Time Is Delicate

Written by Eamon Coughlin, Summer Intern and Class of 2019

This summer, I have the pleasure of working for the startup, 2ULaundry in Charlotte as their Fundraising and Research Intern. 2ULaundry is a laundry and dry-cleaning service designed to help people make time for what matters most in their lives. Customers easily schedule orders through their online account or via text, and 2ULaundry picks up, cleans, folds and then returns clothes in one business day. My responsibilities this summer include: working directly with the CEO, Alex Smereczniak (Wake Forest ’14) to build target venture capital lists based on portfolio size, investment thesis, geographical focus, and more; help draft responses to venture capitalists and manage the fundraising pipeline; assist in making updates to the pitch deck based on investor feedback; and research company competitors by conducting phone interviews with suppliers and customers. This week I have been focused on building the target venture capital list for 2ULaundry’s Series A Fundraising Round. The company is hoping to obtain one lead investment of $4 to 8 million, and several smaller venture capital investments to reach the overall goal of $10 million. My research starts by doing in-depth analyses on startups with similar business models and how they raised their capital. This provides me with a list of venture capital and private equity groups, as well as high-net-worth individuals, that have invested in companies with similar models, providing a higher likelihood that they would invest in 2ULaundry.

Eamon Coughlin, Summer Intern at 2ULaundry

I am excited to begin the process of reaching out to venture capital groups and see the progress of the Series A Round. Although I have not had significant experience working as a venture capitalist, I believe I have gained excellent customer service and communication skills from prior work in the service industry. Day in and day out, my job was to push product by communicating effectively and building rapport with my customers. I believe I can take this skill in helping build a strong rapport with venture capitalist groups and communicate the value that 2ULaundry has to offer.

I had the opportunity to hear Alex Smereczniak share about 2ULaundry and his journey from Wake Forest to the corporate world, and eventually to where he is today, in the Entrepreneurial Experience class hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at Wake Forest.  I was incredibly inspired by his points of being proactive, whether it be expanding your network or making the most of the benefits of being on a college campus. I decided to take an entrepreneurship internship because I believed it would give me a more practical, and transferable experience and that would allow me to see the internal workings of an entire company. In working for a startup, I knew that I would be getting a lot of exposure to many different areas of the company. As an intern I thought that I would have a much greater opportunity to have one on one mentoring and working on projects that are genuinely important for the success of the startup. With less people working for the company, there would be more responsibilities to be completed and the chance that I would get to take on more than one role. I believe that the skills that I am learning this summer are much more likely to be useful in the future than if I worked for a large brand name company. Lastly, the relationships in working at 2ULaundry have the potential to be more meaningful and valuable to my future.

I am excited to learn more about how venture capitalists and private equity firms invest their money and what criteria must be met to solidify an investment. In the past two weeks I have learned that the investment process is slow and requires an extensive screening and due diligence process. I have also learned that timing is extremely important to the success of any startup. For success, the entire group needs to be using time efficiently and implementing objectives at the right time. I couldn’t be happier that I decided to work for 2ULaundry this summer and am looking forward to the journey ahead.