From the beginning, Janus founder David Curtis built the company around a simple idea: create a self-storage door that solved the problems operators and installers were experiencing in the field. In solving for challenges like damage during transit, springs that rusted or failed, and lengthy, difficult installations, the Janus International Model 650 was born.

The Janus Model 650 door quickly became the most installed roll-up door in self-storage, and it remains so today. Purposefully designing doors for easier and faster installation, better performance over time, and less susceptibility to shipping damage established an early philosophy at Janus: Listen to the industry, solve practical problems, and build better solutions specifically for self-storage.

Building better product was only part of the equation. Janus also recognized that even the best door delivers limited value if a customer cannot get product delivered where they need it, when they need it, and installed quickly and professionally. As the industry expanded, Janus built the infrastructure to grow with it, supporting customers with unit layouts, dedicated project managers, superior manufacturing capability, experienced install crews, and industry-leading warranties.

That approach became an important differentiator. In a market where manufacturers often try to compete primarily on producing the lowest-cost door, Janus has remained focused on the total value of the project. Reducing material or manufacturing costs can create tradeoffs elsewhere, from installation time and durability to service requirements and long-term operating costs.

It may have been easier for Janus to build a door that would only hold up for a few years in the field, but the Janus team felt that their customers deserved more than that—they at least deserved the option to buy doors that would perform for decades (30,000 cycles) in the field.

For Jackson, that broader view of the customer relationship has remained central as Janus has grown. The goal is not simply to sell what a facility needs today but to understand where the industry is heading and build the products, services, technology, and infrastructure customers will need next. It is the same principle that led Janus to rethink the self-storage door more than two decades ago—and one that continues to guide the company as the industry enters its next era.

“Innovation has always started with listening to our customers and understanding the problems they need us to solve,” says Jackson. “That was true when Janus developed its first door, and it’s still how we think about the business today.”

As self-storage grew from a largely fragmented business into an increasingly sophisticated global asset class, Janus grew with it. The same customer-driven approach that shaped the development of the Model 650 became the foundation for expanding the company’s manufacturing footprint, product portfolio, and geographic reach. For Jackson, scale has never simply meant getting bigger—it has meant building the capabilities to support self-storage customers wherever their next opportunity takes them.

Janus expanded its manufacturing presence across the United States, including operations in Georgia, Texas, and Arizona, helping the company increase capacity while remaining closer to customers and projects across key markets. At the same time, the Janus footprint extended well beyond the U.S., with operations and customers across Europe, Australasia, and, most recently, an expanded presence in Canada. That reach has allowed Janus to support everyone from independent owner-operators to some of the largest self-storage owner-operators in the industry.

As Janus expanded into a truly global self-storage solutions provider, Jackson remained focused on ensuring that growth strengthened the company’s connection to the industry rather than distancing it from the customers who helped build it.

“Scale matters because our customers need to know we will be wherever they need us,” he says. “As we’ve grown, we’ve remained steadfastly committed to listening to our customers, understanding their challenges, and responding with solutions that make their businesses better and help drive the industry forward.”

The product portfolio progressed alongside that footprint. What began with a better roll-up door expanded to include swing doors, lockers, complete interior hallway systems and an increasingly broad range of door solutions, including the 750 and 850 wind-rated models and the NS Series, which was designed to make the door secure and more robust against common break-in methods.

“As our customers in Texas and Florida saw a need for wind-rated solutions, we quickly responded with our 750 and 850 door models,” says Jackson. “Similarly, as owner-operators recently began reporting more sophisticated break-in attempts, we built our NS Series for both new construction and retrofits to help protect against those attempts. Our view is simple: Our products need to work.”

Each expansion—geographically and in product development—reflected the same underlying objective: Understand what customers need to build and operate better facilities and develop the products and infrastructure to deliver it at scale.

That focus on solving customer challenges would eventually push Janus far beyond its origins as a door manufacturer. As self-storage matured, the needs of owners and operators began changing. New development remained important, but existing facilities were aging, technology was reshaping operations, and owners were looking for new ways to improve revenue, modernize properties, and maximize the value of the real estate they already owned.

“We responded to the changing needs by expanding our capabilities around the entire lifecycle of a self-storage facility,” says Jackson. “First with our R3 Program and again with our Nokē Smart Entry platform.”

During the economic downturn in 2008 to 2009, self-storage owner-operators began focusing less on new development and turned their attention to their existing portfolios. A recurring need emerged during this time: aging properties (many of which were 20-plus years old) needed higher quality, better functioning doors to improve the safety, security, and aesthetics of the facility. It was from this owner-operator need that the Janus R3 Program was born.

The development and evolution of the R3 Program (Restore, Rebuild, Replace) created a more comprehensive approach to facility improvement. What began with replacing aging doors grew to encompass hallway reskins, unit remixing, office remodels, building renovations, and MASS relocatable storage. Rather than approaching each improvement as an isolated project, R3 gave operators a way to rethink underperforming properties more holistically, improving appearance and functionality while creating opportunities to add rentable space and generate additional revenue.

“Developing the infrastructure needed to successfully do full-scale door replacements and provide renovation services for aging self-storage facilities is no small task. In order to perform at a high level with minimal operational disruption, we invested significant resources into building out a team of site auditors, estimators, project managers, and specialized installation crews,” Jackson says. “Today, we’ve replaced millions of doors across thousands of facilities because of our team’s high level of industry expertise paired with the investment we made to enable full scope redevelopment solutions.”

A decade later, another shift was beginning to reshape self-storage. Operators were looking for better ways to secure individual units while also reducing the operational burden associated with traditional locks, keys, and overlocks. Janus saw an opportunity to apply the same philosophy that had driven its physical products for years: Listen to the challenges operators were experiencing and invest in a better solution.

