The gobox Pitch – Selfstorage without the Self
Do you want more space in your house or office? Would you prefer to spend time with your family instead of dealing with your storage stuff?
If you can answer yes to both questions then gobox is the solution for you. gobox is self storage without the self. You don’t have to go to the storage yourself. gobox picks up and delivers your stuff from and to the door.
We all want to save memories and save things from our past that mean something special to us e.g. parents want to save things from one kid to the next and the ski-enthusiast wants to store his gear when not skiing. At the same time we also want an apartment, house or office without clutter.
gobox gives you the best from two worlds: it helps you get rid of the clutter in the daily life, but keeps memories safe, with access to it within 12 hours on request: gobox delivers the box back to your door, so you save the time and trouble going to the storage.
Let gobox help you, so you can focus on the really important things: your family, career, home and passions.
The story behind gobox
Felipe Kasinsky is the CEO and co-founder of gobox. I met him in Copenhagen for a little chat about startups, pitching and gobox in particular. Felipe starts with explaining me exactly what founders is, besides being the place where gobox originally was founded:
“gobox is a little more than one year old and grew out of Founders originally. Founders is a startup studio which builds businesses with a scientific approach. That means they create startups with a clear process in mind on how to do it.”, says Felipe.
To those interested, the whole Founders process is explained in details on their website. It contains four parts, namely ’Ideation’, Discovery, ’Validation’ and ‘Growth’.
According to Felipe, gobox is somewhere between the validation and growth phase. “We are in between market-fit and growth. We still try to understand the customer’s needs and wants while targeting several channels. You know, you have to see how your solution fits into a whole lifestyle, not just as an isolated service. You got to ask questions, but also be aware of the customer’s behavior”, Felipe explains.
He continues: ”The wow-experience emerge when they try it. The first time we drop off the boxes, they fill them and we take the boxes and store them, that’s where it comes, the first WOW. They realize that they don’t even have to leave the house to have their things stored. And when a customer wants their stuff back, they just click on the website or mobile app and have their boxes back in less than 12 hours.” That’s the second WOW.
Felipe explains that there are already some companies working with a similar idea as gobox’ in European countries and in the US. “We saw the concept and thought it would work here in Copenhagen as well and then started it. We’re the only company doing it in Denmark; there are moving companies and self-storage services in Denmark and Scandinavia, but there is nothing in convenience storage, which is what we offer”, Felipe explains.
In fact, Felipe tells me that he sees gobox as more than a convenience storage service: ”It’s almost like an extension of people’s houses or an expansion of their closet; in that perspective, gobox can be an actual alternative to moving.”.
Felipe is originally from Sao Paulo in Brazil, but has lived in Thailand for 8 years, also working with startups. In addition to Felipe, the gobox team also includes Martin Tschammer (CTO and co-founder), Ben Posetti (Marketing Lead) and Jacob Hartmann (Operations).
Felipe’s advice on pitching
1. Practicing is the way forward
“I’m always pitching”, says Felipe. “Here, when I talk to you, when talking to customers, investors or just any kind of people you meet.” His first advice is to practice and start right away:
“Practicing is number one! It’s said that you need 10.000 hours to master a discipline as an expert, but I’ve also heard that you only need 20 hours to be decent at something. So you need 10.000 hours of practice to be Beatles, but maybe not that much to be able to communicate clearly; you need to start somewhere and 20 is not a whole lot of hours, right?”
Felipe continues: “You can practice with colleagues, friends, recordings or whatever. What you need to do is to structure something, get your Value Proposition clear and then go out and use it.”
2. Know who you’re pitching to
The second important advice is knowing who you pitch to.
Felipe explains: “You have to know the person’s frame of reference. What’s the person’s existing knowledge, beliefs and values? Once you know these, you can connect with the person a lot easier, and that’s a prerequisite to communicating well, and getting your message through.”
Continuing on, Felipe adds: “If you know both sides of the bridge – the person you pitch to on one side and yourself on the other – then you have to use that knowledge to bridge the gap between you two. A bridge connects: so what’s your common ground?”
To exemplify how bridging that gap works, Felipe asked me a small series of questions:
Felipe: “So, where are you from?” Me: “Well, I’m from Denmark and I live in Aarhus.” Felipe: “Alright. I’m from Brazil. What do you know about Brazil?” Me: ”Well, I’ve actually been to Brazil and stayed in Natal.” Felipe: “Oh, I know Natal as well. I’m from Sao Paulo. Have you heard of it?”
… and so on.
The point here is, as Felipe describes, is to create a relation between you and the one you pitch to. The message you need to get across has to be crafted in accordance to that specific person. No two customers or investors are the same. You need to ask yourself: “Who are you pitching to?”
That concludes this month’s “Pitch of the Month” issue. Big thanks to Felipe for sharing his experience and advice with our readers. We wish gobox the best of luck in the future. Don’t forget to check out Founders as well.
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