2025 Ones To Watch - Industry Leaders: Kat Lau, Stuf

Recent goal and impact:

At the end of 2024, we launched three new locations — Park Slope, Long Island City, and Bethesda — all in the same month. This milestone pushed Stuf past 30 locations nationwide. More importantly, it marked a turning point in our operational maturity. Each site came with its own complexities, but our ability to execute multiple, geographically diverse launches simultaneously showed just how far we’ve come. It demonstrated the strength of our systems, team coordination, and growing capacity to scale with confidence.

Sharing knowledge and expertise:

I’ve had the opportunity to share my journey and lessons learned through industry panels like the Bisnow National Self Storage webinar, podcast interviews such as Masters of Moments with Jake Wurzak, and soon at the ISS Expo in Las Vegas this April. I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do believe in the value of experience. By being open about both the challenges and wins, I hope to motivate and inspire others who are building in this space. Sharing what’s worked — and what hasn’t — can spark ideas, build connections, and help move the industry forward.

Turning problems into opportunities:

I’m a firm believer in the principle of marginal gains. In our pursuit of improving relationships with our members, we conducted an in-depth review of our customer calls. I discovered that our interactions had lost the level of excellence I would expect if I were the consumer. As a result, we weren’t nurturing as many leads or closing sales effectively as I felt we should have been. We used our in-house AI solution to analyze 60,000+ calls, uncovering insights that reshaped our training, sales, and customer engagement strategies. The ability to quickly analyze historical data led to immediate sales boosts and improved customer experience standards.

Best advice for new leaders:

Hire right, build with those who share your vision and values — it makes all the difference. 

Giving Back:

Attending the Self Storage Association Spring Conference in Orlando was a powerful reminder of the industry’s scale and relevance — even after five years in it. With over 50,000 facilities across the U.S., self-storage locations outnumber some of the most recognizable retail chains combined. It’s no surprise that more than 10% of U.S. households rent a storage unit, it’s clear self-storage is here to stay. The experience reinforced my belief that with Stuf, we have a unique opportunity to shape the future of the industry through technology, ensuring storage keeps up with the evolving ways we live, work, and move.

Best books, podcasts, or apps for aspiring leaders: Axios Pro Rata by Dan Primack — my go-to for insights on VC, innovation, and market movers.

Who was/is your role model and/or leadership mentor? My parents taught me to “do more with less” — a mindset I bring to both life and business.