Doorage

Doorage is bringing storage and moving into the 21st century.

It’s a door-to-door service that offers valet storage, tech-enabled moving, and rentable moving crates direct to customers.

Doorage is targeting two huge markets: the $86 billion moving market, and the $32 billion self-storage market.

Recently, similar storage companies have achieved significant valuations:

• Clutter, a storage startup, received a $200 million investment from SoftBank, and is now valued at $600 million.

• And on-demand storage startup MakeSpace has raised more than $150 million, including $55 million in May 2020. Its CEO recently reported that the company’s valuation is higher than $150 million.

But Doorage is unlike any of its competitors in the storage market. That’s because it doesn’t lock customers into long-term plans, or charge based on pre-designated storage sizes. Instead, it only charges for the exact volume of storage used. It also provides specialty packaging for odd items that otherwise don’t fit into standard containers.

Doorage replaces cardboard boxes with modern reusable bins. And it brings every bin to and from the customer’s home.

Every customer has access to a full photo inventory of all items in storage. And they can go online to request any item be delivered back to their home or business.

Let’s say that a customer wants a specific book out of storage. That customer will have an online profile with each box numbered. And within each profile, the consumer can add photos and descriptions of what’s inside each box.

When the customer wants the book, they can find the specific box, inform Doorage, and a team member will capture the item and deliver it.

But Doorage offers more than just self-storage. It’s also changing the way people move.

It’s streamlined the entire moving process, and created a system that makes the entire move stress-free.

The company offers an online system that enables customers to build their own local or cross country estimate. This way they can see instant pricing from its proprietary instant quote system. From there, they can book Doorage’s services, and the company’s team will handle everything from virtual move inventory to in-transit tracking.

As mentioned, Doorage charges customers for the exact volume of space their storage takes. This is done under a subscription model. For pickup and delivery, the company charges simple flat, or hourly fees. With respect to its fees for moving, the company achieves 51% gross margins.

Doorage launched in 2017. Since then, it’s helped more than 1,200 customers move and store items in the Chicago market.

In 2019, the company expanded to two new markets, and more than doubled its revenue. It’s on track to double its annual revenue again in 2020, surpassing $1 million.

Doorage has raised $620,000 from angel investors. And in fall 2020, it was accepted into the New Chip Accelerator program.

With funds raised, Doorage aims to expand its moving services nationwide, and offer storage in six new cities. From this growth, it projects to increase its sales in 2021 by more than 200%.

Team Background

Sean Sandona - Founder & CEO

Sean is a serial entrepreneur who started his first business at the age of 15.

In 2001, he launched a professional development company. Soon after, he founded North Village Group, a real estate construction business.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Northeastern Illinois University.

Brad Sandona - Finance Manager

Brad has been with Doorage since March 2020.

Prior to joining his family’s company, he was in the U.S. Army Reserve. Before that, he was a financial analyst with Comcast, a telecommunications company.

Brad spent nearly eight years in the Army National Guard, serving as a logistics officer and a state aviation plans officer. Prior to that, he was a senior financial analyst with Sears Holdings.

Earlier in his career, he was a staff analyst with United Airlines, and before that was a budget analyst with Verizon Wireless. He began his career as a financial analyst with IBM and Motorola.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Northeastern Illinois University and an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Co-Investors