Being a host on Roost is a great way to make extra money, support sustainable storage options and help people in your community. To help get you on the path to Roost success, we’ve created a key list of everything you need to know about being a great host.

1. Fill out your bio when you sign up. 

Renters want to get an idea of who they’re renting from, so add a short and sweet bio to your profile. Upload a photo (or just connect with Facebook*) and introduce yourself— consider listing your profession, a hobby, or provide a quick tip.

*Don’t forget to make sure your login email for Facebook is your best contact email.

2. Create a clear and detailed listing. 

Now that you’ve got a bio, you’re ready to make your first listing! A good listing title includes the dimensions and a brief description of your space (e.g. 5’x5’ Indoor Space in North Beach). In the full description, include anything the renter might need to know (Does your building have an elevator? Is there a spot for easy car loading? Is your best friend storing his burning man gear in the same space?)  Lastly, make sure you list any size or personal restrictions. This information will help a renter find the right fit.

3. Set a competitive price. 

You know your space better than anyone, which is why we allow you to set your own prices. Currently we recommend pricing spaces between  $1.00 – $2.00 per square foot. Location plays a factor as well— spaces more central to the city are normally worth more than in areas on the outskirts. Since pricing can be tricky, feel free to contact us for help from our pricing experts!

4. Verify your contact information. 

On your host profile page, take a few seconds to verify your phone number and email address to ensure your contact details are up-to-date. These steps allow a renter to easily contact you to work out any details after you accept a reservation request.

5. Work out details before confirming a reservation. 

Some renters will need more frequent access to their items, so make sure to ask how often they may need to do so and ensure their needs match yours. By setting expectations early on, you’ll both have a more positive experience.

6. Add your payment information and keep it up-to-date. 

Make sure to add your bank account information when you accept your first booking to receive payment. Payments are deposited straight into your bank account at the end of every 30-day reservation (or the end of reservations less than 30 days). The IRS requires we send 1099s at the end of the year, so you are also required to provide your SSN/EIN for tax purposes.

7. Get to know your renter and their needs. 

Get to know your renter before accepting a request. Our messaging platform makes it easy to connect and keep track of discussions. Roost’s terms prohibit renting space for unlawful purpose. For example, flammable materials & perishable items are strictly prohibited.

8. Respond to messages quickly. 

Make sure to respond to Roost notifications quickly— they expire after 48 hours. You’ll receive two types of notifications from renters:

(i) Inquiries where a renter may ask you any questions they have before requesting to reserve the space &

(ii) Reservation requests where a renter is certain he/she wants to rent your space and is ready to pay for it. Requests will include start and an optional end date*, along with any other important information.

*Renters may leave the end-date of the reservation open, which defaults to a month-to-month, year-long reservation. Either host or renter may cancel or extend a reservation at any time. If your space becomes unavailable, Roost will help accommodate your renter. You are never obligated to accept a request.

9. Use your Roost dashboard to manage your reservation requests. 

To help keep track of your reservations, go to the Reservations section on your Roost dashboard. Use the tabs to see which requests need a response, information about active reservations, and a track record of past reservations.

10. Be an accommodating host. 

A friendly demeanor provides a renter with a better quality experience and reassures them that their belongings are safe. Not to mention you’ll end up with a great review!

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns—don’t hesitate to contact us at support@roost.com. Your experience is important to us, and we want to make sure we’ve answered all your questions! If there is anything else we can help with, contact us right away.  

The post Roost 101: How to be a Great Host appeared first on The Roost Report.

Roost is ecstatic that we’ve officially started our first week at 500 Startups; it’s an amazing opportunity to be part of the 500 family. We have already received an invaluable amount of insight and advice that we’re excited to share with you.

Last night, there was a fantastic panel of individuals from previous batches followed by pitches from the current batch. I have to confess that when the night started, my ears didn’t quite perk up until one of the panelists mentioned that he was surprised we weren’t writing anything down, and this segues nicely into the first piece of advice.

