Magnoli: A POS Built From Years Behind the Counter w/ Justin Koh

<p><b>What happens when a dry cleaner builds the software he wishes he had to run his own business?</b></p><p></p><p>In this episode of <b>Cleaner Conversations</b>, we sit down with <b>Justin Koh, founder of Magnoli and owner/operator of Al Phillips</b>, to talk about his journey from the U.S. Air Force to taking over his family’s dry cleaning business, growing as an operator, and eventually building a point-of-sale platform around the real problems he was experiencing every day.</p><p>Justin shares how stepping into a much larger operation forced him to rethink systems, staffing, payroll, scheduling, accountability, and employee productivity.</p><p></p><p>One of the biggest examples: when he took over Al Phillips, labor was roughly <b>65% of sales</b>, a number Justin says they were eventually able to bring down to around <b>35%</b> through better systems, processes, technology, and having the right people in the right seats.</p><p>That experience ultimately helped lead to <b>Magnoli</b>, a dry cleaning software platform Justin originally began building to solve his own operational problems.</p><p></p><p>Instead of relying on separate systems for payroll, accounts receivable, employee performance, scheduling, reporting, and other back-office functions, his goal became bringing more of the business into one connected platform.</p><p></p><p>We also get into AI, industry data, scaling, customer support, onboarding, automation, changing long-established processes, and what Justin believes separates dry cleaners who continue improving from those who stay comfortable with the way things have always been done.</p><p></p><p><b>Topics covered:</b></p><p>• Justin’s journey from the Air Force into the family dry cleaning business<br />• Taking over and operating Al Phillips<br />• Reducing labor from roughly 65% of sales to around 35%<br />• Why Justin started building Magnoli<br />• Managing payroll, AR, AP, scheduling, and employee performance through software<br />• Building better systems before trying to scale<br />• Lessons from operating a 120-employee organization<br />• The similarities Justin sees across dry cleaning businesses<br />• Why successful operators are willing to change processes that may not appear broken<br />• Heat-seal technology, automation, and operational force multipliers<br />• How Magnoli approaches feature development and customer requests<br />• Practical uses of AI inside a dry cleaning POS system<br />• Why onsite onboarding and w