Nikonomics - The Economics of Small Business 262 - Best of 2025! Nick Huber's Entrepreneur Playbook: From Storage Units to $52 Million
Dec 18, 2025
Nick Huber is an accomplished entrepreneur and author, renowned for building a self-storage empire and the talent company Somewhere. In this insightful conversation, he shares his unique 'sweaty startup' philosophy and the secrets behind his early success in moving and storage. Huber discusses his strategies for growing an online audience through platforms like Reddit and Twitter, and delves into the transformative acquisition of Somewhere. He also provides wisdom on hiring executives and the importance of maintaining control while managing investor capital.
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Humble Start To Self-Storage Empire
- Nick Huber started in moving and storage, built a storage facility from ground up, and scaled to 63 facilities with $40M outside equity.
- One 2017 deal was a "massive win" that launched his serious focus on storage and future opportunities.
Expect Harder Audience Growth Now
- Nick advises that growing an audience today is much harder because platform algorithms changed and you can't rely on simple posts to get wide reach.
- He warns people to temper expectations and understand building distribution now is more difficult than when he started.
Acquisition Announcement Broke Capacity
- When Nick announced buying Somewhere and the $400k domain plus raising $20M, inbound demand broke the business's capacity and created unhappy customers.
- The announcement caused revenue to spike from $1M to $1.6M in a month and stressed operations.