1. Always take notes. Remember the really great thing that Max mentioned last week on Tuesday about social media strategy? Unless you’re one of those #blessed people who remembers everything, write it down. Always be ready to digest information and take note of advice & insight. You never know what might be valuable later, even if you’re not currently on the same page. Hindsight is always 20/20—don’t wish you would’ve remembered something, practice recording it.

2. Make recurring calendar invites and have blocked out quiet time. Calendar invites can seem seriously annoying, but let’s be real—startup life is nuts. One of the panelists mentioned that she wished she had used recurring calendar invites to ensure she met with mentors. Calendar invites also ensure that you’re not skipping valuable meetings, one-on-one’s, or investor follow-ups. Set the goals you want to achieve by when and get the support you need to get there. It’s also a really great practice to block out 2 hours of quiet time each day to make sure you get serious tasks done free of the distractions and craziness. Commit, be accountable, & keep your time alive.

3. Investors don’t just choose you; make sure to choose investors wisely. Ensure you know who you’re getting in bed with when fundraising. Investors are the people you’ll be sending reports to and working with; so know who they are.  It’s a really great idea to backtrack through your LinkedIn network to get some honest feedback on people—you might find out they’re not a good fit. Also, don’t be worried about using a third party company to help you get a great set of investors, the percentage is worth it. Don’t forget to utilize your investor network to make connections for strategic partnership or help achieve goals.

4. Pick your team—paper doesn’t back up everything. This seems a little counterintuitive, but don’t only hire the person with the greatest resume. Hire the people who you get a good feel for, who you think are going to be committed to your company, and can produce quality work. In practice, after hiring both people with extensive experience and those who had 9 months of internship experience, panelists found that they ended up letting go of the first. Find committed people who will be a good fit with your team & company culture—it’ll make a difference

5. You’re all liars. This is the tip we’re ending with because honestly, it’s what we think is the most important. Startups all have their one line pitch to explain what they do. For some of us this includes our story, how we got here and why we’re trying to help. The feedback we remember the most from practice pitches last night is David McClure‘s line “YOU’RE ALL LIARS,” and it’s a tough line to comprehend. Don’t sugar-coat; don’t butter people up. You are a startup and you’re here to do something, so stop lying about it & be authentic.

We go into startup life hopefully and with a rigorous passion for what we do like it’s our life’s work. It’s why we wake up early, stay late, push ourselves to do crazy amounts of work and a gazillion jobs at once. Don’t hide behind your fluff; tell people the results you’re producing (a.k.a. don’t live in your head, live out here in the real world with the rest of us). Be proud of your accomplishments and tell it like it’s what you live for every day—how many people are using your service/product, what’s your revenue, what progress have you made with investing? What are you transforming? Be bold, be brave, be authentic & go for it all the time ALL OUT.

The post 5 Tips We’ve Learned from 500 Startups appeared first on The Roost Report.

“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.”

–Steve Jobs

At its roots, technology was meant to build bridges between people. Although it has undoubtedly broken down barriers of communication, it has also built them. We can effortlessly Skype with someone across the world or send a text within seconds. These tools truly impact our daily lives, but our addiction to them has produced a disconnect in human-to-human interaction. If you’ve ever been to lunch with a friend without speaking for more than five minutes, you know it’s because we’re busy posting #foodie pictures on Instagram and checking-in on Facebook.

Recently, tech has transformed and evolved into much more. The use of technology in the Sharing Economy truly embodies what tech was meant for—to bring people together. The Sharing Economy is essentially a system of shared goods and services. Before advancements in technology, wide-scale participation in the sharing model seemed crazy. However, technology removes social distrust and allows peer-to-peer platforms to succeed in a variety of ways.

