Jared Mastroianni

By Brad Hadfield

hen most people encounter a product or service that falls short of expectations, their natural response is to complain about it and move on. Jared Mastroianni reacts differently; he sets out to improve it himself.

Time and again, Mastroianni has walked into a diverse range of industries and asked why everyone simply accepts the way things are done. Then, he does things his own way. Refreshingly, he never once calls himself a disruptor—just someone out to make things better and help others in the process.

Mastroianni’s parents were first-generation Italian Americans who instilled in him the importance of working hard and saving money early on. “My dad always said, ‘a dollar saved is a dollar earned,’ and so I became a bit of a penny pincher,” says Mastroianni.

Though Mastroianni attended UCLA and was following a typical financial track, he knew he ultimately wanted to be an entrepreneur. He zeroed in on the tanning salon business simply because he saw something it was lacking. “They were all competing, but mostly based on pricing and promotions,” says Mastroianni. “That was blinding them to emerging red-light therapies [a non-UV treatment offering skin-care benefits alongside tanning]. I wanted to be at the forefront of it, so I invested in it.”

Using those pinched pennies, Mastroianni bought his first salon and the equipment to go with it. He brazenly, and intentionally, opened the location right next door to one of the industry leaders. “I wanted to make a point, and I gained some notoriety from it,” he says, “but ultimately, I beat them out. And it wasn’t just about the technology, but about providing better value to the customer.”

Mastroianni’s success led to interested investors. “Soon we had 35 locations in prime locations throughout Los Angeles and Miami.”

His next venture hit closer to home—his own closet. Mastroianni had paid California Closets to install their popular organization system but was less than satisfied with the results. “I’d assumed a lot of the manufacturing process was automated but learned it relied mostly on low-paid manual labor.”

Determined to make a better product, Mastroianni partnered with a cabinet manufacturer and launched Colorado Closets, which he says used automated systems and better materials yet still offered products at prices below its much larger competitor. He even went after California Closets’ search rankings, eventually outranking them.

Six months later, California Closets bought him out—a financial win for Mastroianni and one that would free him up for his next venture: self-storage.

The timing couldn’t have been better. Shortly after selling the closet business, Mastroianni’s good friend Clayton Gentry, CEO of modSTORAGE, which operates self-storage facilities across several states, came calling looking for operational help. Mastroianni picked up, and it didn’t take long for him to recognize that this was another industry where he could do things differently.

“I think a lot of people focus on revenue per square foot,” says Mastroianni. “I was ready to think of it in terms of revenue per square inch, so I began changing every aspect of how we operated, from revenue management to branding to customer experience.”

This transformation of modSTORAGE included modCAFÉ, a place for tenants to relax with premium coffee and more, and modDISPOSAL, an on-site junk removal service for tenants.

Next it was time to tackle the tech. But Mastroianni says he’s never adopted technology for technology’s sake; first he had to recognize a problem. “I was really shocked by how fragmented the software was. There was just too much to oversee and update on a regular basis, so I took a look at what we needed, didn’t need, and what could be replaced.”

This discovery process turned up one problem after another, so Mastroianni decided the best path forward was to develop the company’s own software. He started with the website, and within a month the site was outperforming the old one tenfold. “We didn’t do anything crazy or revolutionary,” he says modestly, “just what should be done.”

Inspired by the success of the website, Mastroianni began playing with “the fun stuff”: AI. “I had already had a lot of experience with it. I was probably one of the early adopters—I even invested in OpenAI when it was getting off the ground.”

Mastroianni put that knowledge to work, developing AI-driven workflows to tackle everyday operational problems. Some were relatively simple, while others became increasingly sophisticated, including predictive move-out and delinquency models and preemptive pricing. The goal wasn’t to introduce AI wherever possible but to identify problems technology could solve more effectively.

The efforts soon paid off. Mastroianni says modSTORAGE facilities now rank among the top 5 percent nationally based on specific performance measures. “We even operate the most profitable self-storage facility per square foot in New York City,” he adds.

Once Mastroianni had proof that the system worked, he wanted to share it with others. “There are so many options out there developed by outsiders. We believe the best software comes from an experienced operator.”

This became the foundation for Facily, a web-based portfolio management system that gives operators information on tenants, units, leads, revenue, and more, along with AI insights, in one command center.

Some of Facily’s capabilities may seem mundane, but Mastroianni says even small efficiency upgrades can make a big difference. When several vacated units need attention, for example, the system determines which should be cleaned first based on factors such as availability, online search activity, and abandoned checkouts. These seemingly minor improvements can add up to better reviews, referrals, and customer loyalty.

Other applications are considerably more sophisticated. Rather than scraping competitors’ websites to determine rental rates, a practice Mastroianni considers unethical, Facily uses predictive models. “Our system predicts where the market’s going to go based on how it has gone in the past, while factoring in current information and data from companies like TractIQ. For nearly three years, it’s almost always been spot-on.”

These improved efficiencies don’t necessarily mean handing out pink slips, however. “We use AI to reduce the burden on our staff and then use that newfound energy in the places where we’ve been lacking.”

While AI reduced labor needs in certain tasks, the company didn’t treat that as a payroll-cutting opportunity; instead, it redirected the resources into maintenance, managerial staff, and security. “All of this leads to a better customer experience,” he says. “That gives us longer-staying tenants willing to pay more because we provide more. I believe that’s a much better model than holding them and their items hostage with rent raises.”

While Mastroianni is always looking after modSTORAGE, he’s also keeping an eye on the industry itself through Facily. “The strength of independents is important to the health of the entire industry,” he says. “Consolidation can be damaging. I mean, if there’s only four REITs, who’s going to buy specialty locks? Who’s going to buy tenant insurance? Who’s going to read your magazine?”

That’s why Facily was built with smaller operators at its core, including a sliding pricing scale designed to make the platform more accessible to them. “We want to see this industry prosper for a very long time and feel the continued success of our industry depends on the small operator.”

Mastroianni doesn’t buy the idea that independent operators simply can’t compete. “I think there are a lot of operators right now who are feeling discouraged, wondering if they just need to let a REIT manage their facility or if they need to sell because they’re not cut out for it,” he says. “I believe 99 percent of them are cut out for it. They just need the right tools.”

He’s not diminishing the REITs. He makes it clear that they’re doing exactly what they should be doing: competing aggressively on behalf of their investors. He simply thinks independents should be equipped to compete just as aggressively.

“I love this industry, the people, the operational dynamics, and the software, and the AI of it all,” says Mastroianni. “And I want to be sure it’s around for a long time. Giving the smaller guys the ability to compete will help ensure that.”

For someone who’s made a career out of moving on to the next thing he could make better, Mastroianni seems to have found a place to settle in—and plenty of reasons to keep improving it.