SpareFoot
| File:SpareFoot Company Logo.png | |
| 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 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
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ http://www.xconomy.com/national/2015/03/11/sparefoot-packs-in-a-33m-series-d-to-improve-storage-booking-service
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
