Alex Dickey, a junior accounting major, is the owner of DormVault and a member in the Samford Startup student business incubator program. He founded DormVault after witnessing the challenges that Samford students faced when moving and storing their belongings.

DormVault helps students move and store their things throughout the year. I first saw the need among Samford students on moving weeks to andfrom college because of the thousands of parents that came on campus to help their kids move. So, I decided to find a solution to this problem that happens every year! I hope I can give parents more time with their kids instead of having to move and store their dorm items over the breaks in between semesters. In the past, I completed moving jobs for families as they appeared, but I hope to use my past experiences to help Samford students and parents.

I am excited to join the program because of the collection of student entrepreneurs on campus. Starting a business can feel lonely at times, but it is very encouraging to be around fellow business owners as we all aspire to grow our businesses with the help of Samford’s entrepreneurship community.

Samford Startup has helped me realize where I need to better organize my business in order to scale my business well. The program has also helped by connecting the fellow entrepreneurs to local Birmingham business owners.

The hardest part of launching my business has been developing the website. I was able to use a third-party website service that helped me build it, but in reality, it was difficult deciding what content was essential to have on my website and what content was not. I was able to decide what content was needed by studying other competitor websites and getting feedback from other business owners and family members.

The Samford Startup has helped grow me professionally because we are always encouraged by Dr. Mazzei to always be ready to pitch our business in 90 seconds to a stranger. This has really helped be able to converse with anyone about my business, which leads into further conversation.

I hope to be sole moving & storage company on Samford’s campus. There are some businesses that have a similar business model to mine, but not many are in private universities across the country. I plan to grow the business at Samford first and down the road growing the businesses to similar Christian universities like Samford.

Even though my business is not a ministry-specific business, I still hope to be able to spread the Gospel through my business as we help fellow Christians during their move. Also, DormVault is a Christian business that helps local non-profits by contributing free moving services to non-profits.

I envision DormVault being an integral part of Samford’s campus life for years to come. As a result of this, DormVault will be able to give Samford parents more time with their kids. In the grand scheme of things, DormVault can create jobs for high school and college students to help these students be more financially stable for their future.

I would encourage students to join because no matter how much or how little you know about starting a business, the Samford Startup program helps meet you where you are so that you can grow to new levels as you develop your idea.