Exploring Life & Business with Ben Gardier of Linen Fresh Laundry

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Gardier.

Hi Ben, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I moved to Phoenix from the midwest in 2007 and am a graduate from Arizona State University. My career in finance spans investment banking, private equity, and executive management. While those roles were rewarding, they also came with the “golden handcuffs”—a lifestyle that felt confining. I wanted to build something of my own, something tangible and lasting.

In 2018, I took the leap and purchased two laundromats. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was real—an essential service that mattered to everyday people. From there, one step led to the next: another location in 2019, another in 2022. Each acquisition taught me more about the business, the people, and the potential of the industry.

By 2023, I was ready to scale. We raised $10 million and acquired seven more locations, sharpening our model and proving we could grow responsibly while improving quality. In 2025, we took an even bigger step, raising $140 million and expanding to 30 locations across multiple states.

The journey hasn’t been easy, but it’s been deeply fulfilling. What started as an escape from the corporate grind has become a mission: to reinvent what a modern laundry business can be and ultimately become the largest owner of laundromats in the world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Far from it. The road has been rocky, unpredictable, and at times brutal—but every twist has shaped the business we run today.

On paper, we look like a straightforward laundry company: about 0.5% dry cleaning, 20% commercial laundry, and nearly 80% self-serve laundromats, with our headquarters in Phoenix and locations across Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. But behind those numbers is a story of constant pivots and reinvention.

When we started, the plan seemed simple enough: buy laundromats, layer in dry cleaning and wash-and-fold service, and scale. In 2019, we acquired a boutique dry cleaner that looked promising. Then COVID hit. Practically overnight, that business lost 80% of its revenue. It never really came back. The smallest part of our business (dry cleaning) became a big money loser and distraction. The laundromat business thrived during COVID, but we could have folded the dry cleaning operation right there, but instead we ripped up the playbook—closing the retail store, eating massive lease termination fees, and moving into a lower-rent industrial space. We rebuilt the dry cleaning business around pickup and delivery for fluff and fold and commercial accounts and it finally turned profitable.

COVID also forced us to be scrappy. One of our first breakthroughs came from landing an Airbnb property manager who needed laundry for dozens of homes. At first, it was chaos—short-term rentals are high-touch, fast-turnaround, and unforgiving. But we figured it out. Soon we weren’t just “a provider”—we became the go-to provider in Phoenix and Tucson for short-term rental laundry. That win gave us the confidence to make a bigger leap: buying a commercial laundry in 2023. In two years, we’ve grown it by more than 400%.

But growth comes with its own battles. Laundromats aren’t “passive income,” no matter what the influencers on social media say. They’re people-intensive businesses in a high-turnover industry. We had to build systems to make sure there was always a trained employee ready to step in. Machines also break constantly. Outsourcing repairs was expensive and unreliable, so we trained our own maintenance crew—turning a cost headache into one of our biggest strengths.

The hardest stretch? Scaling from four locations to 30 in just 24 months. We were running lean, everyone was stretched thin, and yet we were acquiring, integrating, remodeling, building processes, training staff, and still trying to deliver excellent customer service—often all at once. It was dizzying.

What kept us moving forward was a mindset of relentless improvement. Every crisis forced us to get smarter, faster, and more disciplined. Looking back, the road hasn’t been smooth—but the rough patches are what gave us the formula we have today that makes us the fastest growing laundromat operator in the country.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We run Linen Fresh Laundry Holdings, a fast-growing laundry platform with 30+ locations across Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. We specialize in both self-serve laundromats and commercial laundry, with a strong reputation for serving short-term rental operators and boutique hotels—segments that most providers avoid because they’re so demanding. What sets us apart is our ability to scale while still keeping our stores spotless, our service dependable and predictable, and our turnaround times fast. We’re most proud of the consistency of our brand: whether it’s a family doing laundry, a business managing dozens of properties, or a hotel ensuring a great guest experience, our customers know they can count on us. At its core, Linen Fresh is about reliability and trust—because laundry isn’t just about clean clothes, it’s about making life easier for the people we serve.

Any big plans?
Our goal is clear: we want to become the largest owner of laundromats in the world. But for us, it’s not just about scale—it’s about setting the standard for how this industry should operate. In the next five years, we plan to grow from dozens of locations to hundreds, while expanding both our self-serve footprint and our commercial laundry division.

We’re especially excited about building a true multi-market platform: upgrading older laundromats into clean, modern, customer-friendly spaces, and expanding our commercial services with a focus on short-term rentals, hospitality, and other high-demand accounts. Along the way, we’ll keep investing in the backbone of our business—our people, our technology, and our in-house maintenance team—so that as we grow, our quality never slips.

Ultimately, we’re not just acquiring laundromats; we’re redefining what a laundry business can be at scale.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.linenfreshlaundry.com
• Instagram: @linenfreshlaundry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1B3stXXnqR/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linen-fresh-laundry/