Exploring Smart Entry Solutions: Rubik | Self Storage Explained #2

Hi, I'm Gavin Shields and this is Self Storage Explained expert advice on how to set up and scale your self storage business. Hello and welcome back and welcome to Sebastian who's joined us from Rubik. Thank you for joining Sebastian. And can we start. I'm going to start by asking you to introduce yourself and I know you've been in self storage for a while, so we've been in touch for three or four years, probably over. Over a while. So you've obviously been in industry for a while. Do you want to introduce yourself first of all, please?

Of course. Hi, Kevin. Thank you for having me. I'm Sebastian Kerrikes, I'm here in Vienna, Austria. I'm founder for Rubik and Axis Solution. It's correct. I've been working in Self stoich for quite a while. I think at the end of the year it will be 10 years. You know, software developer who just started out helping companies automate their businesses. And that's how I got into the field and that's how I also eventually founded Rubik.

Okay, okay. So Rubik, it's something that we've just recently integrated with. So and it's quite different to most of the other ones that we talk about. So would you mind just giving a bit of introduction to what is Rubik? How does it work? Yes.

Okay. So Rubik is basically a management system for combination padlocks, combination catalogs like these ones, padlocks with typically a four digit code. And typically the question that I get for Rubik is why so low tech? Why? Why not smart locks? The reason for this is having worked in self search for a long time, I have seen a few smart logs already. And if you talk to the smart lock user with some experience, you typically hear that, you know, sometimes things work out great and sometimes they just don't run that smoothly. And the typical problem that operators are trying to use with smart locks are immediate access to a unit in the self storage. And actually you can solve this problem with a combination padlock. And operators have been doing this for forever. You could take a combination padlock, set a code, put it on it, and when a tenant books, you just send them this code. And what my access solution, Rubik does, it helps you manage these logs, it helps you get this code in into the email that is then sent to the tenant. So it's a padlock management software really.

Okay. So the thing I think is really interesting about it is it's I've got my own sites obviously, and in those sites I put in a system that customers can open the gates and then open up the doors, the exact units. And it works very well. But for lot of operators. Well, for me too, it was, it was a bit of an, it was an expense up front, so we had to pay for all the locks. And the nice thing about it is it helps me let customers, you know, on a Sunday afternoon or any evening or any anytime, book online and just move in without them having to talk to staff. Some people do call staff and we talk to them, but people can just move in without ever contacting us. And so the thing that I think is nice, I've always liked about Rubik is that it's kind of a similar solution. It solves the same problem, but it's a much, much lower cost because you're using, you can go buy padlocks, basically. Is that kind of, is that the right way to think about the solution and the benefit of it, I suppose over some of the other stuff in the market.

Price is definitely a big point here. So the issue I was seeing before I started Rubik is that some operators just don't want to spend the money. Some operators might have it, but I actually happy with the low tech solution if it solves this aspect of access. And this is really where Rubik fits in. The third group I'm seeing is operators that are looking to retrofit existing sites. You know, you've been using padlocks forever and you have a, you know, 90% occupancy, you want to automate the journey, you know, but it wouldn't, it would be a lot of work to retrofit all the units and, you know, go through the hassle of installing locks when units occupied, it just costs too much. And this is a particularly good case when seeing operators prefer to have these padlocks on existing sites. And you know, for new sites they might consider smart logs. But especially when they think of retrofitting a padlock solution like this is a good fit often.

Okay, so you're seeing, you're seeing interest on people who are developing new sites, but also a lot of conversions really, you know, people who are already using padlocks and finding an easier way to manage them. So absolutely.

Conversions are a big group. Yes.

Okay, okay, so it's a padlock. Do people have to buy the padlock of you or is it any padlock they can use?

You know, it's up to the user really. I started out telling operators to buy their own padlocks, but quickly realized that, you know, buying 100 padlocks and then setting the code yourself can be a lot of work. You know, it can introduce errors. So I started selling my own locks. So if you want you this just, you know, for convenience, you can buy my locks. What's different about these? You have a QR code at the front and the back and they've been pre programmed in the factory. So somewhere in China, you know, some, some guys have been setting the codes and checking that they are correct. So they, the convenience of these logs is you scan them and you can use them right away, but you can absolutely bring your own logs. I will send you QR code stickers like these. I have them in different sizes and I just give them away for free because they basically cost nothing. So in that case, it's probably interesting to know you can buy the lock. If you buy the lock, it's €20 and one year of app use is included. Or if you decide to use your own QR code, you just pay €3 per year per lock right from the start.

