A Forbes article from October 2024 talked about big profits being made in “unsexy” businesses like self-storage facilities. Such facilities have relatively low overhead, the article said, and demand tends to be stable regardless of economic conditions. 

That may be a recent insight, but it’s something Dallas founder Laurel Hess knew instinctively when she started her peer-to-peer laundry service, called hampr, in 2020. 

Dallas is now the largest market in hampr’s on-demand, app-based laundry network. [Photo: hampr]

Originally from Dallas-Fort Worth, Hess had moved to New Orleans for college in 2002 and lived in Louisiana for the next two decades with the “Cajun boy” she married, and their two sons. 

By 2016, she was running a digital marketing agency in Lafayette and traveling a lot for work. She remembers coming home from a business trip one day and finding laundry scattered everywhere. In addition, T-ball season had just started, and several birthday parties were on the family calendar.  

“I was at the ballpark ordering groceries on my phone and I thought, ‘This is actually not my pain point, because we can run through the drive-through [and] order pizza, but we weren’t physically home to do our laundry,’ ” she recalls. 

She knew she wasn’t the only one in this position, thinking immediately of a friend with five children. “She was always asking if she could do something part-time, or project-based, for my marketing company,” Hess remembers. 

The traditional gig economy options like driving for Uber or Instacart hadn’t worked for Hess’ friend, because she needed to stay at home. 

“And I thought, ‘Ooh, I don’t have anything in marketing for you, but you’re home and I’m not,’ ” Hess says, so, ” ‘the biggest help would be to do my laundry.’ ” 

That’s how hampr—an on-demand, app-based laundry network that’s now based in Dallas—was born.  

One pop up basket equals one load of laundry. Customers can request a washer through the app. [Photo: hampr]

Commercial vertical growing 50% month-over-month

Officially launching in 2020, the service is hyper-local, with the members of Hampr’s workforce gaining economic mobility in their own communities by helping people down the street. 

“The washers are treated as contractors—usually it’s stay-at-home parents, retirees,” Hess says. “And we’ve expanded to 19 states. Now we’re getting into businesses.” 

While Hess believes hampr’s traditional residential service will remain its bread and butter, she’s seeing a lot of growth from short-term rentals, salons, and gyms that have laundry needs but aren’t interested in signing long-term contracts. 

After the start in Lafayette and then scaling into Baton Rouge, Hess’ sister helped build on the startup’s success by launching in Dallas, now hampr’s largest market. Hess herself returned to North Texas in 2024.  

Since hampr is a private company, revenue is not publicly disclosed. But Hess says hampr’s commercial vertical grew an average of 50% month-over-month during the last quarter.

Over the last five years, hampr has: 

• Done an estimated 600,000 loads of laundry; 

• Served tens of thousands of customers; 

• Employed hundreds of washers; and 

• Scaled to 33 major metros across 19 states. 

Using hampr is as simple as filling the custom-made pop-up laundry basket—one basket equals one load—and requesting a washer through the app.

The washer then collects the basket, does the laundry in their home, and returns the basket filled with clean clothes the next day. If you aren’t comfortable leaving your laundry on the porch or in the hallway of your building, you can opt to hand your basket directly to a washer. 

“Laundry is really personal—I’ve learned that over the last couple years,” Hess says. 

Want everything washed with hot water, or on the delicate cycle, and dried on low? 

“We can accommodate those requests,” Hess says. “But if it’s like, ‘This one particular item does not go in the dryer,’ it’s probably best not to include it. The washers are trained to put everything in the basket into the washing machine and then into the dryer.” 

Individuals who want to earn money as washers must apply on hampr’s website, pass a background check, have the right equipment—machines that can hold a typically standard load size—and a clean, animal-hair-free folding area.

If data shows there’s sufficient demand in the area, the person is then onboarded. 

Hampr’s default detergent is a scent-free, dye-free detergent that’s gentle on the skin.  

“If you say, ‘I only use this scent,’ we have a pocket in the basket where you can include a pod,” Hess says.  

[Photo: hampr]

Relying on ‘hyperlocal bubbles’ of supply and demand 

As of this writing, hampr membership costs $39 per year. That gets you a “loaded membership”—meaning you can “favorite” a washer in the app, upgrade your detergent, get the hampr laundry basket, and access to same-day service. Each load is then priced separately. 

While pay-as-you-go is also an option for those who want to try the service out, you don’t get access to as many features. That option runs $12 to $25 per load for next-day service. 

Currently there’s only one other national company, called Poplin, doing peer-to-peer laundry. But it charges $1 per pound, which Hess says she finds confusing as a consumer. 

“It’s also weighed by the person who washes the clothes, which could introduce more uncertainty to the process,” she adds. 

Though Dallas probably would have been on Hess’ radar anyway because of her family—her sister’s in Celina, and her mom’s in Frisco—she says DFW is a great place to be the founder of a business in the service industry. 

“We do really well in suburban markets,” she says. “We’re reliant on that hyperlocal bubble where you’ve got supply and demand in the same community. And there are so many of those bubbles all over the metroplex.” 

Find out more about why Hess said yes to Dallas in her My Dallas Story, where she talks about family, fun, and why she likes running her startup here.

Voices contributor Nicole Ward is a data journalist for the Dallas Regional Chamber.

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