Codie Sanchez's Laundromat Roll-Up

01The full story

In an interview about small-business acquisitions, investor Codie Sanchez describes buying her first laundromat for $100,000. She says it generated $67,000 a year, then she bought two more laundromats, combined the locations, and sold the roll-up for close to $1 million. She calls laundromats a useful entry point for a first-time buyer because the operating model is understandable, while noting that the category may not produce the scale of larger service businesses. The interview also describes typical acquisition prices ranging from below $100,000 to $1 million and a purchase multiple of three to six times profit; those are Sanchez's broad estimates, not terms for every deal. The example is a small-business acquisition and consolidation case, not a software product. Its transferable playbook is to buy an existing cash-generating operation, learn the service economics, then add nearby revenue lines or locations when operations support them. Utility costs, machine condition, customer service, and local demand can materially change the result.