Nick Huber
Most startup founders dream of raising money from Andreessen Horowitz or Sequoia. Nick Huber raised $40 million from Twitter followers.
That fact alone captures something important about how wealth actually gets built in America. Not through gatekeepers and pitch decks, but through a cargo van, a willingness to sweat, and the patience to talk about boring businesses on the internet for years.
The Cargo Van Origin
Nick Huber graduated from Cornell’s ILR School in 2011, where he was a two-time NCAA All-American in track and field. His classmates went to consulting firms and investment banks. Nick bought a $3,000 cargo van.
“Our buddies were playing beer pong and thought we were crazy for wanting to sweat and pick up boxes for $30,” he recalled on the podcast. “They had zero energy for it.”
That cargo van became the seed of Storage Squad, a valet storage service for college students. The idea was simple: pick up students’ belongings at the end of spring semester, store them over summer, deliver them back in fall. Nick and his co-founder Dan Hagberg spent a decade building it across 25 college towns before selling for $1.7 million in 2021.
The sale itself is unremarkable. What matters is what came next.
Building a $100M Portfolio on Twitter
By his second appearance on My First Million in 2023, Nick’s self-storage company Bolt Storage had grown from 15 properties to 61, with 1.8 million square feet of storage acquired for $103 million. The capital came from an unlikely source.
“96% of it has come from Twitter. My entire real estate private equity company was built on the back of Twitter,” Nick explained. “We’ve raised 100M Self Storage Empire, 00:03:15](https://youtube.com/watch?v=…)
He built that following by doing something counterintuitive: sharing everything. The economics of his deals, the mistakes he made, the unsexy reality of owning storage facilities in secondary markets. His @sweatystartup account became a masterclass in transparent entrepreneurship.
Today, Bolt Storage has 68 locations across 11 states and 2 million square feet of storage. His first facility in Ithaca, built for 10 million.
The Sweaty Startup Philosophy
Nick coined the term “sweaty startups” to describe a category of business that venture capitalists ignore: moving companies, pool cleaning services, fence installation, self-storage. Businesses that require physical labor and have existed for decades without disruption.
The philosophy comes down to one idea: boring works.
“My goal is cash flow. I want to make money every month. Some people say there’s no ‘Enterprise Value’ in agencies, but I say screw EV, I want the cash.” Nick Huber: Powerful Sales Trick, 00:39:00
This stance puts Nick at odds with Silicon Valley’s obsession with exits and enterprise value. He does not particularly care. His lifestyle reflects this philosophy: he lives in a 12,000 truck.
“If I don’t buy a private plane, I don’t have to sell.”
Global Talent Arbitrage
Perhaps the most striking number in Nick’s business empire: 22 Americans across 325 total employees.
His companies Bolt Storage, Somewhere.com, and RE Cost Seg run mostly on talent from South Africa, Colombia, Brazil, and the Philippines. The payroll math is hard to argue with: a 1.5 million in labor costs.
“I have six Americans at Somewhere out of 160 employees. RE Cost Seg has 130 employees and seven Americans. Bolt Storage has six Americans out of 60. They are mostly in sales because I can’t replicate the American ability to close high-ticket deals yet.” The Richest People I Know Do One Thing, 00:15:30
In May 2024, Nick acquired Support Shepherd (now Somewhere.com) for $52 million, essentially buying the infrastructure that enables his own talent strategy. The company receives 60,000 applicants monthly.
His hiring advice is characteristically direct: “Go on LinkedIn, post a job in Colombia, Brazil, South Africa, or the Philippines. Promote it with $100 a day for 5 days. You’ll get 1,000 applicants.”
The Humbling
By 2024, something had shifted in Nick’s public persona. The bravado had softened.
“Five years ago, you guys had me on the pod. I felt like I knew everything. I think it was that irrational confidence early in my career that I wouldn’t trade for anything because it led to a lot of success. But yeah, man. You just realize that business is hard.”
The numbers told the story: Nick had started 10 companies over three years. Four of them had been shut down.
“I thought with a personal brand that’s strong enough, you could get into an agency business of any kind and go to the moon. Then the algorithm changed.”
The experience changed his views on running multiple companies. “Running a HoldCo is overrated,” he now admits. “I’ve been labeled a ‘HoldCo guy,’ but you really have to know your stuff to run more than one company. Most wealthy people I know focused on one thing for a long time.”
This evolution from confident operator to humble student may be the most valuable lesson in Nick’s journey. The same irrational confidence that pushed him to buy a cargo van instead of taking a consulting job can become a liability once you have something to lose.
The 80/10/10 Hiring Rule
Nick breaks the labor market into three buckets:
- 10% are in career nirvana. They love their job, their boss, their compensation. They will not leave.
- 10% are actively job hunting. They are often unemployed or deeply unhappy.
- 80% are employed but open to something better. They are not looking, but they would listen.
“Recruit from the 80%,” Nick advises. The best talent is rarely desperate.
The Bourbon Lesson
Perhaps the most revealing moment from Nick’s podcast appearances was not about business at all.
“I bought a bottle of Michter’s 20 Year for $7,500. I invited my friends over to try it, but nobody could come. I sat there looking at the bottle and realized: none of this matters. It’s all about the people and how you help them. The stuff is just a distraction.” Nick Huber: Powerful Sales Trick, 00:45:00
After attending Camp MFM with MrBeast and other successful entrepreneurs, Nick wrote a blog post with three takeaways: he wanted a therapist, he wanted to be more present with his kids, and he wanted to drink less alcohol.
Not exactly the hustle culture gospel. But perhaps closer to the truth.
Key Frameworks
| Framework | Description |
|---|---|
| Sweaty Startups | Focus on boring, unglamorous local service businesses with physical labor and sweat equity |
| Cash Flow over EV | Prioritize monthly cash flow over building enterprise value for a future exit |
| 80/10/10 Hiring | Recruit from the 80% who are employed but open, not the 10% who are desperate |
| Global Talent Arbitrage | Hire top 1% talent from lower-cost countries; keep only high-ticket sales in the US |
| Twitter Capital Raising | Build audience through transparency, raise capital directly from followers |
Companies
| Company | Role | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bolt Storage | Co-founder | 68 locations, $100M+ portfolio |
| Storage Squad | Co-founder | Sold 2021 for $1.7M |
| Somewhere.com | Acquired | $52M acquisition (May 2024) |
| RE Cost Seg | Founder | $750K+/month, 130 employees |
| WebRun | Founder | Active |
| Titan Risk | Founder | Active |
Sources & Episodes
- #127: Building a $10M Self-Storage Business and the Opportunities in ‘Sweaty Startups’ - November 2020
- [[episodes/how_nick_huber_built_a_100m_se|How Nick Huber Built A $100M Self Storage Empire (#420)]] — February 2023
- Nick Huber: How to Make Millions from Content Without Selling Ads - March 2023
- [[episodes/the_6_traits_of_a_successful_e|The 6 Traits Of A Successful Entrepreneur (#431)]] — March 2023
- The Richest People I Know Do One Thing — 2024
- #785: Biggest Bet and Lessons Learned - 2024