degrees of difficulty of building a company should be considered. (3) Make the tough decisions - it's important to move quickly and be decisive when you know what needs to be done, and to ideally make tough decisions from a position of strength. The Rinse team has heard me say this often as "fix the roof while the sun is still shining." If you're in the middle of you're own entrepreneurial journey, hopefully this article helps!

Ajay Prakash is the Co-Founder & CEO of Rinse, a company that is making trips to the dry cleaner and the washer / dryer obsolete while building the first national brand in dry cleaning and laundry. Prior to Rinse, Ajay was the COO and CFO of humble Brands, a consumer product startup in San Francisco. He also has experience at Bonobos, Berkshire Partners, the NBA, and Bain & Company. Ajay received his BA from Dartmouth College and his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Topics: - Building a national brand in a traditionally local service - Leveraging technology to disrupt traditional service industries - Scaling a startup in the home services sector #StartupLife #TechDisruption #OnDemandServices #LaundryTech #EntrepreneurJourney #VCPodcast

Thanks to Neil C. Hughes for having me on The Tech Talks Daily podcast. This was one of my favorite conversations to date. Not only did we go over the Rinse origin story, but we also covered how we help local cleaners, why we W2 our Valets, how technology is the backbone to our ability to scale, how we foster innovation and psychological safety at Rinse, and more. I also appreciated Neil’s question around who has been there for me along the way. It truly takes a village and it was nice to be able to shout out my co-founders James Joun and Sam Cheng, and my wife, brothers, and parents for all their support. Will continue to need that support since there’s still a long way to go… https://lnkd.in/gWGfhB_h