BIGGEST RISK with Joseph Woodbury

Commercial Real Estate Pro Network

J Darrin Gross

I'd like to ask you, Joseph Woodbury, what is the BIGGEST RISK?

Joseph Woodbury

Yeah, isn't an easy answer. For me. Ironically, I think most people's largest risk is is is in their industry or in their business itself. And, and I certainly think of risks there. But we've kind of talked about the storage industry, it's it's very robust, it's not going anywhere. It doesn't respond to recessions. You know, during the oh eight recession, when most real estate asset classes contracted by 60%, storage grew by 5%. So it's very, like, counter cyclical and recession proof. And so actually, I identify our biggest risk as a company is, is we're influenced not just by the storage industry, but because we're a software technology company, we're influenced by the venture capital industry. And if you look at other large marketplaces that have gone before us, they've raised a lot of capital to get to where they are. Airbnb is a $80 billion company, they just joined the s&p 500. So they are, you know, one of the most important companies in the United States of America. But they raised about $10 billion in capital to get there. You know, Uber raised north of $15 billion, and capital Instacart and DoorDash have both raised I want to say six or seven or $8 billion in capital. So most major marketplaces raised large amounts of capital today, you know, we operate in every city in all 50 states, we've raised a measly, you know, $65 million in capital. So I often ask myself the question, you know, will we be able to raise, you know, those those billions of dollars in capital, like marketplaces that have gone before us to reach the potential that they have, they have reached as mainstay brands in the United States. I think that's, that's the biggest risk. You know, when I, as the CEO, sit down and think it's not the storage piece. Renters love us hosts love us host earning money. renters are saving money, they keep growing, they keep transacting, they keep coming to the platform. It's, it's, you know, we're dependent on this venture capital industry. And it goes through different cycles. It's in a pretty bear cycle right now. And that'll continue to happen and it'll keep going through bear and bull cycles. But will that affect us, you know, years down the road? You know, what we go through some bear cycle that forces us to use other means of funding and that sort of thing?