Self-storage: the business that sells you space you already own

A shed, a fence and a payment link. Why the margins are absurd, why the payback is slow, and the one number that decides whether a site works.

Self-storage is the closest thing in the physical world to software margins. You buy or lease a shell, divide it with sheet metal, put a lock on each door and a card reader on the gate. After that the cost of the two hundredth customer is the same as the cost of the first: nothing. There is no stock, no delivery, no staff on site, and the customer pays monthly, in advance, indefinitely.

Where the money comes from