Remember being in a stadium packed with fans, cheering on your team to victory? That was the feeling on Friday night for Sam Chason and Matt Gronberg, co-founders of Storage Scholars, as they watched their appearance on ‘Shark Tank.’
At their watch party filled with friends, family and supporters, everyone was holding on to each other, jumping up and down and cheering every time Chason and Gronberg finished a sentence, Chason said.
“It was truly a special night,” said Chason, CEO of Storage Scholars. “That 10 minutes of fame was phenomenal.”
Storage Scholars, the Winston-Salem pickup and delivery storage service designed for college students that began at Wake Forest University, was featured as the first company to pitch on Friday night’s episode. Seeking $250,000 for a 5% stake in the company, Storage Scholars got offers from all but one of the Sharks – and ended up making a deal with billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
Founded in 2017, Storage Scholars began when Chason, then a freshman at Wake Forest, saw the logistical and physical struggle for international and out-of-state students to ship their items back home.
Along with Gronberg, who now serves as COO, he designed a storage service for college students in which the students receive boxes and packing supplies, then pack up their items and let Storage Scholars takes care of the rest. This idea – and the company’s growth – were among the reasons why Triad Business Journal named Chason an inaugural Inno Under 25 honoree in 2021 and a 20 in their 20s recipient in 2021.
Triad Business Journal sat down to talk with Chason and Gronberg about their ‘Shark Tank’ appearance and success, as well as what happens now.
Doing the most difficult thing first
Appearing on ‘Shark Tank’ was the first time that Storage Scholars has sought any type of funding, according to Chason and Gronberg.
Storage Scholars agreed to give Cuban a 10% stake in the business in exchange for a $250,000 investment. Cuban, who is passionate about reducing college debt, told Chason and Gronberg that he would help open doors for the company on more campuses.
Getting to that deal was not easy – and not only because Chason and Gronberg had to consider other substantial offers from Sharks Robert Hervajec, Kevin O’Leary and Daymond John. Even just being able to audition for ‘Shark Tank’ is an in-depth process, Chason told TBJ. But then once you make it on the show, it becomes more vigorous still.
“It was the most intense version of capital raising you could have ever imagined,” Gronberg said.
The co-founders had to be airtight in their pitch and accurate in their numbers, as the Sharks asked them upwards of 150 questions in an approximately 45-minute session – all while the cameras were rolling. And if they messed up, there were no retakes, Gronberg said. Chason said that fundraising in the future will seem much easier compared to the process of ‘Shark Tank.’
“A match made in heaven”
Ultimately, Storage Scholars agreed to Cuban’s offer for two reasons. First, the co-founders came in knowing that they didn’t want to give up a huge part of the company and second, Cuban is well-connected in the higher education space.
Gronberg called it a “match made in heaven,” and said that while Hervajec’s offer – $500,000 for 20% – was incredible, it was too difficult to imagine giving up 20% of Storage Scholars.
The funding will go towards hiring new employees earlier in the year and hiring executive-level employees, such as directors of technology and marketing and an additional campus teams training manager, Gronberg said.
“Because of that seasonal sales cycle we have, we don’t see positive cash flow until the spring, so having the investment is a big cushion for us,” Gronberg added. “[It gives] us more runway to hire them in a month or two as opposed to waiting until maybe January or February, so that they have more ramp-up time.”
Previously, Chason told TBJ that there were two additional deals in Storage Scholars' pipeline. He declined to disclose what the deals are, but said that they will be coming soon.
Support from across the nation
Overall, Chason and Gronberg agreed that they were happy with how their 45-minute pitch was edited down to a 10-minute segment on ‘Shark Tank.’
“I think it gave a great depiction of the business; it hit on the points that are most impactful to people, like the founding story, the mission of the company and some high-level numbers and success,” Gronberg said. “I think the bulk of the pitch that wasn’t aired was really investor-centric, just like the nitty gritty numbers, understanding the key the key parts of the business model and the growth plan.”
The only thing that they wished had been explained more was the key-access relationship that Storage Scholars has with its partnering universities, in which the schools grant the company access to students’ rooms so that Storage Scholars movers can go in to pick up or deliver.
As many startups and entrepreneurs see after a ‘Shark Tank’ appearance, Chason said that Storage Scholars saw an uptick in online website traffic, as well as an outpouring of outreach from people on social media, as well as those who are interested in PR and employment with the company.
“[Our team] really, truly stepped up and were ready to go and be working on a Friday and Saturday and Sunday for the uptick that we saw in the website and customers,” Chason said.
In addition to the watch party Gronberg and Chason hosted in Austin – where they currently live, as they work remotely and wanted to be more westward as Storage Scholars expands across the country – there was a watch party in Winston-Salem, hosted by Winston Starts and the Wake Forest Center for Entrepreneurship.
“This was a goal of Sam’s since the beginning – to get on ‘Shark Tank.’ They did and they got a great deal,” Betsy Brown, vice president of Winston Starts, said. “They will get great publicity and traction from this but more than anything it is affirmation that they have a great concept, and it is primed to scale. Storage Scholars is a fantastic example of the partnership between Wake Forest and Winston Starts to help nurture and support startups coming out of the university.”
Gronberg and Chason both said that they were blown away by the support they have received along the way and now that they’ve made it onto a national stage.
“It’s just really cool that as a business that works with the geographic diversity from New York down to Texas, hires so many students from so many different places, to see the impact and all the viewing and support from different parts of the United States,” Gronberg said.
