Student Storage Specialist of the Week: Matt Gronberg

Meet our 'Student Storage Specialist' of the Week, Matt Gronberg! Matt is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Storage Scholars. He is a recent graduate of Wake Forest ('21) and has been instrumental in the company's growth. Matt is a dedicated and driven leader, and is passionate about Storage Scholars. It's amazing to see what he's accomplished at such a young age but even more exciting to think about where he'll go from here!

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‍The Road to COO

‍Growing up, I was never a child that lacked confidence, determination, or clarity. When I was 8 years old, I told friends, family, teachers, and peers that I was certain I would become an orthopedic surgeon. I've worn scrubs on Halloween night for 7 different years dreaming of my future career. How on earth did I become the co-founder and COO of a student storage and moving company?

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Looking back, there may have been more warning signs that I was destined to be an entrepreneur than I initially believed. I was always fascinated and obsessive about finances. At age 11, when I found out I couldn't legally get a job until I was 14 in Massachusetts, I started a car detailing business. By 13 years old, I was detailing 2 cars a weekend, charging $120 a car for members of my church! I never minded a little manual labor, as it helped me later in life when I joined a team of college student movers. 

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At 14 years old, I joined my high school football team and was tasked with selling our football "booster cards" to raise money for our uniforms. Without hesitation, I went home and walked my neighborhood knocking door to door and sold 10. The next day, I thought my results may improve if I wore my jersey when I went to knock…I sold 15. Still unsatisfied, I decided to take the jersey I had worn to practice, covered in dirt & blood to really enhance the effect. "Please, sir, would you help us get new uniforms this year by buying a booster card? It's only $20 and helps our whole team." I sold 35 that third day. When we hit the football banquet and the best fundraisers were announced, the runner-up sold 12 booster cards. I had sold 88. At that time, I realized I was passionate about sales, which eventually helped me post up at a table selling dorm room storage to my peers.

By the time I was 17, I had served 4 years on my school's "Relay for Life" cancer fundraiser planning committee. I was the chair of sponsorships and helped organize partnerships with all the local businesses in our tri-town area to donate time and resources to make our events memorable. That year, we raised over $175,000 for cancer research in ONE NIGHT, ranking as the 5th best Relay for Life event in the USA! Facilitating partnerships and collaborating with other businesses eventually became my full-time job as COO. That skill allowed me to form countless student storage partnerships with universities throughout the United States.‍

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Life in College

‍When I was 18 years old and a Freshman at Wake Forest University, I began working my assigned work-study as an intramural sports referee. I needed to find a way to pay for my undergraduate educational expenses and, eventually, my high-priced medical school education. Studying Biochemistry and working 20 hours a week for $7.25 an hour wasn't exactly a walk in the park, or efficient for that matter. That Halloween, my 7th time wearing scrubs, I bumped into my now business partner Sam Chason. He asked why I was working so much and encouraged me to work for his new business, Storage Scholars, instead. "You'll make more in a week working for me than you will in a whole semester of doing what you're doing now," he said.

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My Beginnings at Storage Scholars

That May, I gave it a shot. Sam was a smart guy, we got along well, and I could tell the idea had a lot of merits. I worked 106 hours in 7 days unloading trucks until 4 in the morning, most nights dying to prove my worth to this college moving business. It turns out I was in the right place at the right time because 2 months later, Sam left on a flight across the world to New Zealand to study abroad for a semester. He asked me if I would run the business in his absence, and I agreed.

We chatted each afternoon and evening despite the 18-hour time difference. I asked question after question, trying to understand everything there was to know about college storage. I asked so many questions that he was borderline annoyed with how often I called. He definitely wasn't looking for a business partner, but then again, I wasn't really asking. I was determined to learn so much and master whatever skill the business demanded to show him I would be worth keeping around. It became increasingly apparent that moving stuff into storage units for college students at scale would be how I paid for both undergrad and medical school.

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Time for a Real Change 

This plan was rock solid until I was 20 years old in a genetics lab the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college. I sat there, each day, killing and breeding fruit flies by the thousands, miserable as ever. My professors and mentors told me how important research hours would be to get into medical school. All day during those unsupervised lab hours, I would finish my tasks as quickly as possible, so I could go back to work on building Storage Scholars. At the end of that summer, I told Sam that even though I wasn't an official business partner, I was ready to give up medical school and pursue Storage Scholars full-time when I graduated. I told him I would switch majors to get a degree in Biology to graduate a semester earlier and join him in the workforce.

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Never Looking Back

‍Fast forward to 2022, I had the opportunity to pitch on Shark Tank with my now business partner Sam Chason and had the time of my life. That incredibly certain, confident, and determined child who told everyone he would become an orthopedic surgeon was now on national television pitching his dorm storage business to America. Funny enough, I can’t imagine life any differently now, as so much of my identity is tied to this business and the spirit of entrepreneurship.

I am so blessed to wake up and love the work I do every day. My foundation and experiences led me to where I am today, and the opportunity life presented me allowed those skills to manifest into something special. I work with an incredible team who radiates positivity to one another and never settles for anything less than greatness. We go to war together in the spring, working 80-hour weeks in the trenches as campus storage is incredibly seasonal. That said, we celebrate our wins, lift one another up during hard times, and continue contributing to a company culture I could've never imagined when I moved my first box 5 years ago. 

-Matt

To learn more about summer storage for college students, and how we can help you at Storage Scholars, visit www.StorageScholars.com or email Matt to say hello. He'd love to hear from you!

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