Prior to my arrival at college in 2016, I struck a deal with my parents. Although they would not pay the full price of private school tuition, they agreed to pay the equivalent cost of a state school education if I covered the remaining fee. At merely age 18, the burden of a quarter million dollars of debt was not an onus I took on lightly, so I got to work right away looking for any means to pay off my looming loans.
Initially, I saw the need for an optimized campus storage solution from the international student community. When traveling from China, Ethiopia, or India, for example, students would often carry two large suitcases full of supplies and then buy the rest of their belongings locally upon arrival to campus. I knew it wouldn’t make fiscal or logistical sense to ship boxes of bedding, school supplies and winter clothes overseas at the end of the semester. I knew there had to be an easy way for students to move-in and out of school without sacrificing time to study for finals or enjoy the end of year festivities. Thus, Storage Scholars was born…
Our Passion
DO COMMON THINGS UNCOMMONLY WELL
Imagine a chaos free move-out week with less traffic and happier students. Traditional moving and storage vendors struggle with damage accountability, inventory, management, and communication. What if the student moving experience could be done so well, that it becomes something families rave about. Meet Storage Scholars. Since 2017, we’ve moved thousands of happy students and hold a 4.8 star satisfaction rating. Students everywhere are telling us that we’ve solved this common storage problem, uncommonly well.
Quick Facts
Quick Facts
Moves completed
Paid in Student Wages
from 3500+ Reviews in 2022
Operations on 72 Campuses
Company Timeline
It all began in South Residence Hall at Wake Forest University in founder Sam Chason’s freshman year dorm room. During the inaugural 2017 season, Storage Scholars served 64 customers with a raving feedback and zero customer complaints.
In Year 2, Sam partnered with Wake Forest's Residence Life and Housing team, met his future business partner Matt Gronberg and reached out to his friends in New York and Florida to launch campuses two and three.
After experiencing the management and operational headaches of managing campuses from five states away, the team decided to stick to North Carolina and have one centrally located storage facility to increase quality control. The first customer success specialist was hired and partnership conversations were opened at Elon University.
The wonderful COVID-19 year brought many lessons of patience, the first being a 75-day straight work session spent Facetiming, packing, and shipping out students' belongings that could not return to campus. A partnership with Wofford was born, expansion grew to seven total campuses and two new customer success team members join the team.
Upon graduation from Wake Forest, the team kicked it into high gear, doubling their geographic footprint. Operations now stretch from Virginia to Texas and total payments to college students break $435,000 since inception!
Storage Scholars welcomed new team members, including Chelsea Goodwin as Head of Business Development, Robert Nielson as Customer Success Specialist, and backend development team members Marcos Carvalho and Sanjay Parmar. Our campus presence has expanded with partnerships formed with Franklin and Marshall, Washington and Lee, and High Point, along with 15 new schools. The highlight of the year was our appearance on ABC's Shark Tank, securing a deal with Mark Cuban for 10% of the company in exchange for $250,000.
Experience a transformative year at Storage Scholars, as we welcome over 10 new full-time employees across various departments. From customer success and technology development to campus management, hiring, and operations, our expansion is fueled by the demand for our services in 50 new markets nationwide.
As a testament to our success, our Shark Tank videos have become viral sensations on TikTok, driving a surge of traffic to our website. In fact, storagescholars.com once ranked an impressive 8th on Google for the keyword ‘storage’ in the entire country!
Amidst this rapid growth, our unwavering focus remains on maintaining exceptional quality. We understand that as our trajectory soars, ensuring the highest standards is paramount. Join us on this exciting journey as we continue to redefine the storage industry.
Founding Story
Meet the Team
As Seen On Shark Tank!
On October 14th, 2022, co-founders Sam Chason and Matt Gronberg appeared on season 14 episode 4 of ABC’s Shark Tank. After receiving offers from Mark, Kevin, Robert, and Daymond, they walked out of the tank with a deal from Mark Cuban for $250,000 for 10% of their company.
Watch the episode here:
What Our Customers Are Saying
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