The Folde
Facing demand volatility, The Folde used on-demand labor to increase throughput, eliminate overtime, improve margins, and scale production to support growth without overextending its full-time team.
The Folde Scales Labor With Demand to Grow Revenue and Improve Margins
“Veryable allowed us to take the governor off our marketing because we knew we could fill demand as it came in,”
Mark Vlaskamp - Managing Partner & CEO
The Folde, a laundry pickup and delivery service in Austin, Texas, built its business around getting more use out of its laundromats. While traditional laundromats often sit idle for much of the day, The Folde used pickup and delivery orders to keep its machines running 22 to 24 hours daily, doubling utilization.
Keeping that equipment productive was central to profitability. But after five years in business, The Folde continued to face a constraint on growth: having enough people available to process the orders it could bring in.
Its full-time workforce could handle baseline volume. When orders increased, managers and owners covered the additional work, sometimes folding laundry until 3 a.m. Marketing campaigns generated demand, but the company repeatedly turned them off because production couldn’t keep up.
As Managing Partner and CEO Mark Vlaskamp explains, “It's easy to get orders. It's hard to get orders processed.”
Growth Put More Pressure on the Same People
For The Folde, additional sales came with an immediate operational burden. The same employees responsible for the normal workload had to stretch to accommodate more orders, with managers and owners stepping in to finish what remained.
That pattern contributed to burnout, turnover, and retention challenges. Growth looked good financially, but sustaining it depended on people repeatedly working beyond what their schedules could reasonably accommodate.
“Traditionally, our marketing was capped. We were turning off marketing,” says Vlaskamp. “We didn't want any more customers. We needed to just survive production.”
The timing of incoming work made the problem harder to solve through advance scheduling. Around 8 a.m., The Folde knew how many orders would return for processing that evening. It wouldn’t know the magnitude of those orders, and therefore how much laundry needed to be processed, until around 3 p.m.
Scheduling full-time employees one, two, or three weeks ahead meant making labor decisions before that workload was clear. Yet the company still had to meet customers’ quick turnaround expectations.
Seasonality added another complication. During the school year, parents relied on The Folde to help manage household laundry. Residential demand slowed during summer as families traveled and some customers had more time to handle laundry at home. Meanwhile, tourism increased demand from hotels and Airbnb property managers, bringing larger commercial orders with substantially different labor requirements.
The Folde needed to adjust to both daily workloads and seasonal changes while keeping its equipment productive and its core workforce from becoming overextended.
Starting With Simple Tasks and Building Familiarity
The late-night folding sessions prompted The Folde to explore a range of solutions. After connecting with Veryable and working with its team, the company began introducing on-demand labor into straightforward, repetitive work.
It started with janitorial tasks. Independent workers accessing work opportunities through Veryable, known as Operators, handled cleaning that had previously occupied part of the full-time team’s shifts. That gave experienced employees more time to focus on laundry production.
The next step was folding. The Folde paired an Operator with a full-time employee in what Vlaskamp described as a “bar back to the bartender” arrangement. Operators handled easier folds while the core team worked on more complex items.
That approach helped The Folde put additional people to work productively while giving them opportunities to learn. Returning Operators became familiar with more difficult folds by working alongside experienced employees. Over time, they could handle more of the process independently, improving throughput and consistency.
“So now our Veryable workers show up and they just walk in and grab a table and get to work,” says Vlaskamp.
As the company identified reliable performers, it built a Labor Pool of Operators familiar with its work. Managers could review performance and select people they wanted to bring back.
“It's kind of like fantasy football. Our managers could sort and see stats and see performance, and they were picking metaphorical players.”
Those selections were informed by demonstrated performance, giving managers a dependable group to draw from as workloads changed.
Matching Additional Labor to the Day’s Actual Workload
With Veryable, The Folde could make decisions about additional labor closer to when it knew how much laundry needed processing.
Managers could post work opportunities, known as Ops, and wait until midday or late afternoon to finalize selections. As the size of the evening’s workload became clear, they could determine how much help to bring in alongside the full-time team.
“It gave us the ability to wait until the last minute to choose how much labor is needed,” says Vlaskamp.
This addressed the gap between knowing the morning’s order count and understanding the afternoon’s actual laundry volume. The core workforce continued handling baseline demand, while additional Operators could be selected according to the work available.
That flexibility also changed what The Folde could do commercially. The company could turn marketing back on and generate additional sales with greater confidence that it could process the resulting orders. Growth no longer had to depend on managers and owners personally covering every increase in workload.
Pursuing Larger Commercial Accounts During the Residential Slow Season
The same approach helped The Folde respond to its seasonal shift in business.
As residential orders declined during summer, larger commercial accounts offered an opportunity to use available equipment and continue growing. But a hotel order required far more work than a typical household order. Vlaskamp explains that one employee might handle a residential order, while a large hotel order could require ten.
Previously, taking on that work would have placed a substantial burden on the existing team or required additional full-time hiring. Through Veryable, The Folde could bring in proven Operators to help process those larger orders without committing to ten additional full-time employees.
That gave the company confidence to pursue hotel and Airbnb management accounts more aggressively during its residential slow season. It could fill otherwise unused production capacity and adjust the additional labor it brought in as the volume and mix of orders changed.
The Folde’s results reflected both its ability to process more business and its ability to match labor more closely to the workload.
Within two months of using Veryable, the company improved gross margin per order by 36%, increased net revenue per order by 13%, and grew overall gross revenue by 15%. It also eliminated overtime costs.
The improvements continued over the following months:
Higher Revenue and Margins, With Overtime Eliminated
The Folde’s results reflected both its ability to process more business and its ability to match labor more closely to the workload.
In just two months, The Folde achieved:
- 36% improvement in gross margin per order
- 13% increase in net revenue per order
- 15% growth in overall gross revenue
- Elimination of overtime costs
Within six months, the numbers were even more impressive:
- 93% improvement in gross margin per order
- 44% increase in net revenue per order
- 59% growth in overall gross revenue
- Maintained overtime costs at zero
The change also improved quality of life across the business. The core team was relieved of the pressure to absorb every increase through extended hours and emergency late-night folding sessions. Managers and owners had more time to run the business instead of repeatedly stepping into production to finish excess orders.
Improving Service From Partners, Too
The Folde’s experience led it to recommend Veryable to vendors and service partners facing similar problems.
Some third parties had delayed work for The Folde because they didn’t have enough people available. According to Vlaskamp, partners that began using Veryable improved their performance by bringing in additional help to complete those orders.
The benefit extended beyond The Folde’s own facilities. More dependable service from partners helped reduce the delays affecting its business.
For The Folde, matching labor to demand changed how much business it could confidently take on. Its full-time employees remained responsible for baseline production, while a familiar Labor Pool provided additional help as daily volume and seasonal demand changed. That allowed the company to keep equipment productive, resume marketing, and pursue larger accounts while improving margins and maintaining zero overtime.
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