Dynamo Team #2: Stord
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series of articles profiling the teams participating in the Lamp Post Group’s inaugural Dynamo logistics accelerator. We asked each team to respond to a series of questions. The 10 teams will pitch their ideas at 10 a.m. October 4 during a “Demo Day” set for the Tivoli Theater, 709 Broad Street, Chattanooga. For more details, click here.)
Today’s profile is about Stord, a start-up focused on flexible and affordable warehousing when needed.
Tell us about your team . . . names(s), background(s), experience, etc. Sean Henry is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Stord. With a background in lean management for an international manufacturing company, Sean is currently studying operations and supply chain management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Jacob Boudreau is the Co-Founder/Chief Technology Officer. Jacob has a background in digital marketing, agile software development, and growth hacking and is the technical cofounder at Stord
Describe the focus of your start-up and the logistics problem you are trying to address. Stord is reinventing the warehousing industry with an on-demand service for flexible and affordable warehousing. Stord connects businesses in need of warehousing and storage solutions to excess warehousing capacity to help save time, money, and hassle.
How did the idea to start the company originate? What was the catalyst? Stord began as a peer-to-peer consumer storage company after the founder began testing out the idea of renting out his extra space as storage. From there, Stord adapted and learned that its core offering – pairing storage capacity with demand – applied heavily to business storage and warehousing.
What was the impetus for applying to participate in Dynamo? Unlike traditional accelerators, Dynamo possesses a unique focus on logistics and supply chain startups. We found this to be extremely valuable, because Dynamo’s core team and mentors knew our business from the ground up and had tangible experience that we could learn from. Additionally, we found the community around The Lamp Post Group and its sister companies to be critical.
What has been the greatest value the program has provided thus far? The greatest value Dynamo has provided is getting us in front of businesses that face our problem daily, and as such are willing to sit down and analyze our solution. As a broker of warehousing capacity, we have found it extremely valuable to be encompassed by the many other logistics brokerage companies in Chattanooga that Lamp Post Group is a part of.
What do you expect to accomplish by Demo Day and what happens after October 4? We have used Dynamo as a platform to evaluate and retool our business model to achieve product-market fit. Approaching Demo Day, we will present our customers and success stories to demonstrate our proof of concept. Beyond October 4, we are looking to raise a round of seed capital so that we can push forward with our sales before we grow our tech platform. With the end of the Dynamo 2016 cohort, we will be left with the decision to stay in Chattanooga or move our business back to Atlanta.
