Palatine Native Takes Hassle Out Of Self Storage With New Startup

PALATINE, IL — Imagine shelling out money on storage unit rentals only to find out the units housing your items had been broken into. Imagine that the units housing your items were infested with mice because neighboring units contained food. Or, imagine water somehow getting inside your units and damaging your items.

All the above happened to Sean Sandona, a Palatine native who paid to rent four storage units at different locations. As a businessman, Sandona's frustrations and literally crappy rental experiences led him to think there had to be a better way for people to store their items.

So, he started Doorage, a business offering valet self-storage in Elk Grove Village. Since the first location opened in 2018, dozens of others have popped up across the Chicago area.

Sandona said he started his first company selling holiday decorations when he was a 15-year-old boy scout. His business endeavors continued during his college years at Northeastern Illinois University, driven by his zest for hard work and problem solving.

According to Sandona, customers access Doorage through an online platform that allows them to schedule items to be picked up by Doorage team members. They can also keep track of their stored belongings via a visual catalog and schedule the delivery of items to their home.

After the frustrations he faced as a customer, Sandona couldn't stop thinking about how he wanted to create a company aimed at taking away all the hassles of self storage. To create a business plan, Sandona said he first thought about his own experiences and all the things he hated about self-storage: theft, break-ins, damage, hidden fees, transferring big items back and forth, and much more.

Then, Sandona evaluated companies that specialize in self-storage rentals and read every review of those companies. According to Sandona, evaluating and reading up on other companies helped him create strategies to fix what he saw as their points of failure.

Such strategizing has led to 30 business plans over the last decade, Sandona said. Most of those didn't make it past the drawing board.

"Twenty-nine out of 30 times I made those plans fail on paper," Sandona said. "This company and business model was the one that didn’t fail."

Before Sandona knew it, meetings were on the schedule, investors were board and Doorage was on its way to becoming a reality. The company officially launched in March 2018. Just one year later, Doorage is already expanding outside of Illinois, and Sandona and his team members are hard at work.

So, why Doorage? Why not just rent self storage space like people have been doing for years?

"Because we don't rent by the room, we don't run out of room," Sandona said. "We use 'Amazon-warehouse-style' aisles of storage. We have a great relationship with multiple commercial property management companies and can implement new space a within a few weeks. Plus, with items being out in the open (not in a unit), our pest control vendor can get in, and we can identify things easier."

While other companies typically charge customers a flat fee based on the size of the storage unit, regardless of how much space the customer actually uses, Sandona said Doorage determines each customer’s rental fee based on the exact amount of cubic footage they use. Because of this, customers' billing fees are locked in for life. The company also provides free storage containers for packing.

"We prorate the first of the month, and we remind people that we still have their belongings," Sandona said.

Even better, you don't have to leave your house to be able to store your items through Doorage. You have two weeks to pack up your items, or employees can do it for you, Sandona said. Employees will then pick up your belongings and store them at the facility.

Customers' items are stored in huge, no-access facilities. This means customers, movers and those who aren't Doorage employees or approved personnel can't go in and out of the warehouse-style locations, and items can't be stolen or tampered with. In fact, Sandona said, any movers who come to pickup your belongings wait in their trucks and sign non-disclosure agreements regarding the Doorage location, while Doorage employees load your items into the truck.

There's a simple fee for pickup and delivery, and the company says containers will be security-sealed for added protection during pickup. Meanwhile, you can keep track of your items through your user profile.

"Knowing exactly what’s in storage, being able to see everything at all times, is probably our customers' favorite feature of Doorage," Sandona said.

Customers' second-favorite feature, he added, is the company's volume pricing. "The more you store the cheaper it gets," he explained.

Doorage customers include restaurants that need a place to store their outdoor cafe equipment, people moving to other states, teens moving away to college and those who just need some extra space. Doorage takes care of door-to-door shipping and storage, while utilizing a specialized packing process, according to Sandona.

On the off chance that something gets damaged, Sandona says the company will issue a reimbursement without any headaches.

What's next?

Sandona said 50 corporate-owned markets were identified as part of his business plan, and the goal is to get the company up and running in those markets in the next five years. Many of his target markets are those with colleges and universities.

Doorage recently added Milwaukee to its service area, and Sandona said he looks forward to working with customers out there, including college students and their families.

“We are now the official storage company for Illinois Wesleyan University, starting in about a month and through the next five years," Sandona said.

In Milwaukee, Sandona said Doorage has a staff of 10 people, but expects to create up to 50 jobs within the next two years.

His Chicago-area markets have about 10 to 15 employees, the "bare minimum" that Sandona said every market needs.

Need a job? Doorage is hiring, and Sandona said he is committed to offering $15 an hour to all his employees, no matter their position.

Going forward, Sandona said, customers will be able to not only store their belongings, but dispose of any items they no longer want for free. He also hopes to launch a marketplace this fall, where customers can sell their items through the company's app and online platform.

Doorage currently donates 1% of its total gross sales to breast cancer research and area after school programs, and Sandona said he hopes to add more worthy causes and organizations to that list.

Sandona, who is married with a newborn son at home, said he often finds himself working long hours, but he hopes the hard work he puts in now will be worth it down the road.

“If it wasn’t for [my wife], Doorage would be a mess, because I would be a mess,” Sandona said, adding that his long work weeks are are for his family, so in the future he will be able to be at his son's soccer games and other family events, knowing the company is running smoothly without him there all the time.

For questions or more information, visit doorage.com or call 866-289-0456.