12:45 – 13:15

How remotely managed sites are changing the industry

30 mins Panel

Hear how remotely managed self storage sites are changing the industry.  From one of the pioneers of the concept in the USA over 20 years ago to current European operators rapidly expanding their portfolio.  Hear how they use technology to improve efficiencies in their operations.  How selling the product is different, pricing, store location, use of staff, customer benefits, future technology and so much more.

Speakers

Jefferson Shreve

Self Storage Association USA

Jefferson Shreve founded Storage Express just out of Univertsity.  He's built a company with over 110 facilities in five Midwestern states. Storage Express pioneered the remote operation of its properties and continues to develop its portfolio and its operating platform. It's the largest Indiana-headquartered self storage owner/operator.  Jefferson is the chairman of the USA self storage association.  He earned his BA at Indiana University, his MBA from Purdue's Krannert School, and his MA from The University of London.
Gavin Shields

Stora

Gavin is the CEO at Stora - a new self storage software product for online bookings, payments and business automation - and MD at StoreStuff - a Northern Ireland-based operator of self storage facilities. Gavin was previously the CEO or co-founder at multiple technology companies including PiggyPot, Yomo and Turbulenz (acquired by Larian Studios). Prior to that, Gavin was a technology investor at $15billion private equity and VC firm, Summit Partners.
Geir Tellefsen

Founder & CEO, Flexistore

Geir (50) started his first business at age 14 which was a B2C distributor of software in the Norwegian marketplace. Since then he has started up, operated, merged, and sold businesses within: IT Outsourcing, Datacenter, Dinner Kit, Wine, Property, and now Self-Storage. He splits his time between Norway and South Africa.

Flexistore was developed to create the user journey most people expect of a company today, and by doing that, create a platform that saves the property owner a substantial expense.  Our App-driven approach gives the customer full control over his decisions, 24 hours a day - every day of the year. He can easily access, share access, order transport, upgrade or downgrade - all within seconds without any waiting time.

Our first site was launched three years ago, and we are now opening up two new sites per month in the Nordic Countries and South Africa. We plan to expand into the US and UK in the near future, and so far we have proven 35% - 40% saving for existing self-storage owners with a payback time of the investment in less than a year.

With serious investors onboard, we keep investing in technology. Our proprietary hardware and our own cloud-based software running on the Amazon platform secures a fast, scalable, and very cost-effective way for self-storage owners to go self-service. Our customer service center in Cape Town, South Africa, operates 24 hours with storage experts speaking English that everyone understands.