Stashbee: the customer-centric playbook that helped it find PMF and scale

Gumtree growth hacks and doing things that don't scale

Storage space for city dwellers is limited. While some have lots of spare space, a much greater number are in need of places to store stuff.

That's the key problem at the heart of the company Stashbee: a marketplace to connect those with space to those in need. Back in September, I caught up with co-founder David Mantle to discuss the early stages of their growth journey.

On reflection of the story, something stood out for me. David and Anthony both approached the startup with a kernel of a problem, but more importantly the adaptability and flexibility to change.

If there's one thing I've seen that kills startups, it is that founders are often too slow to move away from initial ideas where necessary. Stashbee felt open to change from day one.

"We have no idea what this is yet. We've got this concept. There [are] people who have got spare space and people who want to store stuff. Let's just see what happens. Let's try it out, because we don't know whether that's going to work or not."

That mantra is in my view the philosophical answer to their success. But thinking more tactically, there were three key areas which stood out from our interview.

I want to thank David for giving up the time for this. It was great to learn about some of my favourite stages of company growth. If you have space spare or are in need of some, make sure to check out Stashbee.

3 key pillars to Stashbee's early stage growth

1. Go to your customers

When I wrote the Richard King story, I reflected on how common it is today for startups to default to paid acquisition. Paid acquisition is great for many reasons – but it also requires upfront capital.

David and Stashbee did multiple things that were much hackier and cheaper which helped with their growth.

The Gumtree growth hack

One of the truest 'growth hacks' I've seen in UK startups, the team recognised that Gumtree might provide opportunity. Just like with the Airbnb Craigslist hack, the team built a way to sit on top of Gumtree.

"We realised that the supply type that our website acquired was listed on Gumtree. The trouble with Gumtree is unsolicited nonsense that comes your way and you can get hunderds of people sending rubbish requests."

David and the team aimed to fix that, filtering out only high quality signal, and "only send through high-quality bookings."

The other problem with Gumtree is the lack of protection. "It tended to be around cash transactions, maybe with a paper-based contract, maybe not, and no ID checking."

Using Facebook Groups for the first few hundred bookings

In the early days of Stashbee, Facebook Groups sounded like a goldmine. "We joined every kind of group you could think of and chucked the concept in."

While seemingly a broad approach, it worked and helped land the first few hundred bookings right at the start.

Flyering canal boats

While Facebook Groups was broad, the next experiment was not. Putting themselves in the shoes of customers, the team brainstormed types of people with limited space.

"We thought that people living on canal boats must be space restricted, so we went down and flyered them."

This level of focus continued to develop and extended into other online activity after.

2. Overindex on spending time with customers

The direct and small customer acquisition approach also meant much more time spent with customers. The trust built through this was vital, reflects David.

"We were the trust element. We vetted the supply and connected them together. Over time, that trust becomes your brand."

It's an almost counter-intuitive approach to trust. So often trust startups assume trust comes from 'seeming big' but here it was the personal touch that built those foundations.

"Eventually, trust becomes the reviews on your platform. But in the early days, you haven't got any of that," David tells me. "How can you build trust with a bad website, and limited automation? It's very difficult. Whereas speaking to trustworthy human beings who give great customer service: you can translate that."

And it was these early conversations, that provided the team so many insights.

3. Do things that don't scale

Finally, we borrow from the Paul Grahamism. David and Stashbee did a lot that leant in to these early stage principles.

"There was no automation behind it," David tells me referring to the early days. "We'd call them up and see if we could help them in some way." That isn't scalable but it helps build that customer trust and ensure you're building for the right people.

But it wasn't just in product they focused like this. Stashbee had a few big spikes in early PR. Did they hire a PR agency or even a freelancer? No.

"We downloaded Twitter, found journalist lists, and basically tweeted hundreds of journalists. Eventually it got picked up by a couple."

At one point this all skyrocketed. "They all happened to write articles within the space of maybe two weeks to three weeks. And at that point, it went from zero to one. We went through thousands of signups."

Closing thoughts

Change as a startup founder is difficult. One of the things I see too often is founders in love with their initial ideas. As someone who in my old startup failed to find product-market fit because, I too was in love with my initial idea, I recognise it quickly.

David and the Stashbee team had at their core a growth mindset.

Growth mindset is not just startup speak. It’s a theory of how minds work by Stanford researcher Carol Dweck. I first learnt about it in my years between startups in the education space. Those with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence and ability are fixed. Those with a growth mindset believe that hard work, doggedness, and ability to change are the things that produce end results. Importantly for all of us, growth mindset can also be developed.

They had an idea, and tested it: scrappily, affordably, while recognising where it was important to bring quality and build trust. They were also open to pivots and changes in direction.

The early Stashbee users all had direct phone conversations with the founders. That is irreplaceable in learning what people actually want.

If you've recently launched, or are early-stage but don't have product-market fit (hint: if you are unsure, then you don't), then there's lots to learn from here. Be open and willing to change your ideas. Lean in to things that don't scale. Find your customers, follow them, and learn from them.

Thank you again to David for his time in writing this article.