PlanetLaundry Podcast, Episode 55: A Nest of Opportunity: An Interview with HappyNest Founder and CEO John MacKrell

Welcome to the PlanetLaundry Podcast – brought to you by PlanetLaundry, the magazine of CLA.

In this episode, PlanetLaundry Editor Bob Nieman chats with John MacKrell, founder and chief executive officer of HappyNest, a national laundry pickup-and-delivery service brand.

MacKrell, a former investment banker and active duty Army officer, started in the laundromat industry in 2003, after purchasing his first store in East Greenwich, R.I. Over the next 15 years, he built or purchased another five laundromats.

However, frustration with the low usage of his laundry equipment during the slower midweek periods prompted him to begin offering residential laundry pickup-and-delivery services throughout Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts. As his delivery business grew, he developed software to manage the process.

Starting in 2018, MacKrell started licensing his enterprise-level software as a white label SaaS to independent laundromat owners. Then, in 2020, he decided to pivot away from licensing software to partnering with quality operators to create the national brand, HappyNest. Today, HappyNest has 130 partners in 35 states.

We hope you enjoy this conversation. We invite you to listen to more PlanetLaundry Podcasts at https://planetlaundry.podbean.com/.

This edition of the PlanetLaundry Podcast has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of HappyNest.