21 Sept 2026
Magnoli: A POS Built From Years Behind the Counter w/ Justin Koh
What happens when a dry cleaner builds the software he wishes he had to run his own business?
In this episode of Cleaner Conversations, we sit down with Justin Koh, founder of Magnoli and owner/operator of Al Phillips, 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.
Justin shares how stepping into a much larger operation forced him to rethink systems, staffing, payroll, scheduling, accountability, and employee productivity.
One of the biggest examples: when he took over Al Phillips, labor was roughly 65% of sales, a number Justin says they were eventually able to bring down to around 35% through better systems, processes, technology, and having the right people in the right seats.
That experience ultimately helped lead to Magnoli, a dry cleaning software platform Justin originally began building to solve his own operational problems.
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.
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.
Topics covered:
• Justin’s journey from the Air Force into the family dry cleaning business
• Taking over and operating Al Phillips
• Reducing labor from roughly 65% of sales to around 35%
• Why Justin started building Magnoli
• Managing payroll, AR, AP, scheduling, and employee performance through software
• Building better systems before trying to scale
• Lessons from operating a 120-employee organization
• The similarities Justin sees across dry cleaning businesses
• Why successful operators are willing to change processes that may not appear broken
• Heat-seal technology, automation, and operational force multipliers
• How Magnoli approaches feature development and customer requests
• Practical uses of AI inside a dry cleaning POS system
• Why onsite onboarding and white-glove support matter
• Keeping operators and software developers closely connected
• Why service can become a competitive advantage for software companies
• The future of dry cleaning, consolidation, and opportunities for the next generation of operators
Whether you own one dry cleaning store, manage multiple locations, operate pickup and delivery routes, or are trying to build a more scalable garment-care operation, this conversation offers an operator’s perspective on how technology, systems, adaptability, and better processes can change the way a dry cleaning business runs.
Learn more about Magnoli
Want to talk with the Magnoli team or book a demo?
https://magnoli.ai/book-a-demo?from=header&utm_source=personal&utm_campaign=CMPOD (https://magnoli.ai/book-a-demo?from=header&utm_source=personal&utm_campaign=CMPOD)
Magnoli:
https://magnoli.ai (https://magnoli.ai)
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