Our story
Twelve years, one duck, a fresh start.
RUB A DUB began as one person washing cars in a Tysons office garage, became a platform that coordinated thousands of services, stopped for COVID, and is back.
Timeline
How we got here.
2014
One garage in Tysons
RubADub Eco Wash opens at 1676 International Drive in McLean, Virginia. Waterless hand detailing for the tenants of one office building. Cash-flow positive with one employee.
2015
Five buildings
Four more Brandywine properties across Vienna and Falls Church. More locations, less margin. Without software, every new garage made the business harder to run.
2016
The lesson
A simple logging tool in the first half of the year made the numbers better. Switching back to a cash register in the second half made them worse. The problem was coordination, not washing.
2017
The platform
A client app, a provider app and an admin portal. Jobs route to the nearest available provider, payment captures when the wash ends, landlords see activity at their buildings. The fee model replaced the payroll model.
2018 to 2019
DC, Maryland, Florida
Partner garages across Washington DC, Rockville and Naples. Fleet branches booking from the client app. Thousands of services, logged, rated and paid through the platform.
2020
Stop
COVID emptied the office garages RUB A DUB lived in. With no cars parked at work, there were no cars to wash. The business closed.
2026
Fresh start
The garages are filling again, the waterless formulas still work, and the platform is being rebuilt from the ground up. Same duck. New everything else.
What we believe
Four things we learned the hard way.
Where you park is where it should happen
Nobody wants to drive to a car wash. Your car sits still for eight hours a day. That is the opportunity.
Water is the wrong tool
A garage cannot drain it, the law says you must reclaim it, and a polymer mist does the job better anyway.
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it
Every job gets a time, a provider, a rating and a receipt. The data is the product as much as the clean car.
Garages are becoming hubs
Shared and autonomous fleets need places to store, charge and clean vehicles in the city core. Those places are garages, and we know how to run them.
Be part of the restart.
Property owners, car care providers and operators in new cities: this is the moment to get in.