HOW JOSEPH WOODBURY CO-FOUNDED NEIGHBOR.COM: AND BUILT THE FIRST NATIONWIDE COMMUNITY BASED OUT OF UTAH.

THE LAST THING PRESTON ALDER, my co-founder at Neighbor, had on his mind in the Spring of 2016 was starting a company. He was newly married, and he and his wife were planning on moving to South America to volunteer for a global humanitarian organization. Because they were moving out of the country, Preston's most urgent matter was finding a storage unit for their combined items.

He began searching online for local storage units--just as millions of Americans do each year--and he quickly found that each facility nearby was completely full. After he finally found one with a vacancy an inconvenient two cities away, he realized he would need to pay hundreds of dollars a month just to store their items.

In an effort to solve his own problem, he turned to his connections and found a longtime family friend who was willing to let Preston use his garage as storage. He quickly moved his Items in and boarded a plane soon after. Several months later, Preston and his wife returned to the United States ready to move into their first apartment. After picking up their belongings from their neighbor's garage, Preston had the thought: "Why doesn't everyone do this?"

All summer while In South America, he had such peace of mind knowing his items were in a neighborhood, and a house, that he trusted. Not only that, but he had saved a lot of money. It was such a better experience than leasing a storage unit. This was when an idea started to formulate and he reasoned, "There's got to be a garage or some sort of vacant space in every neighborhood in the country. Why isn't there a nationwide directory or marketplace for available spaces?" And Neighbor.com was born.

FROM FRIENDS TO CO-FOUNDERS

The first person Preston shared the idea with was his best friend Colton. Preston and Colton first met in the Chaco of Paraguay while serving a humanitarian mission for their church. They had since returned to Paraguay together to work for a social impact firm helping Paraguayans start small businesses. Later, they joined Sorenson Global Impact Investing Center to identify the companies doing the most good in the world.

When Preston shared his idea, Colton was just a few months away from graduating from the University of Utah and was preparing to start full-time at a data consulting firm, Cicero Group. Colton, like Preston, had no plans to start a company, but he loved the idea and thought, "Why not take the $40 billion paid to large self-storage corporations each year and...