Okay. And so if you buy the padlock off you, it's €20 and then your first year is included. Is it €3 a padlock from set year two onwards?

Yes, correct.

Okay, okay. Or you can buy your own padlock and then just pay €3, €3 a year. So if you buy your own padlock, you're going to save yourself €17. So you, if you can buy padlocks, if you want to buy padlocks yourself, you can, you know, that's the sum. Okay. Is that right?

Yes, yes, yes, that's correct.

Okay. Okay, so if we just take a step back. So let's say I was opening up a new site and I decide to just, you know, put a smart edit system on the git. So Rubik does not cover gates, so you're going to integrate alongside something else.

Exactly.

So maybe you know, PTI or Barebox or, you know, there's a bunch of them. So something like that, maybe open the gates and then the padlock solution is going to be a sort of a secondary system that's used at the site. So let's say I'm opening up a new site, my third indoor site, and I get something and I think I'm going to put padlocks on the door. So what's the process then? Let's say we've decided to order it, you're sending me the padlocks, the post. What's the process for an operator then to actually set things up from there?

You sign up for the Rubik app in the application. You then you can invite your team, your site managers, everyone who's supposed to use the app. You can connect Stora, you can generate the credentials that Stora needs to get this set up. So it will be generated in Rubik. You can hand it over to Storer support or set it up yourself. Once the two systems are connected, you want to add your logs to the app. So you have a bunch of logs and you need to scan them to add them to your inventory. That's the next step. And once you're done with that, you need to lock your units. And for that, you have an app on the phone that has a list that shows you a list of units that you need to lock. Right. You always need to lock the units that are available, not all the units. But Rubik only secures available units or can be used for overlocks. These are the two situations, right? So when we have a new site, clearly that would be all the units that we would need to secure with the locks. If you have an existing site, it's only as many as you have available ones, plus overlocks, if you choose to use Rubik for that. Okay, so when you do the locking, the, the process is basically, you have the app, you go through the list in the app, you see the unit name, you go to the unit, you're told to take any lock, scan it. By scanning the lock, the lock is recognized by the QR codes. The application knows what the unlock code is for the lock and tells you, please prepare the unit for the next move in and then lock it with this padlock. Once you've confirmed that Rubik knows that this unit is associated with a certain lock, and when someone moves into that unit, store lets us know and we can send the tenant access credentials. So the PIN code to open this lock on the unit, okay, so the.

PIN code will be sent to the customer by Stora or whatever system the operator is using. So the customer gets a four digit PIN by email so they can open up the door and move into their unit.

Correct.

What does the customer do with the pad?

Okay, so what does the customer do with the padlock? That's a very good question, because it does not stay with the customer. So all our users at the moment have the following process. When someone moves in before, when you prepare the unit, when you put this lock on the unit, you actually left a padlock with keys inside the unit.

Okay?

You secure the unit with this combination padlock. Now, when the tenant moves in, the tenant doesn't need any app or anything. Right. The tenant got the information via email. They removed this combination padlock and at the same time told that they should leave this in a Dropbox at the exit and use this padlock instead. Yeah. And the whole reasoning.

So the operator could sell in the padlock, or they could just put it in the unit for free. Rent. We know some people rent a padlock for a couple of pounds a month.

Yes.

Anything. It's up to the operator to decide what to do there.

Yes, yes, exactly.

Okay, so then. So the customer puts the lock back into the box like a Dropbox. What happens then with the operator? So as an operator, I suppose there's two things can happen. There is, the customer stays for a period of time and then vacates the unit. And you have this, I presume you put the padlock back on. So it'll be interesting to talk about that because that's probably what happens most of the time. But then there's also a time when somebody's payment fails and you want to overlock the unit. So can you talk to me about what are the operator steps then once it's put back into the. The Dropbox.

Yeah, in the Dropbox. So you need to collect these logs. Right. You want to know that the log was returned. Otherwise at some point you might want to charge the customer for the lock. Or if you're very strict about returning the lock, you might want to overlock them with another combination padlock. Right. Maybe. I'll briefly address why it's even why we require the tenant to return this lock. Right.

