One person has space in their basement, the other doesn’t know where to put their things. That’s the perfect situation for the storage space platform Localstoring. We asked the three founders our Seven Questions.
Munich Startup: Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourselves and your product/service!
Localstoring: Hi! We’re Julius (23), Janis (27) and Stefan (24) from Localstoring — the Airbnb for storage space. We’ve known each other since our school days and are a well-balanced team. Our industrial engineer Julius takes care of management and finances while Janis, our backend engineer is entirely in charge of programming. Former SAP employee Stefan covers frontend development, design, UI and marketing. With our business model, we connect private hosts with individuals looking for storage space. Renters can store things right in their neighborhood for up to 80 percent less compared to if they had to use conventional self storage units. Hosts earn money with unused space without giving up their privacy. All users are verified and all objects are insured.
“You always have the chicken and egg problem as a marketplace”
Munich Startup: But that’s nothing out of the box!
Localstoring: It is between private individuals! Self storage units, much like hotels when compared to Airbnb, have the disadvantage of having to pay for expensive real estate, management and cleaning staff, which makes them much more expensive. With private offers, we are putting entirely new offers on the market. That includes space in basements, attics, former kids’ rooms, garages and sheds. So if anyone out there has a little room in their apartment basement or the like, start earning money with it — it’s really easy and you as the host have complete control over how the space is accessed and the desired payment (hosts pay us 0 euros)!
Munich Startup: What has been your biggest challenge so far?
Localstoring: As a marketplace, you always have the chicken and egg problem. We have to scale and connect hosts and renters at the same time. If we don’t have any renters, we won’t find hosts and vice versa. That’s why we’re working on reaching a critical mass of available offers in Munich right now.
Munich Startup: Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: How is business going?
Localstoring: We’ve been live for three weeks and are concentrating on establishing the supply side in Munich first. We have more than fifty listings at the moment and have gotten really good feedback. So you could say it’s going well!
Localstoring: The “Place for Space”
Munich Startup: What does Munich mean to you?
All three of us were born in Munich, which is why we’re proud to have our company located here. The LMU EC Accelerator Programm, which we’ve been in for about two months now, along with other strong startup networks makes Munich particularly interesting for us as a startup.
Munich Startup: How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
Localstoring: The Localstoring vision is to become the “Place for Space” over the long term. From boat slips to private airplane hangars or even parking spots for vintage cars, the platform can provide a very wide range of offers. That’s why we’re confident about becoming the market leader for private offers in many of these markets. We’re currently in our first round of financing to be able to grow even faster with the collected capital.
Munich Startup: Steckerlfisch (fish grilled on a stick) or Schweinshaxe (knuckle of pork)?
Localstoring: Knuckle of pork