StartThis Idea #17: Storage/logistics service for remote companies
More companies are moving to a remote workforce, but their stuff can't work from home quite as easily
Storage and logistics as a service for fully remote startups and scale-ups. Store stuff for companies. Send it out when they need, take it back when done!
Categories: Physical businesses, remote work, shipping/receiving, warehousing
Skills required: Low-tech, but knowledge of shipping and logistics would help.
The Pitch & Background
This might be the simplest idea from StartThis so far.
It fills a gap created by companies shifting to remote-only work, and saying goodbye to their physical office spaces…
What do they do with all their stuff!?
Many companies have conference materials, employee and customer swag, hardware (e.g. computers, headsets) and other physical goods that still need a home. Right now, that often means an employee’s home, or self-serve storage space that an employee has to deal with. I personally have 3 boxes of branded portable chargers, and half a dozen odds and ends for tradeshows/conferences filling one of my closets right now.
Storing itself isn’t that bad, but coordinating shipping can be a huge pain.
Suppose you’ve got a conference coming up.
Who has what? What if they’re on vacation? Do you pay to ship it or take it as a carry on? Who’s in charge of making sure it gets to the right place?
Afterwards, where do you ship it back to? Send back with the person going to the next conference? Who stores it?
Other things like swag result in missed savings due to lack of storage. Buying 200 t-shirts at a time is much more cost effective than ordering a few at a time, but where do you store them? Who ships it out each time? It’s quickly not worth the hassle.
The business idea here is dead simple: Store a company’s stuff. Send it out when needed. Receive it back when needed. Store it again. Profit.
There are some more modern self-storage companies that do this well for personal goods. But I have not seen any companies that will schedule and ship out to different addresses, or shuffle through boxes to ship specific items (e.g. go through a box of t-shirts to pick it one and send it to your new employee).
This service would be optimized for the business customer, and be able to capitalize on the added level of service that would be required.
As more companies shift to remote, and other remote-only companies start without ever having an office, there will be a growing need for this kind of service.
Strategy & Execution Notes
I always love ideas that you can start without any investment. This one is really close to a zero-dollar launch.
If you have extra space - a garage, extra room, empty basement - you can get this going with almost nothing else. You just need to know (or learn) about shipping/receiving, as that aspect can quickly complicate the operation. Eventually, you will need some commercial space and insurance, but smaller startups are less likely to not be as concerned with that early on.
It likely goes without saying, but being in a relatively central location in your country would help. But you can get this started from pretty much anywhere that is accessible for couriers.
The revenue model would be a recurring storage subscription + handling fee for each time items travel in or out. Some places charge per item, others for fixed amounts of square footage - take your pick!
Find a list of remote startups and reach out. It’s pretty rare that I get contacted about cool services for remote companies, but folks try to sell us office space and in-office perks all the time (we’ve been full remote for 2+ years). You could make a simple informational website, but even that isn’t really needed to get a few folks onboard.
Out of the gate, you can start simple, but there are many add-on services you can start to bake in to this kind of offering:
Virtual mailbox services - processing and scanning (check out VirtualPostMail)
Customs brokering/assistance (cross-border companies know the pain of conference materials being held up at the border!)
Print service via partnership
Basic IT services (e.g. wiping laptops, coordinating repairs)
As you scale and your shipping volume increases, you’ll likely be able to keep some of those savings as well.
Email and phone will work great for a short while. Eventually, a web-app where startups can manage their own shipping requests, view their bills, and make other requests, will help.
Name Ideas
Remote Warehouse, Virtual Company Closet, Startup Storage
I hope this one got you thinking, and maybe inspired to work on an idea! If you’d like, let me know what you think of this idea…