A New Look at an Old Business
Written by Jose Morales, Summer Intern, Class of 2019
This summer I have the pleasure of interning at 2ULaundry, a local startup. 2ULaundry was launched by Alex Smereczniak a Wake Forest graduate (’14) who with the support of his two friends, was able to create a great company that is flourishing here in Charlotte, NC. 2ULaundry offers a pick-up and drop off laundry service, all within one business day. It’s basically the Uber of Laundry and while it may look and sound “simple,” we all know doing laundry is not easy, not to mention, it’s time consuming. 2ULaundry is growing and expanding and recently, opened a new location in Atlanta. In a few weeks, they will open their very own “laundromat” called The Laundry Room, a subsidiary of 2ULaundry.
2ULaundry has been growing so fast that they had to open their operations and separate the roles within the company. Only a few months ago, Alex added an HR department to help with organization while also grounding the company a bit more. Gerardo Madrid leads and runs the HR department. Due to the stage of the company, Gerardo handles many tasks within the company including, hiring, payroll and insurance. Gerardo knows quite a bit about every position in the company which gives him a great overview of the company, how it works and how to support the growth of 2ULaundry efficiently.
Although I am a computer science major, I wanted to find an internship that would help me learn more about startups and how they operate while in the growing phase. So far, I have had a great experience and have learned so much about Human Resources. For example, the HR department must keep the company away from litigation and to ensure compliance is up to date to avoid fines and penalties. One example is when you surpass a certain number of employees, you must abide by what is required from the laws like insurance or medical leave.
At the moment, we are focusing on opening The Laundry Room. We have begun posting and updating job openings online. I was given the task of implementing social media posts to gather as much traction as possible for open-interviews and the soft opening of The Laundry Room. Using social media along with word of mouth advertising, has been a great success. In just two days, we interviewed over 30 possible employees and advertised the new location as well. Not only was using social media a great success, but I also learned what best suits a certain position and what to look for from a resume that separates an average worker from a great worker.
Overall, this internship has started off great. It has taught me so much about startups and how much work it requires for a startup to be sustainable in the long hall. To me, what differs this company and makes it stand out from the other laundry services is the care and value that Alex and his team emphasize. Every position in the company makes 2ULaundry run efficiently and the HR department is no exception.