Empty corridor of a self-storage facility with cherry red roller doors

Case StudyFrom Spreadsheets to SaaS: Transforming Self-Storage Investment in 12 weeks

GoFish Leads wanted to automate its manual self-storage investment processes that relied on spreadsheets and phone calls. Together, Alembic and GoFish Leads built a platform that streamlines the self-storage facility investment process in 12 weeks.

GoFish Leads wanted to automate its manual self-storage investment processes that relied on spreadsheets and phone calls. The founders selected Ash Framework to accelerate development and needed expertise to help with delivery of the solution. Together, Alembic and GoFish Leads build the MVP in 12 weeks. Features built within the application included automated lead data enrichment, contact management, and billing. The platform launched to production and is serving the market today.

A $23.6 billion industry stuck in spreadsheets

There are nearly as many self-storage facilities in the United States as there are Starbucks, McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Pizza Huts and Wendy’s combined. The U.S. self-storage industry generates $23.6 billion annually and has delivered average annual returns of almost 17% to facility owners, making it one of the best-performing real estate sectors. The investment opportunity is driven by growing demand from urbanisation, e-commerce businesses, and life events like moving, with the market expected to nearly double to $39.31 billion by 2034.

Despite this growth, small-time investors are burdened with manual, labour-intensive processes. They rely heavily on spreadsheets and phone calls to manage opportunities. The process of finding facility owners and their contact details is typically outsourced to virtual consultant companies or done manually. Cold calling is performed individually rather than shared across the investor community, creating inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

This creates a significant market opportunity for automation and standardisation of investment workflows.

Building a platform to transform self-storage investment

GoFish Leads recognised the technology gap and set out to create a platform that streamlines the self-storage facility investment process. Their vision was to create a platform that automates manual investment processes, builds an investor community, and generate shared intelligence that benefits all users.

The strategic goal was clear: transform manual, spreadsheet-based processes into an automated SaaS platform that creates competitive advantage through automation and shared data.

The platform focuses on three key features: opportunity tracking, contact management, and lead data enrichment automation. Importantly, the company deliberately avoids building a full CRM, positioning itself as a specialised tool rather than competing with established CRM platforms.

Leveraging Ash Framework expertise to accelerate development

The founder had already begun building the application using Ash Framework. However, he faced a critical challenge: time. With an funding window to capture, he needed to launch an MVP quickly to secure paying customers and validate market fit before pursuing Phase 2 funding.

To support an accelerated time frame, GoFish engaged with Alembic to draw on our expertise with the Ash Framework. We provided guidance on Ash-specific implementations like resource actions, policies, and calculations. We also assisted with integrating third-party services like lead data enrichment APIs and Stripe billing.

Delivery and enablement

We approached this challenge by combining two of our core services: Ash Framework Premium Support (APS) and our custom software development services.

The engagement began with APS, providing guidance and up-skilling in implementing Ash Framework effectively. This allowed the client to make rapid progress on core domain logic while receiving expert advice on architectural decisions and best practices.

As timeline pressures increased, we transitioned to software development services, directly contributing to the MVP build. Our team tackled the UI development, building front-end interfaces for existing domain models, while implementing backend infrastructure for contact management and data enrichment automation.

The technical solution leveraged a Phoenix web application created with Petal Pro, with the domain built using Ash Framework. We integrated contact management APIs, S3 storage for file management, and Stripe for billing functionality. An admin interface was built to support virtual assistant workflows, and we implemented a subscription system with multiple pricing tiers offering different lead data enrichment allowances.

Key technical decisions included working with a hybrid Petal Pro/Ash architecture, a pragmatic approach given the timeline constraints. We built automated lead data tracing to replace manual or outsourced processes and implemented a shared data model where which benefits multiple users, creating the multiplicative effect that differentiates the platform.

Once the MVP launched, the engagement transitioned back to Ash Premium Support, providing ongoing guidance as the platform evolved. This flexible combination of support and hands-on development meant we could help exactly when needed, either providing timely advice to streamline decision-making or direct development work to accelerate progress.

Launching to revenue in 12 weeks

The results speak for themselves. Within 12 weeks, GoFish Leads launched their platform to customers. The rapid timeline from development to revenue generation validated both the market opportunity and the technical approach.

Most importantly, the working product demonstration secured funding for Phase 2 development, which will introduce AI-powered features like automated feasibility reports and underwriting processes.

Alembic enabled us to launch quickly. Real Elixir experts who design solid solutions and deliver quality work fast.

— Chaz Watkins, CEO/CTO

Commitment to the Ash and Elixir communities

This engagement exemplified the type of client relationship we value most. GoFish Leads recognised the long-term value of quality development over cheap alternatives, even when facing funding pressures. They brought tremendous enthusiasm to the project, remaining accessible, responsive, and collaborative throughout the development lifecycle, engaging with complex technical discussions while maintaining focus on business outcomes.

What impressed us most was the commitment to the broader Ash Framework community. Throughout the project, they actively contributed back to the ecosystem, merging pull requests and contributing to guides. Working with an organisation who understood both the technical nuances and business imperatives made this project extremely rewarding and valuable for Alembic and the Ash community.

The GoFish Leads tech stack

Just some of the tools we used on this project

Ash framework

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