Interview with Stasher

Following, you can find our full interview with the startup Stasher.

Morgane: Can you introduce yourself? And tell us what is your company about?

Anthony: I'm Anthony. I'm one of the co-founders and the chief commercial officer of Stasher. We are the largest living storage networking the world . Soon delivery as well. What we do is: we work with local shops and hotels and they store luggage for travellers. So typically it's for people who stayed at Airbnb. They don't have a place to leave their bags where they stayed. And we get a lot of trendsetters so people will come to London and leave some of their stuff here because there will visit Paris or Edinburgh for a couple days and come back.

M: How old is the company?

A: The company is kind of two years old. After graduating we started with the company and toying with the concept in late 2015, around September 2015. But then we actually released the website in April 2016. From January 2017, we worked on it full time.

M: How did you get to the idea?

A: My brother was a student in central London. I lived with him for a while, we lived between King's Cross and Euston which are the two biggest train stations. We always had people ask if they can leave stuff in our house. And so we knew that we wanted to do like too much commercial sort of venture. We created a website to see how people would be willing to store. We let people store from one day to several months. And then we did some market research. We realized there was nothing really happening especially for storage from one day to a few days or maybe even for a week storage. So we decided to focus on that. We also realized from doing it in our own homes that no one else would ever do it in their own homes. So we started signing up local shops. And then from there, we've actually found that hotels were doing better because people trust hotels to store their bags. The difficulty was just that it was harder to sign up hotels. That is why we choose shops too.

M: What did you study (the founders)? And how old are you?

A: So we both studied economics. I studied political philosophy in economics and Jack studied economics and management. I worked in online marketing company for six months after graduating. Jack did a master's in economics and then worked at the Bank of England for a few months. So now I just turned 24 and Jake is 2.

M: In which countries are you represented?

A: So we started out in London and then we expand from the UK. Now we're around most of Europe - most major cities in Europe - and several cities in the US. We're launching Australia and Tokyo as well. We started like 120 5000 bags. We partner in the UK, for example with Premier Inn which is a chain of hotels. We're rolling up to 100 of them in the next month. Then in France, we partner with Accor and we're looking to do the same with the US. We're in integration with hotels.com the next month.

M: Do you have people who are working abroad for you?

A: It's mostly here: we have 11 people. And then one guy in Italy and one guy in Greece.

M: Was it difficult to create a network around your idea?

A: Yeah I think it's interesting. When we first started out we didn't have that clear idea how and why people need to store bags. Then it became easier to network because we knew the type of people and can try to talk to them. When you know about which conferences, you can find them and speak to them.

M: Did you meet your customers?

A: So, we started out. Remember that first, we were storing it in our homes. We could literally ask them when they come to pick up the bags.

M: How can you describe a good network?

A: I guess networks should be a couple of things, right? Probably one is why the network is possible. But then I guess the other thing is some people have been at different definitions as to what constitutes their network. Some people it's like anyone I've ever met part of a network. Some people it's like people I've actually spoken to feel comfortable sending a message to them. But I guess one thing, especially for young graduates, is that they're not very comfortable with business networking and the way that it's very different to social networking. Actually, if you just met someone and send messages like "Hey let's be friends", this meet up to be a bit weird. But in business networking it's not that weird and people shouldn't feel uncomfortable with reach out to people and say "Hey". It's like the rules of social networking and business that were being recorded. And I think young people, especially graduates, take time to realize that.

M: Do you think you connect successfully with your target audience?

A: I think so yes. When we identified that it's travel really interconnected because so many things that you buy when you travel are very time dependent. So if I went outside and give people fliers saying free luggage storage most people will be like "That's cool but I don't need it right now". Same thing for a rental car. Same thing for a hotel, right? If I give you a free night at a hotel tonight you'd be like "Yeah, I'm going home tonight but thank you". Travel businesses are like network and partner a lot because they have customers whom they know are in the right time to buy another product. When you buy a plane ticket you get always the question if you want to rent a car or buy a hotel because they know that you're going to be at the stage where you need that. So likewise we work with Airbnb and similar as that referred to us. And we also want to develop more relationships where we refer to the people and all of that stuff has to start with networking and outreach to other companies to try and stop people from.

M: What kind of social networking are you using?

A: We use all the main ones: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. For networking personal stuff I use Linkedin. I actually think there's probably space for a new networking platform. That is less spammy and less like recruiters just emailing a message. Oh and actually one other thing. It's like not official platforms but like loads of units have like alumni groups on different social media and there's lots of interest groups and stuff. They're quite useful.

M: What was your biggest problem during creating your network?

A: I think one of the big difficulties with networking it’s a little bit like sales. You need to build credibility. You know, I don't go and email the CEO of Airbnb immediately and expect to like having really been part of the network. You need to step up and build from where you are upwards and build your company I guess. Sometimes I guess the other thing is there are some other startups trying to be heard by people. So one of the best ways to actually get someone to listen to you is to either have met them in person. So meet in a conference or get an intro from someone that they actually know.

M: How important are connections for you?

A: Really, Really important. Yeah, it's why lots of successful businesses bring on like experience or like well-networked people into their boards. They either directly open doors or implicitly like it says something about your credibility and people talk to you.

M: How do you maintain your network?

A: You need to give regular updates. So posting stuff on social media that people are going to see what you're up to and remain interested. You know even if it's not explicit don't be aware of what you're doing. Go to relevant conferences for the industry. Be polite and helpful when people ask you for things so if someone asks you to meet for coffee or something then you meet them.

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