This story appears in the
December 2000 issue of
Startups.
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Payam Zamani does not take dry cleaning lightly. "Nothing
used to upset me more when I was traveling on business than to pick
up my dry cleaning and find that there were missing buttons, a
double crease in my pants, or my shirt was over-starched,"
recalls the 29-year-old Pleasanton, California, entrepreneur.
Zamani was so disappointed, he decided to start PurpleTie.com,
where customers can log on 24/7 and arrange for one of Zamani's
150 delivery vans to pick up and drop off dry cleaning at a
pre-arranged time. PurpleTie, which uses environmentally friendly
cleaning agents, performs all its services at regional facilities,
which enhances efficiency and consistency, according to Zamani. The
business will also offer bulk laundry services and shoe shines.
Revamping an entire industry is an expensive endeavor. Zamani,
who raised $80 million to fund his previous business, Autoweb.com,
raised an undisclosed amount to open the first PurpleTie processing
center in the San Francisco Bay area this summer. Zamani, who
anticipates that PurpleTie will capture 7 percent of the Bay area
dry-cleaning market within six years, plans to roll out the concept
in 24 other major U.S. markets within three years. "We see
ourselves as a fashion-related industry," Zamani says.
"We will return your clothes to you looking as new as
possible, and we'll keep you looking good."
Pamela Rohland, a Bernville, Pennsylvania, writer who finds
mysterious spots on her clothes, believes a good dry cleaner is
more valuable than a sack of pearls.