With over 20 years of experience in laundry and dry cleaning, Jonathan is what you would describe as an OG in the game. His democratic leadership style and willingness to help others makes him special.
What’s your name?
My name is Jonathan Ukwunna.
What do you do at Eden Life?
I lead the laundry team. My role is essentially to provide support for the laundry unit and just make things work for Eden Laundry subscribers. I also manage relationships with our laundry partners and make sure they’re held accountable around quality, process and speed of execution.
How did you get into laundry and how long have you been doing this?
I started around the age of 12 or 13. I was in JSS1 at the time and my dad couldn’t afford to pay for extra lessons after school so he thought of a way to keep me occupied as I was a very playful child. He had a friend that ran an industrial laundry operation and he started sending me there once I closed from school.
I started as a “water boy,” managing the purity level of our water – how clean your clothes get is largely dependent on the quality of the water; including the iron content level. After a month, I was introduced to the washroom. It was buzzing. I was fascinated by the machines.
My payment then was free puff-puff before school and I could wash my uniform for free. After a year, I started getting about N200.
Puff-puff and N200 only? How long did you work there?
Yeah. I didn’t mind at all. I worked there basically throughout my secondary school and in my fifth year, the owner decided to make me the factory manager and empower me to run the business. According to him, this was because I saw the bigger picture and tailored our processes to save cost and maximize efficiency. The promotion was complicated because that meant I had to lead people who were as old as my own father. I was conflicted but I still did the work nevertheless, I just didn’t take the title.
During this time, did you always see laundry as a career?
Not really. I didn’t think about it that far. I just enjoyed what I was doing at the time. As life went on, I just went with the flow.
You started in 2002. This means you’ve been doing this for over 20 years?
Yes, basically.
Wow. That’s Amazing
I guess you can say that. Starting young really gives you an advantage in your craft. There’s a special kind of mastery that you attain from just constantly doing and learning one thing. You see it in sports people all the time. It gives you an edge and it also humbles you. You realise quickly that what you don’t know is more than you’d ever know. I like to listen to people talk about laundry and learn from them.
After your first job and secondary school, did you go to the university or you just continued with laundry?
After I left the commercial dry-cleaning industry, I switched careers to hospitality on property laundry. Hospitality laundry focuses on cleaning textiles and fabrics that are used by hotels, rentals and guest houses. It includes sheets, towels, and all of that.
While doing this, I realized that there was more to the laundry space than commercial dry cleaning. The hospitality space took serious precaution in mitigating the spread of germs and pathogens. Everything was planned with military precision. It was a bit new to me.
However, within a few months, I got promoted to Operations Manager. I worked there for a while and led the negotiation to get the facility leased to a major oil servicing firm for a lot of money.
When the deal closed, the previous owners wanted me to come back to the HQ and work at an edutech startup and the new owners wanted me to continue working on the project but I had just pulled through a very tough nine months of due diligence to close the deal and I was mentally exhausted.
I lived in a hotel all through the nine months – I had no motivation to do anything, so I just quit my job and went home to rest for a year.
You took a gap year from work. Must be nice. What happened next?
During my gap year, I applied to the university and started a degree in Business Admin. I also got numerous job offers and started another job for a private hospitality firm.
How stressful was that? Working and Schooling?
It was stressful but I was able to plan my time very well. The way laundry works, it gives you the flexibility to do other things. As a lead, I used to get two days off every week and I had the liberty to choose my off days and I had already put the right processes and people in place so I didn’t always need to be around physically.
So, how did you join Eden?
It’s a very long story that involves an unreplied DM and a blog publication. In my previous job, I used to enjoy reading Zikoko articles, especially Nairalife by Fu’ad, who’s the Head of Growth at Eden. One random day in 2019, I sent Fu’ad a DM on LinkedIn and told him how much I enjoyed his work.
The DM was left unreplied for more than a year, and then, one day in 2021, I got a message from him. He mentioned that he recently saw my message, viewed my profile and he thought I would be a good fit for an open role at Eden Life. I was like “Fine, let’s see how it goes.”
Before then, I had rejected a couple of offers from different countries for a couple of reasons but I was really curious about the Eden Life product.
Why Eden Life?
After my interaction with Fu’ad, I got connected with the Happiness Engineering (Human Resources) team and went through an interview and test. However, I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to move.
My decision to join Eden was made when I met Nad. During our interview, he was very open and sincere, and he knew what exactly he was hiring me to fix. You can’t find that with most owners in the laundry business space. His character really resonated with me and I knew I wanted to work with this person.
What do you find most interesting about the company?
Eden Life is interesting because everything moves ten times faster here. It is very exciting to work in a place where everyone is willing to give a helping hand.
The company is also solving a problem that I can relate to personally. I don’t like cleaning and cooking and Eden Life takes away the need to do all that with its high-quality food and cleaning services.
How do you think your job has influenced your daily life?
In my opinion, laundry is one of the best things you can do for someone. People are very grateful when you help them wash, fold, arrange or iron their clothes. Laundry has made me a very helpful person.
My job also teaches me a lot about clothes and fabric complexities. It helps me know how to maintain my clothes and extend their lifecycle. Personally, I feel better when I don’t have any dirty clothes. My wardrobe is usually 90% clean all the time and very organized. All of this is because of what I do.
Have you ever faced a situation where you told someone the job you do and they looked at you funny?
Not really. I think because I started this early and by age 19, I was already so good at it that I only got management roles from then. I think of myself as the best at what I do.
At that age, we had a client that used to fly in her family’s laundry from Abuja to Lagos just because of me. Captains of Industries were sending us custom made suits from Savile Row.
Savile Row is a popular street in Mayfair, Central London, known for bespoke tailoring for men.
Things like that built my confidence right from time. I don’t believe my work is inferior so I don’t think anyone can make me feel some type of way.
If you weren’t doing laundry, what would you be doing?
Apart from laundry, one thing I enjoy is negotiations. Most people see negotiation as a battle but I look at it as a dialogue. It takes a lot of empathy and the willingness from both parties to arrive at a conclusion. I like to negotiate and bargain so I’d probably work in procurement.
What do you do for fun?
I’m happiest when I’m at the beach. I don’t have to do anything, just stare at the water and sand. I also derive great joy when I stare at my leather collection.
Leather?
Yeah. I like collecting leather items. Shoes, wallets, belts, key rings etc. Leather really makes me happy because it is a very durable material and I like how it feels.
How many pairs of leather shoes do you have?
At least 20-ish pairs of formal shoes. My favorite? Captoe Oxfords. Preferably, 360 welted.
I don’t know what all those specifications mean but it sounds sophissticated. It’s exactly what a fan of leather would say. What of belts?
14 belts currently. It is also the item I tend to restock more often because my siblings will praise my eye for genuine leather and next thing ask to take some.
That’s interesting to me because there’s no point in my life where I’ve needed more than 3 belts.
I’ve gathered this collection because I’ve mostly worked in roles and industries where you have to dress formally because you would meet people, travel etc.
Also, belts can be directly related to shoe count because you have to layer and match both by colors. Most people at Eden Life still remember my interview because I came in a complete suit while everyone else was casual and simple.
What would you say to someone that wants to pick up laundry as a career?
You have to really love fabrics and have a passion for the complexities of textiles. With this passion, you can build all other technical skills on it.
You also need to be relentlessly resourceful, everything you do is supposed to make another person’s life easier, so, you need to do your work diligently and then try and weave in technical expertise with business strategy.
If you liked Jonathan’s Eden Life, you can also read about others here.