Ever have too many items laying around at your home or office, wondering what to do with them? Or if you need extra spaces to keep your item? Singapore based Vault Dragon might be the solution that helps you take care of all those physical items.
Started in 2013 by Vishes Mittal and Ching Tse Tseng, Vault Dragon is an integrated urban storage company that provides affordable, secure and on-demand storage solutions. Also known as the “Dropbox” of physical storage, customers can deposit, manage, index and retrieve their stuff through Vault Dragon’s web and mobile applications.
Need some place to store your items? Vault Dragon is your guy.
Both Vish and Tseng have known each other for more than 6 years now, and decided to start Vault Dragon for both personal and business reasons. Personally, they themselves encountered problems with having too much stuff.
“We don’t have our own vehicles and we certainly didn’t need a huge warehouse space and we were wondering how nice would it be to have a service that provided both micro-storage as well as delivery.”
At only S$0.45 per day, customers can start using Vault Dragon. To date, the company has over 150 paying customers, whom are largely business professionals, including expats. Families which are in the midst of renovations, relocation or significant life events would also use their services. In addition, students living in hostels also use their services during school holidays as do small businesses who require flexible storage terms and micro-storage.
“We serve affluent residents who live in cramped apartments with more money than time, and more stuff than space. They need to offload scuba gear, physical mementoes, papers, books, DVDs, and old clothes. Self-storage doesn’t work for them because it’s inconvenient, inflexible and expensive – it doesn’t make sense to pay for a whole room that they do not fill. They tend not to own cars and are time-poor,” cofounder Tseng told Vulcan Post.
He went on to say that their customers tend to have disposable income, so they tend to be relatively price-insensitive: out of sight, out of mind. This creates the opportunity for off-site on-demand micro-storage.
The company currently utilises online marketing through the form of Facebook as well as Google advertisement to get more customers. They also seek to reach potential customers through various offline channels such as flyers, door hangers and ads on Straits Times Classifieds.
Of course, customers don’t come easy: Tseng shared that most of their customers worry about the security of their items, fearing that it may be damaged or worse, accessed by others.
“To allay these concerns, we only use industrial grade waterproof security boxes that can protect the items stored in them. Our boxes are also designed in such a way that customers can use their own padlocks to secure their boxes and ensure private access. Our warehouse is also located in a secure location with 24-hour CCTV security coverage and biometric access.”
“In addition, our app allows them to track their boxes and see what’s inside them at all times. Using our service is akin to having a virtual basement with unlimited storage space,” showing that the team is serious about keeping the trust their customers have for the new company.
This is also reflected the name and branding of the company, Vault Dragon.
“Security was always one of our top priorities. Hence, the “Vault” in our name, as the word reflects security and safety. For westerners, the word “Dragon” can be meant as a reference to the lore of Dragons, where it was said that dragons were used to protect treasure from bandits or thieves. We certainly wish to display the same commitment to protecting our customer’s “treasure” as these Dragons did, of course in a much friendlier and harmless way,” Tseng told Vulcan Post.
The team is confident that they are on to something big, with the digital revolution as well as the validation from satisfied customers. Property and vehicle prices are also on the rise, making it difficult for Singaporeans to keep stuff in their own homes or transport their stuff to existing self-storage providers. These factors gave them confidence in the local market.
When asked if Vault Dragon is worried about the competition from existing big storage companies, Tseng said that they are not competing directly with them.
“To us, this really isn’t a concern. We are operating 2 largely different businesses. Existing storage companies are in the real-estate business. We are in the storage-service business. Essentially, what we are doing is growing the pool, and not competing against the current players. We are serving untapped segments of the market and customers who are currently under-served by the current players. In fact, we are currently working with one of the top self-storage companies in Singapore to provide the professional secure warehousing that our customers need.”
Do you think you would pay a small fee to store your item with Vault Dragon?
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