SpareFoot

SpareFoot
Founded 2008[1]
Founder Chuck Gordon & Mario Feghali
Headquarters Austin, Texas, USA
Key people
 Chuck Gordon, CEO[2]
Mario Feghali, COO[2]
Number of employees
 160[3]
Website www.sparefoot.com

SpareFoot is an Austin-based company that provides listings for self-storage units. The company was originally a person-to-person model, similar to Airbnb, that later developed into a marketplace for self-storage. The company now facilitates self-storage rentals between consumers and storage operators. The company was profiled as one of America's Most Promising Startups by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2011.[4]

History

SpareFoot was founded in 2008 by Chuck Gordon and Mario Feghali while both were attending UCLA.[5] The concept was developed a year prior when Gordon was attending UCLA and left to spend a semester in Singapore.[6] Gordon used space in Feghali's residence as well as space in girlfriend's garage. While away, Gordon came up with the concept which he pursued with Feghali.[5] SpareFoot was originally formed as a person-to-person website with the concept of facilitating the rental of extra storage space in private residences to those looking for storage.

Original funding came from family members and friends.[5] The site failed to gain traction with a person-to-person model. The founders noticed that there were more storage companies signing up to sell space as opposed to homeowners.[5] The site was re-branded (along with a name change from Homstie to SpareFoot) and began allowing customers to find, compare and review potential storage providers.[5]

Additional funding for SpareFoot came in 2009 when the company was accepted into an incubator program at Capital Factory in Austin, Texas.[7] They were awarded $20,000 seed capital as well as mentoring from the program.[5] During a second round of funding in 2010, the company received $2 Million in investment from Silverton Partners and Floodgate Fund.[8] The following year they raised $1.5 million in capital, bringing their second round total to $3.5 million.[1]In 2014, SpareFoot raised $10 million in a Series C round of venture funding from Insight Venture Partners.[9] On March 11, 2015 the company announced a Series D round of $33 million from Insight Venture Partners as well as Monkfish Equity and Revolution LLC. [10]

In 2011, Chuck Gordon and Mario Feghali were named to the list of 30 Under 30 by Forbes.[2]

Company culture and philanthropy

In 2013, SpareFoot was the winner of the Austin Startup Games, a competition that paired 15 startup companies against each other in games like ping pong, flip cup, and shuffleboard. SpareFoot received $30,000 for winning which they donated to the charity Kure It Cancer Research.[11] The company ran a campaign in 2012 where they donated $3 in school supplies for users of their Facebook and Twitter pages who posted items they have kept since they were in grade school.[12] SpareFoot also gave $100 vouchers for self-storage space to Washington D.C. residents affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.[13]

SpareFoot was listed as one of 7 Awesome Dog-Friendly Companies for National Dog Week by Career Bliss in 2012 for allowing dogs at their headquarters in Austin.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 Lynley, Matthew (7 March 2011). "Need Storage? Find It With SpareFoot – Which Just Raised $1.5M". VentureBeat. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "30 Under 30 Real Estate". Forbes Magazine. 19 December 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  3. ↑ Calnan, Christopher (2 June 2014). "SpareFoot to hire 25 customer service workers". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  4. ↑ "America's Most Promising Startups". Bloomberg Businessweek. 25 August 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Today's Featured Member, Sparefoot Started With A Guy Who Needed To Store His Stuff". Startup American Partnership. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  6. ↑ Quesada, Tony (29 July 2011). "Journal Profile: Chuck Gordon, CEO, Sparefoot Inc". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  7. ↑ Higginbotham, Stacey (22 April 2009). "Austin's Capital Factory Incubator Bets on Consumer Startups". New York Times. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  8. ↑ Hawkins, Lori (21 June 2010). "SpareFoot Collects $2 Million For Growth". The Statesman. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  9. ↑ Kolodny, Lora (25 February 2014). "Austin Startup SpareFoot Raises $10M to Become "OpenTable for Self-Storage"". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  10. ↑ http://www.xconomy.com/national/2015/03/11/sparefoot-packs-in-a-33m-series-d-to-improve-storage-booking-service
  11. ↑ Lalorek (17 February 2013). "SpareFoot Wins Austin Startup Games". Silicon Hills. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  12. ↑ Calnan, Christopher (31 August 2012). "SpareFoot spares school supplies as part of charitable campaign". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  13. ↑ Sommer, Will (31 October 2012). "Start-Up Offering Free Storage For D.C. Sandy Victims". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  14. ↑ Trikha, Ritika (26 September 2012). "7 Awesome Dog-Friendly Companies For National Dog Week". Career Bliss. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
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