User Authentication: Say goodbye to question & worry. Through channels such as email & Facebook, sharing companies can ensure users are linked to personal accounts and we know who they are. As a result, people are less likely to be bad users because of the social stigma that’s associated if they misbehave in an online community. Sharing companies like Taskrabbit and Lyft also have their own processes and take necessary safety precautions, such as background or driving record checks.

User Reviews: When Amazon first introduced user reviews, everyone thought they were nuts. People felt that it was going to start a retail disaster.  Fast forward ten years later, and it’s likely that you rarely purchase anything without researching online feedback. This same concept applies to sharing companies. Easy access to transparent user reviews on sites such as Taskrabbit and Airbnb give us an accurate assessment of exactly what to expect. We don’t have to worry that the people we’re dealing with are crazy or unaccomodating. The social pressure to be a good user is instilled in the modern individual; their success heavily depends on positive & solid reviews.

Automated Payments: Almost all sharing services such as Uber use automated payments. For users, that means you can add payment information once and forget about it—it never has to be a problem again. When I first joined Uber, I put my payment information into the app, and I honestly have never had to worry about or deal with it after. Automated payments provide a seamless experience and allow people to effortlessly use their securely stored payment information. There’s no hassle—automated payments are safe and easy!

Tech has transformed communities by building an invaluable level of trust and convenience in a large network, which would have otherwise been excessively cumbersome and scary. The implementation of these techniques in platforms such as Roost (a peer-to-peer platform for storage and parking) allow you to use sharing services with peace of mind. Instead of technology driving us apart, it’s the reason we’re coming together to build community. With this shift, technology’s use in the Sharing Economy truly embodies what tech was meant to be used for.

The post Technology Disrupts Social Distrust appeared first on The Roost Report.

Roost is the latest in revolutionizing the sharing economy. Similar to Lyft and Airbnb we let people make money off what they already own. But instead of a car or an extra bedroom, Roost allows San Franciscans to earn extra income by renting out their unused space for storage.

It’s really simple; just run a quick search for hosts based on geographic location, access, size, or storage type, and to top it off you can also view hosts’ ratings, profiles, and public reviews to help you make your decision.

On the flip side, if you’re a host you can easily manage your storage listings, set pricing terms, and manage your availability through a dynamic calendar. Payments are secure, recurring for long term rentals, and automatically deposited into your bank account. It’s almost like magic.

And because we always hold security and privacy to the highest standard, you’ll always be kept safe with insurance coverage, identity verification, safety guidelines, background checks and reviews.

So go nuts! You can finally make use of that unused space in your home and earn that extra moolah. And for those who need storage, you can stop worrying about having to give up your My Little Pony collection and just store those valuables with Roost.

Yes, Roost has arrived, and all the unused garages, rooms, and closets rejoiced for they now have a purpose in life!

The post One App To Rule The Roost! We Finally Did It! appeared first on The Roost Report.

1. The Internet has become more accessible and ubiquitous. Download speeds are at an all time high and getting faster; more and more people have smart phones; and doing business is literally just a tap or a click away. Because of the ease and speed of doing business online, anyone can get a piece of the pie. No costly, difficult setups or waiting lists.

2. The prices are great. Aside from a sense of community, the prices are generally much lower than the traditional brick and mortar store. When people go to Etsy, Craigslist, or eBay, they’re looking for a deal and they’ll find one. Why pay $400 for a hotel room when you can pay half that price in the same area through Airbnb?

3. Consumer-reviewed products. With the sharing economy, it’s easy to weed out the bad guys and low-quality products. Airbnb, Lyft, eBay, and Etsy all allow users to review one another. People rarely even go to a restaurant without looking up a review, so why wouldn’t they do the same when making a purchase?

4. Extra income is always nice. While most sellers in the sharing economy don’t do it as their sole source of income, it’s still nice to get a helping hand financially. Sellers don’t necessarily have to invest anything extra, save for time. If you’ve got an extra bedroom or an unused garage, all you have to do is snap some photos and put together an online profile. Suddenly you’ve got an extra stream of income.

