Featured Startup: SpareFoot

Need a place to store your junk? Austin start-up SpareFoot aims to make it easy.

SpareFoot is the free online marketplace for self-storage. It also offers a suite of web marketing tools for self-storage facility operators, including its flagship advertising network and a local search solution. The company is bent on disrupting and modernizing self-storage, a $22 billion legacy industry that’s been slow to embrace technology. Listing the largest selection of storage units with real-time pricing and availability online, SpareFoot’s network is now larger than all other online storage directories combined.

Visitors to the website enjoy a simple online marketplace where they can quickly and easily compare storage facilities in their neighborhood, see photos, and read reviews from other customers. Once you've found the facility that meets your needs, you can reserve it online. Many storage vendors are also offering up rebates and other specials for customers who find their way to them via SpareFoot.

Founded in 2008 by then-UCLA students Chuck Gordon and Mario Feghali (the duo now known as Chario), SpareFoot originated as a person-to-person storage website that helped people rent extra space for storage in private residences. The company grew quickly and changed as it realized there was a larger opportunity for this platform in the traditional self-storage industry. Since relocating to Austin, Texas the team has added 24 employees and plans for “big steps forward” in the coming year.