The Folde

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The Folde Boosts Throughput and Profit Margins With On-Demand Labor

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“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

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In the highly competitive laundry industry, maximizing equipment utilization and managing demand volatility is critical to profitability. The Folde, a laundry pickup and delivery service in Austin, TX, had been operating successfully for five years, but consistently faced a frustrating ceiling on growth: labor constraints.

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While traditional laundromats sit idle much of the day, The Folde operated its facilities 22 to 24 hours daily, doubling utilization by offering a pickup and delivery model. Orders were never the problem — in fact, their marketing campaigns worked so well that they routinely had to shut them off because they lacked the labor to process additional demand.

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Owners and managers often found themselves folding laundry until 3 a.m. just to keep up, which led to burnout, turnover, and retention challenges across the team. “Growth was bittersweet,” explained Mark Vlaskamp, Managing Partner and CEO. “It looked great on the books, but in practice, it meant our managers and owners were folding laundry at 3 a.m. to cover the gap. That wasn’t sustainable.”

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Seasonality made matters worse. During the school year, parents leaned on the Folde for help, driving demand up sharply. Then, in the summer, residential orders dropped while commercial accounts — like hotels and Airbnb property managers — ramped up due to tourism. This unpredictable, start-and-stop demand cycle meant The Folde couldn’t plan labor in advance, while still needing to keep their machines running near constantly to stay profitable.

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Building a Flexible Labor Strategy

Desperate to break the cycle, The Folde explored a variety of options. “You have a lot of time to think folding laundry at 3 a.m.,” joked Vlaskamp. “We opened up to any and all suggestions, and when we saw Veryable, we stuck with it.”

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After collaborating with the Veryable team, The Folde began using on-demand operators for straightforward, repetitive tasks such as folding laundry and janitorial work. This freed up their full-time employees to focus on the more complex, higher-skill elements of production.

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At first, Veryable workers were paired with full-time team members in what Vlaskamp described as a “bar back to the bartender” approach. The Veryable operators learned the easier folds while the in-house team handled complex items. Over time, the flexible operators picked up the skills to handle even the higher-difficulty pieces, accelerating throughput and consistency.

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Crucially, The Folde was able to build a bench of reliable operators. “It’s like fantasy football,” Vlaskamp said. “Our managers can sort, see performance stats, and pick the best ‘players’ for each shift. It’s not a gamble — we know who performs.”

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Operational Flexibility

Before Veryable, The Folde had to plan labor weeks in advance, hoping forecasts were correct. But in their business, the real workload picture wasn’t clear until about 3 p.m. each day. With Veryable, they could hold off on staffing decisions until midday or late afternoon, then post an opportunity and secure workers right before the evening rush.

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This was a game-changer for the business. “We could turn our ads back on and drive sales because we knew we could fill demand,” said Vlaskamp.

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During the slower summer months for residential orders, The Folde took advantage of Veryable’s flexibility to pivot toward commercial accounts, where order volumes were much larger. Whereas a residential order might take one employee to handle, commercial clients could require 10 or more. With Veryable, they could pursue these opportunities without committing to hiring 10 new people full-time — instead, they could simply bring in trusted flexible operators at the push of a button.

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“This let us keep growing even during the slow season,” said Vlaskamp. “It gave us the confidence to go after big hotel contracts, knowing we had the labor to support them.”

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Results

The impact of this labor transformation was dramatic. 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

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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

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Perhaps even more meaningfully, the company’s quality of life improved. Full-time employees no longer had to worry about late-night shifts or 3 a.m. folding marathons. Managers could focus on running the business, not physically processing orders.

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A Broader Ripple Effect

The Folde even began encouraging its partners and vendors to use Veryable. “Everybody’s dealing with labor issues these days,” Vlaskamp said. “We’ve seen third parties who were delayed on our service because they didn’t have staff, and now they use Veryable too. So not only are we using it in-house, but our partners are using it, which improves the entire supply chain.”

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Conclusion

By pairing a proven labor strategy with a people-first mindset, The Folde unlocked new levels of throughput, profitability, and sustainable growth. With Veryable’s flexible workforce model, they were finally able to keep their machines — and their business — running at full capacity without sacrificing their teams’ wellbeing.