Entrepreneurial Chapter · Built 10x & Successfully Exited

Co-Founder & CEO

WASFO Laundry & Dry Cleaning Services

🏢 Consumer Services & Operations ✅ Six-Figure Exit 👥 30+ Person Team
6-Fig

10x growth & successful sale

30+

Person team built and led

24/7

Tech-enabled operations

B2B+B2C

Dual commercial & residential model

"WASFO started as a turnaround challenge and ended as a proof of concept. I grew it 10x, built a real team, and walked away from a successful sale — that exit validated everything."

The Origin Story

WASFO began in 2017 when my family acquired a 40-year-old coin laundry in Kendall, Florida — a business that was underperforming, under-systemized, and operating without a clear path to growth. The business had a fundamental constraint: a 2.5-mile radius of customers willing to drive to a physical location. That ceiling had to be broken. The answer was a full pivot to pickup and delivery — a model that required new technology, new operations, and an entirely new brand identity.

2017
Acquired 40-year-old Kendall laundromat. Rebuilt operations from the ground up and launched the WASFO brand.
2018–2019
Launched WASFO pickup & delivery vertical. Expanded from coin laundry to full-service residential model with branded customer app.
2020–2021
Scaled to 2 locations, 20+ employees, and 2 delivery vans. Opened commercial accounts across hotels, Airbnb, spas, gyms, and restaurants.
2021
Completed Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program with Babson College. Applied frameworks directly to growth strategy.
2022–2023
Expanded into Broward County. Nominated for Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce Shining Star Award. Completed six-figure exit.

What I Built

I rebuilt the operation from the ground up: new systems, new team, new model. WASFO grew into a 24/7, technology-enabled operation with multiple sites, a residential pickup-and-delivery network serving thousands of customers across Miami-Dade and Broward County, and a B2B commercial client base spanning hotels, Airbnb properties, spas, gyms, and restaurants.

I implemented the technology stack that made the business scalable — including CleanCloud's platform for order management, route optimization, and a branded customer app that made it easy for clients to place orders in multiple languages, critical in Miami's multicultural market. The app carried WASFO's brand colors and gave customers full transparency on pricing and order status.

"The customer app is amazing. It's very sleek design, it has our brand colors, and it makes it really easy for the customer to place an order wherever they are. What excites us the most about the future is the ability to grow exponentially."

— Aaron Cardelino, CleanCloud Customer Feature
🎓
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses — Babson College

Selected and completed this highly competitive program for high-growth small business owners. Applied the frameworks directly to WASFO's expansion strategy and eventual exit.

🌟
Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce — Shining Star Award Nominee (2023) Recognized among the top business leaders in the Coral Gables community for entrepreneurial achievement and business growth at WASFO.

Featured by CleanCloud

WASFO was selected as a featured customer case study by CleanCloud, one of the leading technology platforms in the laundry industry. The feature highlighted how Aaron transformed a traditional coin laundry into a technology-enabled, pickup-and-delivery operation positioned for multi-state expansion.

CleanCloud Customer Feature — WASFO Laundry & Dry Cleaning

The Exit

After growing the business 10x from its original state, I successfully sold WASFO in a six-figure transaction. That sale validated the model, the execution, and the team — and it taught me more about building, operating, and exiting a business than any MBA ever could.

"Owning a company is twice the work as being a corporate employee, but the big difference is that you are working for your dreams instead of someone else's dreams."

— Aaron Cardelino, Voyage Miami

Press & Recognition

Voyage Miami
Daily Inspiration: Meet Aaron Cardelino
2022
Read Feature ↗
CleanCloud
Customer Case Study — WASFO Laundry & Dry Cleaning
2022
View Case Study ↗
Coral Gables Chamber
Shining Star Award Nominee — Rising Star Awards 2023
2023
View Nomination ↗
Read: What Selling a Business Taught Me → Let's Connect