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This guide is based on Mixergy’s interview with Chuck Gordon.

After wasting six months developing a product that nobody wanted, Chuck Gordon built a successful self-storage marketplace that raised $4.5 million in venture capital. It was all done with clever hacks and a shoestring budget, so we invited him to teach you how to do it.

Chuck is the founder of SpareFoot, the largest open marketplace for self-storage.

Here are the actionable highlights from the interview.

1. Launch a website first to avoid making products that aren’t going to sell

Chuck launched with a one-page site that was just a form collecting names and phone numbers, and he personally took customers’ calls on a cell phone.

Take Action:
Launch a bare-bones version of your site before you think about office space or customer service.

2. Contact prospects before you build anything to find out if there’s really a demand

Chuck asked storage companies if they could use a landing page for their Google Places listings, and he signed up some customers before he launched the product.

Take Action:
Call potential customers, explain that your product is coming out soon, and ask them to buy.

3. Complete transactions manually to have more flexibility to close the sale

Chuck went back and forth on the phone to get a quote from a storage company, learn how to book storage space, and collect the required information from the customer.

Take Action:
Speak to both the customer and the supplier, ask what each would need to close the sale, and relay the information.

4. Scale if it’s viable so you won’t throw money at a product that customers don’t want

Chuck offered storage companies a feature for their websites that didn’t take off, and he realized that he should have first checked if the companies would use it.

Take Action:
Launch a small-scale version of your product, then build a bigger model only if you find customers.

5. Partner with other sites to increase your Web traffic

Chuck offered to pay Apartments.com for any storage bookings that came from their traffic, and the partnership brought him new customers.

Take Action:
Contact established sites and offer to compensate them if they direct paying customers to you.

6. Spend money on people to grow your company

Chuck built his team to 25 people while using borrowed furniture and borrowed computer monitors.

Take Action:
Focus on hiring the best people, and forget about luxurious work spaces.

7. Keep your model low-cost and uncomplicated to stay in business and attract investors

Chuck insisted on a scrappy business model in which he did all the work himself before scaling up, and it won him support from the Capital Factory and other investors.

Take Action:
Build simple, functional products that don’t require big upfront expenses of time or money.

Want to make sure you get results?

Watch the full interview now
Written by Sarah Brodsky, based on production notes by Jeremy Weisz