Washio

Washio raised $17M for on-demand laundry pickup, then collapsed in 2016 when it couldn't achieve profitability. The company discovered that laundry is inherently local and low-margin—technology couldn't create advantage in a business where labor and logistics dominate costs. Like an organism trying to optimize a process with irreducible labor content, Washio's app-layer innovation couldn't overcome physical-world economics.