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Pressbox and Tide Cleaners: Vijen Patel. The $1.99 Gamble That Built a National Brand

2025-10-06 00:00:00 +0000 UTC ·1h 6m ·by Guy Raz / NPR
Pressbox and Tide Cleaners: Vijen Patel. The $1.99 Gamble …
How I Built This
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About this episode

What if the best startup isn’t sexy at all? In 2013, Vijen Patel left private equity to pursue “the least-worst idea”: dry cleaning. No patents. No app wizardry. Just laundry lockers in high-rises, ruthless unit economics, and a $1.99-a-shirt price that was seared into America’s brain. From bootstra