5. Space is limited and rent is expensive. Collaborative economies do best in dense areas like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or any other major urban area. Why? Because space in areas like these are expensive. Instead of paying full rent every month, why not subsidize it with some extra income from Roost or Airbnb? The same goes for that car and any other seller. Opening up a real store is expensive. The rent alone would put most entrepreneurs off. But with Etsy, eBay, and the rampant rise of online shopping, the barriers to entry are much lower. In addition, as population density grows, there’ll be more opportunities to share.

With all these things in play, it’s highly unlikely the sharing economy will go away anytime soon. According to Airbnb, the average host in San Francisco pulls in an extra $9,300/year by renting out rooms for 58 nights out of the year. And according to Forbes, the sharing economy will expect over 25% in growth and over $3.5 billion in revenue going directly into people’s wallets.

Remember, unused value is wasted value. If you’ve got some space and time, there’s no reason why you can’t make a bit of extra cash on the side.

The post 5 Reasons Why The Sharing Economy Is Here To Stay appeared first on The Roost Report.

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Keeping an animal in self-storage is illegal and considered animal cruelty. Usually, by the time the storage unit is opened up the animals have died. According to Tammie Lockwood, the VP of  Storage Protection Service in St. Petersburg, Florida, she’s found petrified fish in tanks, dried-out iguanas, dead snakes, and a dead cat. One time, however, she did find a live python and two live tarantulas, who survived by eating a third tarantula and themselves

The post 10 Most Bizarre Items Kept In Storage appeared first on The Roost Report.

The post Are You Nuts? 10 Things You Absolutely Cannot Keep In Storage appeared first on The Roost Report.

The post The Top 10 Things People Actually Put In Storage appeared first on The Roost Report.

When deciding to join a startup, there are three things that I look for to ensure that it will be the ideal culture fit for me – People, Product, Environment.

People

The first hires at a startup are the most important hires your company will ever make. Not only do these employees have to be very smart, they also have to be willing to wear many different hats, excel at problem solving on the fly, work really hard – at times pull all-nighters, embrace resourcefulness and each employee needs to have a personality that meshes with the rest of the group. This is definitely easier said than done but it is actually very important since working at a startup is like having a baby with three or four other people. The more you nurture the baby and each other,  the better the outcome. You are building a partnership for the ultimate goal of raising a successful company!

Product

The product should be innovative and in a space with clear market demand. Employees should be excited about either using the product or observing the positive impact that it could have on other people’s lives. It also has to be something that can potentially scale or catch on fast – the user acquisition pace can define the momentum within a company and encourage employees to work harder to grow faster.

Environment

The startup environment has to be conducive to generating creativity in a fun and collaborative work space. Being able to let your creative juices flow in the place where you are spending the great majority of your life is extremely important. It will inspire critical thinking exercises, brainstorms and scrums that are crucial to product development. For example, having whiteboards around to sketch out ideas, educational lectures and training courses, open-desk pod seating for easy communication flow, fun activities such as a gym, ping pong or pool table, and snacks, lots of them. Other activities such as offsites, retreats, after work outings, conferences (the fun ones), cool benefits, free stuff add to building a bonded environment.

Startups give people the opportunity to move the needle and make an impact based on the “ask for forgiveness, not permission” type of mentality. Employees own more responsibility, have more opportunities to shine, wear many different hats and can learn from one another based on the innovative minds that startups attract. Most importantly, startups instill the values of hard work, accountability and self-sustainability. What you put into it, you will get out of it.

Before joining a startup, I recommend asking yourself a couple of questions:

• Are you a risk taker or risk-averse?
• Do you like structure or prefer fewer rules?
• What kind of benefits are you looking for?
• How much visibility do you want within the company?
• Do you want to be home by 5 p.m., or are you up for the occasional all-nighter?
• Do you want to specialize or generalize?

Sources:

Career Builder

Fast Company

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