From there, the Nokē Smart Entry System by Janus International was born. With Nokē, Janus helped pioneer the move toward smart security at the individual unit level. By bringing smart locking technology directly to the unit door and connecting it to a broader smart entry platform, operators gained greater visibility and control across their facilities while tenants gained a simpler, more seamless way to access their units.

But Jackson and the Janus team saw the potential for the technology to go much further than replacing a traditional lock. Smart locking technology could become the foundation for a more connected, automated facility. Operators could remotely manage entry, automate access based on a tenant’s account status, better understand activity across a property, and reduce many of the manual processes traditionally associated with facility management.

That vision has continued to drive investment in Nokē. What began as a better way to secure and access an individual storage unit has evolved into a growing ecosystem of smart locks, smart keypads, keyless facility entry points, connected sensors and cameras, mobile applications, and integrated cloud-based management portal. As the industry looks toward increasingly remote and centralized operating models, Janus continues to invest in developing technology designed not only to improve security but to help operators simplify operations, create better tenant experiences, and uncover new opportunities to generate revenue.

“For us, smart locking technology was never just about eliminating the traditional lock and key,” says Jackson. “We saw an opportunity to connect the entire facility and give operators tools that could drive revenue while lowering operating costs. As technology continues to advance, the opportunity to use automation, data, and intelligence to make facilities more efficient and more profitable only gets bigger.”

At the same time, Janus saw an opportunity to bring that same customer-focused approach to another critical part of the development process: the building itself. As development costs increased and projects became more complex, owners and developers needed solutions that could help them build more efficiently, maximize the potential of each site, and create long-term value without compromising quality.

Janus expanded its building capabilities around that need, bringing together design, engineering, manufacturing, and construction expertise to provide more efficient, value-engineered solutions for self-storage developments of virtually every shape and size. From traditional single-story facilities and large multistory developments to conversions, expansions, and more complex site configurations, Janus works with customers early in the process to identify opportunities to optimize building design, unit mix, materials, and constructability.

That ability to engage earlier allows Janus to look beyond individual components and consider how the pieces of a project work together. By combining deep self-storage expertise with building systems, doors, hallway systems, smart technology, and installation capabilities, Janus helps developers reduce complexity, identify efficiencies, and make informed decisions that support both the economics of construction and the long-term performance of the facility.

Just as importantly, Janus has built these capabilities to scale across North America. Whether a customer is developing a single facility or executing a multi-market development program, the goal is the same: Deliver a consistent, efficient, and value-engineered approach that helps turn a development opportunity into a successful operating asset.

Taken together, these investments represent a significant evolution of the Janus story. The company that began by asking how it could build a better self-storage door is increasingly asking a much bigger question: How can we help our customers build, renovate, and operate better self-storage facilities and portfolios?

For Jackson, answering that question means continuing to invest ahead of where the industry is going by developing smarter products, creating more efficient building solutions, helping operators transform existing facilities, and advancing smart security technology that can fundamentally change how the next generation of self-storage facilities are developed and operated.

More than two decades after Janus opened its doors, the company looks very different than it did when Jackson joined in 2002. Its reach is global. Its capabilities now span roll-up and swing doors, hallway systems, single-story and multistory buildings, building components, relocatable storage units, renovation solutions, and smart security and locking technologies. But through each stage of that growth, Jackson believes the principle behind the business has remained remarkably consistent: Stay close to the customer, understand the challenges facing the self-storage industry, and invest in the people and capabilities needed to solve them.

That starts with having the right people in the right seats. As Janus has expanded, the company has continued to invest in teams with deep expertise across self-storage, from engineering and manufacturing to estimating, project management, installation, technology, and customer support. For Jackson, having that experience throughout the organization is critical. It allows Janus to understand not only the product it is providing but how that product fits into the larger realities of developing, renovating, and operating a self-storage facility.

That industry specialization matters. Rather than taking products or technologies designed for other markets and attempting to adapt them to self-storage, Janus has consistently worked in the opposite direction: Start with the needs of self-storage and build around them. The Model 650 was purpose-built to address the challenges of self-storage doors. The R3 Program was developed in response to the needs of aging facilities and existing portfolios. Nokē was built around the opportunity for smarter unit-level security and facility automation. And Janus’ expanding building capabilities are designed around creating more efficient, value-engineered self-storage developments.

Different challenges have required different solutions, but the process has remained the same: Listen first, invest in understanding the problem, and then build the teams, products, and infrastructure required to solve it.

There is also a simpler commitment behind that philosophy: getting the job done. For customers investing millions of dollars in a new development, renovating an operating facility, or implementing new technology across a portfolio, execution matters. Products must arrive. Projects need to stay on track. Installations must be completed with minimal disruption. And when challenges inevitably arise, customers need a partner willing to take accountability and work through them.

That sense of responsibility has helped Janus build relationships that extend across projects, portfolios, and decades. And as the industry enters another period of change—driven by evolving development economics, increasingly sophisticated operators, greater automation, connected facilities, data, and AI—Jackson sees Janus’ role much as he did at the beginning: Listen closely, invest around the need, and help move the industry forward.

Nearly 25 years into Jackson’s career at Janus, that may ultimately be the common thread connecting every chapter of the company’s story. Janus has grown from a better self-storage door into a global provider of self-storage solutions, but its ambition has never been simply to sell more products. It has been to build what the industry needs next—and to have the people, expertise, and commitment to deliver it.

“At the heart of Janus is a commitment to putting customers first, working as a trusted partner to deliver high-quality, innovative solutions while holding ourselves accountable for every commitment we make,” says Jackson. “We strive to make doing business simple and bring the expertise, bold thinking, and global capabilities needed to support our customers wherever they are and wherever their businesses take them.”