The interview was conducted with Jakob Hirzel. Founder and CEO of Bubble Box AG. If you would like to find out more about innovative textile care and laundry service, please visit bubblebox.ch.
How did you come up with the idea for Bubble Box?
During my five-year stay in the US I got to know and love the 24/7 textile care and laundry service. Honestly, I’ve never been someone who was looking forward to washing and ironing, and even in Switzerland I was happy to be able to give most of my laundry to the dry cleaner. But I had never experienced the whole process as easy and convenient as in the US. I asked myself, why doesn’t something like this exist in Switzerland yet! A little later I founded Bubble Box – and since 2017 we have been offering a Swiss-wide textile care and laundry service via our online platform.
What are your current challenges?
Of course Corona has not passed us by without leaving some scratches. We are very grateful that we were able to return to an almost normal day-to-day business. While sales in stationary retail decreased sharply, our online business has proven to be largely resistant to the crisis.
Nevertheless, we were and are still faced with the challenge of improving our services and thus our online presence and developing them further in line with customer and market needs.
The needs of our customers have changed and new target groups have emerged. We have tried to see this situation as an opportunity to take our business to the next level and make it even more customer centric.
For example, during the lockdown, our new service “Wösch Post” was created in a very short time in cooperation with the Swiss Post and Venture Leap. Many customers were no longer allowed to visit their parents, in-laws or neighbors, and so support in the household was no longer possible. With the launch of “Wösch Post”, we have been able to offer an ecommerce like solution for every Swiss household since April. At least with regard to laundry services. In terms of logistics, this is a completely new distribution channel for us.
At this point we would also like to thank Daniel Werner and the entire Venture Leap Team. The right partner – since the MVP until today – is instrumental in building and developing a successful business idea.
What is your vision for Bubble Box?
It’s simple: We want to become and remain the Swiss market leader in the textile care industry by guaranteeing the best quality with the greatest possible convenience across all segments (B2C/B2B).