It's.

Sometimes it. It looks just like a hassle. Right. Why not just leave the combination padlock on the unit? The. The problem here that I've heard from, from big operators with, you know, hundreds of thousands of units is that at some point you will have a tenant that will have a problem, some issue with the unit. And knowing that you had the initial access information, they will claim that you. You had access and share some responsibility in whatever issue they have by leaving a padlock. It looks like it's familiar to you.

Well, well, just I. We find drugs in the unit. And I was thinking, you know, if it. If it came down to it, you know, could. We didn't have to, but, you know, could they claim they weren't my drugs? You put the drugs in. I have had a. Somebody had a mouse one time found in their unit in a. And he was not happy. And I was thinking to myself, you know, potentially, he brought the mice in. Look who can prove it. But Anyway, yeah, it's like find the soup. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.

So because of this, so it's either to not be liable for anything that happens in the unit or sometimes it's a legal requirement. So it really depends on the market. For example, in Australia, it is a requirement. So. So that's the only thing, only way you would do it. And we've just started out this way and we're doing it for every user like this at the moment. So you have to return the combination padlock.

Okay.

Now that it's been returned, you need to collect it at some point just to know that it was returned and not just discarded. So the operator that the site manager really does two things with the Rubik app. One is collect the locks. When I go on site, I typically go to Dropbox first. I open it, I check if the logs are there, and I confirm in the app that they've been returned. And then the second thing is I lock the units. We've already addressed locking the units. Overlocking is also part of that. So with overlocking, how can you deal with overlocking? Now, now we are coming to the weak points in a way of the app. Why you always need to lock the unit manually, right? For sharing access, you don't need to go on site sharing access is always instant. But in order to lock the unit, you need to go there and physically put the lock on the unit. Now, 99% of the operators I know usually go and check the empty units, prepare them for the next move in, and then it's okay to, you know, just add another lock. Now, for overlocks, the situation might be a little bit different, you know, it might be a bit more urgent and, you know, you don't want to drive there. For now, I would just to put a lock the unit. So our users that use Rubik say that either they are fine to just overlay lock once a week. For example, they're visiting the site once a week and then they do all the log jobs and also overlocks, or they have personnel on site more regularly anyways. But we've had users who said that they wish to operate the site without, you know, with just one visit a month or so. In that case, it was sometimes a better choice to get a smart lock if overlocking the unit is very important to them. Now, with overlocking, you can also argue that typically operators have an electronic gate access system. So Rubik always works in parallel with any gate access system. And if you can overlock your user in the gate access system. That's oftentimes enough for the operator.

That's a very good point. Yeah. So, yeah, if you can't get into the gate, you can't get to the door Anyway. So the operator tasks on a recurring basis are go to site and collect the padlocks.

Correct.

Attach if there are any newly available units, go and put them onto those units.

Exactly.

And the second task would be if there is a, if there's an overlock to be done, it would be going overlock as well. And you can do that daily, weekly, monthly, depending on how much you want to get. But yeah, I can see how, if you want to go monthly, then, you know, there will be a time for, you know, somebody might move out of a unit and it might be sitting empty and unlocked for, you know, three weeks.

Yeah, yeah. So what, what Our operators typically have move outs on a certain day of the week. Right. Because if you had them spread out over the whole month, you know, if people can move out, out anytime, it's not as convenient. It's, you know, it's just as a process generally like, you know, not even considering Rubik, but generally if you have very few units and people can move out any day of the month, it's very convenient for the user. But it's less convenient for you as an operator because, you know, you might have to go there any day of the week or you have empty inventory.

Right.

As you're saying. So what we typically advise is, you know, if, if you can, if your market allows, try to bundle your move outs, you know, maybe just at the end of the month or maybe, you know, in the middle of the month and at the end of the month. And that's when you can also do the lock jobs and everything else all at once.

The limitation of the system which you've, you've been, you've, you know, said it's, it's, you can't, you have to go on site for overlocked and to replace padlocks. But there's a way around that. And you know, maybe with, you know, if you're using Stora, for example, you could just set your terms, set your terms that, you know, if you're, you know, when you give notice, you have to pay until the end of the month or whenever you give notice, you have to pay until the end of the next month or whatever it might be, or you have to give notice and it's until the next Friday or whatever. So you can change your terms around that so that the invites are all on one, one day weekly, one day monthly. And that way you're not losing out with empty units. That's. That's a nice solution. So, Sebastian, so it sounds like. I think I've got my head. Is there anything else around the process then that we have gone through so far?

