From Instagram to Open Doors with Catherine Chalpin
Catherine Chalpin came to laundry the way a lot of people do these days: she saw something on Instagram, thought it looked manageable, and started doing her homework. What followed was about as fast a path from interest to open doors as you are likely to find. In this episode of Full Cycle, Chalpin shares how she went from watching someone unload quarters into a bucket to running Pop In Laundry in Poughkeepsie, New York, all within roughly a year. The location she landed on was a zombie mat, stripped of equipment after a dryer fire, but with its infrastructure largely intact. Chalpin, who has a background in project management through years of renovating rental properties, saw the bones of the space and knew what to do. She managed the buildout herself, skipping a general contractor, and opened in January 2026. Her day job selling indoor athletic flooring for nonprofits and athletic facilities has shaped how she thinks about community relationships, and that shows in how she runs her store. In her first few months, she organized a clothing drive with the Salvation Army, launched a summer reading program in partnership with the local library, secured a deal to flyer cars in her plaza, and began providing laundry cards to clients of Family Services of Poughkeepsie. A pop-up comedy show at the laundromat was also on the list. She credits a background in marketing and promotions for her instinct to keep things fresh and community-facing. Chalpin and host, Matt DeWolf also get into the practical side of running a new store: the lint trap surprise mid-construction, the value of a good automated floor mopper, the importance of a simple pricing reference sheet for staff, and the challenge of managing time across a full-time job and a new business. Her advice to anyone just getting into the industry is straightforward: read, listen, network, and learn the permit process in your municipality before you need it. Her final answer on what one thing you can do today to be better tomorrow: get familiar with AI. She's been using it to build frameworks, manage scheduling, and handle operational work since before the store opened, and considers it an essential part of how she runs things now. Thanks for giving us a turn.
