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"The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.\nName: StorageByMail.com\nQuick Pitch: StorageByMail enables customers to ship boxes to storage using prepaid shipping labels and online inventory management.\nGenius Idea: Inspired by a tiny Manhattan apartment and overpriced storage space, Daniel Hughes set about building a personal storage hobby project to meet his own needs in 2005. His idea was to turn storage into a send-by-mail system \u00E0 la Netflix.\nThe service, StorageByMail, remained very much in prototype form until September 2009, when Hughes decided to focus his energies on his big idea and turn it into a \"real\" company. Since that time the young company has integrated with the United States Postal Service's APIs, secured an important warehouse deal with a 600,000 square foot facility in New Jersey and formalized the inventory management system.\nToday, should urban dwellers wish to outsource their storage needs to StorageByMail, they can do so almost entirely online and for a cost that is a fraction of what one might pay for self storage elsewhere; plans start at $29.99 per month for five boxes of any size or weight. \n\n\n\n\nCustomers manage their stored boxes through a personal inventory page that has the look and feel of an Outlook e-mail inbox. Here they can create a package, give it a name, attach descriptive media like photos to log inventory and print out pre-paid USPS shipping labels. Each label is equipped with a tracking number, barcode and the user-generated package name.\nWarehouse employees scan packages, record package weight and height and log packages' exact shelf location when adding them to StorageByMail's inventory. The packages remain in storage until customers log in to StorageByMail and request their return. A requested package is shipped on the next business day, at no cost to the customer. Customers also receive e-mail alerts at every stage in the shipping, inventory and return processes. \n\n\n\n\nMinus the packing part, the StorageByMail storage process is almost painless. Packages are insured in case of damage or loss en route or while in storage should customers opt to purchase a protection plan for an additional monthly fee \u2014 $7.50 for $2,500 in coverage and $10 for $5,000 in coverage.  \nOf course, customer acquisition will likely be a pain point for the company until convenience outweighs concern for customers. Self-storage is certainly more manual, but consumer familiarity around the more traditional process will be a motivating factor for choosing it over StorageByMail's more automated send-by-mail system. \nStill, this frequent mover can't help but see the convenience in a storage option that comes to me, instead of vice versa. We might be a few years out before this idea fully catches on, and traditional storage companies may very well dip their feet in and compete \u2014 like ClutterFreeBox from Personal Storage Solutions \u2014 but StorageByMail has the makings of a success story.\nThe startup is primarily self-funded at the moment. Hughes has been financing operations, though recently the startup competed against 111 startups in a three-month accelerator program called MassChallenge and took home $50,000 as one of the winning startups. StorageByMail should also soon close a round of funding, says Hughes.\nSeries Supported by Microsoft BizSpark\n\n\n\n\nThe Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/01/05/storagebymail/>