No. Basically this is it. It's very simple. Padlocks are simple. The process is really. You just need to physically put the lock on and then make sure it's been removed. In between, you need to send the code to the tenant and that's it. It's a simple solution. It's a little bit different than electronic access systems. So you have to get into it initially. But we help users with onboarding and typically, you know, half an hour onboarding is sufficient to understand how it works. And users then appreciate. Usually like at least the ones that go for the solution. They like that. It's simple, you know, there's nothing, not much technology involved in a good way.

Okay, okay. Okay. So we'll finish up with a couple of quick. Just over a couple of quick questions. So just a few things, some of them have been through, but just to get sort of just summary here, one thing we haven't talked about is what countries is Rubik available and where do you sell Rubik to?

I'm happy to sell in all countries except Russia and United Arab Emirates. Right. Because of legal reasons how the software needs to be built there. Yeah. But basically we are available worldwide. We have customers from Puerto Rico, was an interesting ones, Cayman Islands, you know, up to Thailand, New Zealand. Lots of users in Europe and also.

In the UK and for support, you know, if people have questions, is. Is. Is. Are you, are you the person to be in touch with? Are there different language limitations, anything anyone should be aware of? Or is it. Is that not a big. A big issue?

So most issues or most help is usually needed around onboarding. So that's where I'm ready to help anyways. I only speak English and German though, so we do have some limitations. You know, maybe if an Italian user wanted someone onboarding in Italian, we can't offer that. Generally, yes, I'm available for support. You know, you can just contact me through the app. There's, you know, like this small chat bubble. You just send a message and I'll see it right away. And. And I'm usually quick to respond. I respond any day of the week. It's just, you know, that I might sleep at when it's night in Europe.

How dare you might regret saying that when you've got 500 customers coming. You might regret saying, contact me anytime whenever you have 500 customers using Rubik.

Exactly, exactly. But I'd be happy to get to that point.

And so can you please recap the pricing for Rubik? Yeah.

Okay, so it's $20, €20 per lock. You don't need to buy the combination padlock, you can buy your own. I will send you QR code stickers. In any case, it's €3 per log per year, and that is from the second year if you buy the lock, and from the first year if you bring it on. Perfect.

Okay. Okay, so €20 for padlock, €3 a year from year two onwards. Or else use your own padlock. €3 a year from day one.

Exactly.

Okay. Okay, brilliant. Is there anything else that I haven't asked or listeners should be thinking about when they're considering what entry system they should use? Any final comments on that or anything else that we haven't talked about?

Like with, generally with exosystems, it's talk to users who've used it before other operators. I can only recommend it. You know, it's always interesting to hear from, from people who've been actually using it for, for a year or two or longer.

Yeah.

And. Yeah. And then decide what fits your operation best. It's like Rubik is definitely not an ideal solution for everyone, but I've seen there's definitely a good portion of even new storages that can make good use of it.

Yeah, yeah. And if somebody wants to reach out and talk about pricing or the solution or become a customer, what's the best way to do that?

You know, you can reach me@sebastianubiclog.com or you just go to the website rubiklog.com and we have a contact form. You can contact me there as well. And if you sign up, you'll also have the support possibility. You can send me a message anytime.

Great. Okay. All right, Sebastian. Well, thank you very much. That was really helpful and it was, it was great. I enjoyed hearing more about the system too, because we've only just recently added the integration into Stora, so. Really interesting to hear. It sounds like a, like a nice pragmatic solution sometimes that, you know, it's. It works, it does the job. It's pretty straightforward, but, you know, it, it helps people achieve quite a lot of freedom with their site, you know, in terms of letting people move in. So, yeah, it's interesting. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Gavin. Yes, it's. It's good to be integrated with you. I've already seen a lot of interest from your store users at a conference last year in the uk, so I'm happy to bring it to them. And yeah, they can contact me with any questions. Thanks Kevin for having me.

Thank you Sebastian. Thank you.

Goodbye.

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