"I had no place to trust and rely on. So, I made it myself."
Jang Godun, CEO of the laundry and alteration startup Mint Members, explained the reason for founding the company in this way. Having collected sports and premium brands for a long time, he always felt dissatisfied with the lack of alteration and management services where high-priced clothing could be entrusted with peace of mind.
Jang said, "The prices are high, and the clothing has strong brand identities, so isn't it difficult to leave them anywhere?" He noted, "There was no place that managed them according to brand standards responsibly."
Starting from these concerns, Jang founded Mint Members in February 2022, introducing laundry services for high-end products. The business, which was sailing smoothly, faced challenges due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). He felt limits on expansion due to economic slowdown and a decline in luxury consumption.
The turning point came from an unexpected proposal. A sports brand that outsourced alteration and laundry (AS) services to Mint Members requested, "Please take care of our customer service (CS) tasks for a while." At that time, Jang captured the new business opportunity of managing CS and AS operations. Since then, they have been providing services that handle the entire process from consumer inquiries to alteration acceptance and alterations on behalf of corporations.
Jang said, "From the fashion brand's perspective, tasks outside of store management, delivery, and product planning can often be burdensome, and there is a lack of professional personnel," adding, "There is a need for an external partner that can handle CS and AS tasks all at once."
Mint Members currently serves about 30 client companies, including well-known brands to the public. They undertake 500 to 900 alteration tasks on average per month on behalf of these clients. Using their self-developed 'integrated work dashboard,' users can check customer requests, work status, and expenses in real-time. They handle responding to customers, including sensitive decisions on whether services are free or charged, and addressing complaints in a manner that operates closely like a team within a clothing company.
Jang stated, "We focus on increasing efficiency while maintaining the brand's operational philosophy and customer experience, moving beyond simple laundry and alteration services," and added, "As the importance of brand identity and customer experience in the fashion industry grows, the demand for solutions that can maintain brand standards even when back-office tasks are outsourced will increase."
In addition to managing CS and AS for sports and fashion brand corporations, Mint Members has pinpointed their self-developed 'integrated work dashboard' as an additional business model. They plan to enhance the dashboard and expand into other industries.
So far, they have secured investments amounting to approximately 900 million won, including seed and pre-A funding, and set their revenue target at 800 million won for this year. However, once the dashboard business is established, analysts suggest that additional investment as well as revenue growth will be possible.
He noted, "There is significant interest in our dashboard from other analog industries like the secondhand furniture industry and apartment repair services." He added, "With some modifications, we can expand the dashboard to include apartment repair services or secondhand furniture repairs, providing an integrated service that can display work processes, systems, and current conditions."