Self-storage businesses are not universal. There are plenty of countries where they don’t really exist at all for individuals (only for corporate customers). There, people who are moving out of their flats and e.g. going abroad for a year and need to stash their stuff, are used to just finding someone with some spare space in his basement or garage. In my experience, people don’t really seem concerned about security; the real valuable stuff might be left with a family member while what goes into the storage space is just the furniture, kitchen stuff, and books.

But since finding a storage place is already a pretty standard part of the local Craigslist/OLX website in these countries, there isn’t much room for a new website to come in and disrupt things.

> In my experience, people don’t really seem concerned about security;

> But since finding a storage place is already a pretty standard part of the local Craigslist/OLX website in these countries, there isn’t much room for a new website to come in and disrupt things

it sounds like the markets you are describing only function for people who don't value security, which means that there is a potentially huge unfullfilled market for people who DO value security.

it soudns like there is lots of room for a new website to come in and disrupt things, as long as they cater towards the market that values security.

Hey man! thanks so much for the feedback. Eventually, I will have coverage for your stuff included in our services, for free. I would really appreciate if you had any ideas on how I could increase security - maybe with something like a security seal on all boxes?

> one of the top up-sells is insurance

That's because most storage facilities require insurance and no one is trying to buy it on their own, so they accept whatever the facility offers them.

That might be the case now but it certainly was not back when I worked in the industry 2005-2009

PS if you are Anand, I love my Kurt leather whites :)

Why wouldn't you be able to add insurance to an idea like this? Sounds like an obvious thing to me ...

Uh, lack of insurers willing to backstop this kind of nonsense: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20276631

Interestingly the article linked to states that the company in question started providing relevant insurance in response to this case. So appears what you are saying is not entirely correct.

https://blog.kitsplit.com/announcing-kitsplit-theft-protecti...

They self-insured; different than finding an existing insurance house that would cover it.

Also makes sense as they are in the best position to estimate the risk.