Matt Connelly founded ihateironing in 2014 as the UK’s first leading on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service. Prior to this, Matt established Shoreditch’s first co-working space, The Hatchery, and developed an entrepreneurship network of 12 East London universities. He also led the Tech City Bootcamps for Digital Entrepreneurs. In 2022, he was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the British Business Awards for his role in successfully leading ihateironing through the pandemic and continuing to support local businesses across the UK from going under.
Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up
My parents came from humble and hardworking backgrounds; my Mum was brought up on a farm in the Highlands, and my Dad came from a mining family in Scotland. They taught me the importance of self-determination and I was brought up with a hard-working ethos, and was granted the freedom to take risks and navigate my creativity without the fear of failure or restriction. I was driven to fork my own path rather than follow other people’s, and this manifested in me embarking on my first experience with business early in childhood by selling raffle tickets. While it would never create the smallest dent in the grand scheme of things that my young optimism wanted it to – it established my initial excitement about creating a self-sustaining business. This was the start of my entrepreneurial spirit. Upon graduating from the Michael Smurfit School of Business many years later, I stepped into consultancy, which gave me the reins to work in a diverse field of start-ups. Here, my search for potential would only magnify, and I would join and support emerging businesses and turn their potential for growth into actualized success.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
After graduating from Smurfit Business School, I started supporting several London start-ups and small businesses with their strategic development and growth. My idea for ihateironing came after spending years as a busy professional with little time in my day to deal with the hassle of laundry and having to rush and squeeze my schedule if I wanted to make it to the local dry cleaners. I was on a run in East London when I came by a backstreet dry cleaner who had slashed their prices to what was below sustainable just to attract customers. I realized there was a gap in the market for a solution to help busy individuals who needed the hassle of chores and laundry taken off their hands, as well as local dry cleaners who were losing footfall by the day due to competition and not being easily discoverable. I started ihateironing by creating a simple website with my brother, before spending my evenings after my day job working on a strategy to recruit dry cleaning partners and personally hand-delivering each and every order. I learned everything I could about the dry cleaning industry from my first dry cleaning partner, Jeff, who not only taught me about the technical aspects of the industry but also set the perfect example for the kind of personable and caring relationship we want to have with our customers. Before long, it became clear that ihateironing was a solution to many people’s problems, and the need for an on-demand service that made life easier for people was unmissable. I decided to take the leap and quit my day job, and fully invest my time and money into recruiting the right employees to help me take my concept to a full-fledged business.
What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?
There are many lessons you learn along the way, and entrepreneurs will come across all kinds of challenges and experiences. But one lesson that comes to mind is the importance of putting 110% of yourself into it. Many people think they can run a business in their free time, and while this is fine for testing our your concept and seeing how the idea functions in the real world, to truly run a successful business you must take the leap to invest your all into it. Making the personal commitment to pursue your business full-time is a very big hurdle to cross. It’s important to make sure you’re at a point where you’re financially stable enough and with enough funds to live off as you start to get your business off the ground.
