Insight
PODS succeeded by wedging between full-service movers and DIY rentals
“And number one is we dropped right in between two major industries, the full service movers, the Mayflowers, the Allied, those guys. And the truck rental people, U-Haul. If you think about it, back in those days, before portable storage, if you want to move fr…”
Insight
Franchising is essentially a capital-free financing tool for rapid growth
“The way to grow a business without capital is through franchising. Franchising is really a financing tool.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Former PODS CFO admitted the company makes zero money on deliveries
“I actually confirmed with the CFO at the time. Are you guys making any money at the, on the deliveries and stuff? And he said, no, we don't make any money. He says, if I get rid of that piece of the business, I'd do it in a heartbeat.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Warhurst predicts Red Rover will steal more market share from U-Haul
“I think we're going to grab more customer share from U-Haul than we will pods, but we will certainly get the portable storage customer as well.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Red Rover achieved PODS' seven-year growth scale in just two years
“I would tell you that, you know, we've been in this now call two years. I'd say we're at the same level pods was seven years into the business.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Automated 911 dispatch cut emergency response times to 15-30 seconds
“We literally took a dispatch process down from several minutes to, you know, tens of seconds, you know, to 15, 20, 30 seconds to get the appropriate equipment on the road.”
What-if
911 EAI Systems would have cratered without Bell Atlantic acquisition
“We were fortunate that the one of the baby bells came along and wanted to buy the business. And so that gave us our exit. But I do believe we would have cratered had we not sold.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PODS completed four million pickups without ever dropping a container
“They've done over four million pickups and deliveries. They've never dropped a container never had a bottom fall out of a container.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PODS generated $45 per square foot in $5 leased warehouse space
“The way I looked at it back in those days, I could rent a warehouse for five dollars a square foot, and this warehouse was 30 feet high and, you know, a few columns in it and stuff. So I can stack the boxes, right? So I'm selling, I'm renting the boxes for vir…”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Warhurst raised $7 million in PODS' initial friends and family round
“I think I raised seven million dollars on that first friends and family round.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
PODS early investors saw zero returns for ten years before selling
“The other part of the reason is I had these early investors that had been in now for 10 years. And really had seen no return on their investment, and, ah, certainly were entitled to it, and so, ah, I, you know, I was taking care of them, and, ah, the timing ju…”
Disclosure
Red Rover provides customers with moving trucks and fuel entirely free
“Now what we did is we dropped a new company, new solution, new offering for the consumer between U-Haul and pods that saves the customer money, lets them take everything under their own control, saves us a ton of logistics and headaches, and we don't charge a …”
Disclosure
Red Rover raised a massive $20 million friends and family round
“Friends and family, we raised almost twenty million dollars, just under twenty million dollars for friends and family. And we just, this week completed a round north of fifty million dollars.”
Insight
Mini-storage offers recurring revenue, high margins, and low labor risk
“Well, the number one thing is that you only need one or two employees. So I thought, okay, that's a lot better than what it came from, right? So having one or two employees it was a recurring revenue. You know, you didn't have one key Customer. You had 500 cus…”
Disclosure
Warhurst's first mini-storage facility cost $2 million all-in
“You know, I want to say the construction for the units themselves was like under a hundred dollars a foot, but I want to say all in, we had just over two million dollars in it between the land and the buildings.”
