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Business Model

How Metrognome makes money. The company is vertically integrated: it owns or leases the buildings, operates the studios inside them, and runs an online community on top. Revenue is real-estate-shaped at the bottom and software/community-shaped at the top.

The headline frame

"We operate as specialty self-storage, but with higher demand and less competition." — Paul Troiano, OnPoint Portfolio Executive Summary, April 2026

The closest comparable is self-storage REITs: per-door monthly rent, sticky tenants, 24/7 access, low operational touch. Metrognome's twist is purpose-built buildouts (soundproofing, HVAC, security, amenity build-outs) that competitors can't replicate from generic CRE, plus a community layer that drives 3+ year median tenure (~2× self-storage norms).

Revenue lines

Three product lines, three distinct monetization models.

1. Monthly studios (Lockouts) — the core

The dominant revenue line by far. Per-door monthly rent, month-to-month, soft contractual lock-in but high practical lock-in (member's gear is set up, drum kit is heavy, breaking down is expensive).

  • Pricing: $300–500/mo per studio (varies by building + studio size + market rate).
  • Splits well: $400/mo across a 4-piece band = $100/person/month.
  • Standing rent escalator: every existing member receives a $5/mo per-studio rate increase on the calendar year, every year, regardless of current rate.
  • Asking rate is updated as the market moves, and members transition to current asking upon renewal.
  • Cancellation: 30 days written notice, M2M.
  • Refunds: none, except as expressly stated for hourly cancellations.

Portfolio metrics (April 2026 snapshot, 9 stabilized PDX buildings):

Metric Value
Doors leased 401 / 401 (100%)
Median tenure 3+ years
Feb 2026 monthly rent collected $145.8K
Annualized rent at current rates $1.75M
Annual rent at today's market rates $1.81M
Embedded annual upside $55.5K (+3.1%)
Asking rate growth 2024 → 2025 +4%
2025 portfolio gross revenue $1.74M
2025 portfolio NOI $555K

The $55.5K upside realizes naturally as legacy members renew at current asking rates. No new leasing required.

Cross-link: docs/business/lockouts/, real-estate.md.

2. Hourly studios — launched 2026

Pay-per-session bookable rooms during published booking hours. New product line; retention/lifecycle not yet validated.

  • Pricing: per-hour rate by studio (varies).
  • Booking: online only, same-day permitted, 1-hour minimum. Building access begins 15 min before session.
  • Cancellation: 24+ hours = full refund. Less than 24 hours or no-show = no refund.
  • Overstays: billable, $25+ penalty, three-strike policy.
  • No insurance for hourly members; assumption of risk on the member.

Hourly is a different ICP than monthly — different life stage, different commitment level, different displacement story. Don't conflate. See docs/marketing/icp.md "Hourly is a different game."

Cross-link: docs/business/hourly-reservations/.

3. SESHN — online community

Subscription access to the SESHN platform (built on Mighty Networks): expert/artist access, live sessions, programs/curriculum, content library, peer community.

  • Pricing: subscription. Specific price points to be confirmed in post-draft review.
  • Distinct membership — not bundled with studio access by default, though crossover programming (the "Physical Bridge") is part of the SESHN model.
  • Channel: external app + web.

Cross-link: pillars.md.

Platform fees and ancillary revenue

Beyond room rent / hourly bookings / SESHN subs, the company earns smaller streams that matter for unit economics:

  • Lockout platform fee — 0.7% of monthly lockout revenue accrues to the platform layer.
  • Credit redemption fee — 10% of redeemed credit value accrues to the platform on redemption.
  • Stripe fees — paid by MG (not pure pass-through). Affects margin on every transaction.
  • Insurance pass-through — Safestor coverage is offered to monthly members; MG collects the premium and forwards to insurer, retaining a small administration portion. See [Membership Agreement Exhibit A].
  • Vending and add-ons — gear, supplies, ancillary streams via Pillar 02 Studios. Material at scale, immaterial at current size.
  • Late fees — apply after the 5th on monthly memberships.

Do not model MG as a pure pass-through. There are real platform-side margins on every flow.

Cost structure

Two dominant categories:

Real estate (Pillar 01 Development)

The largest fixed cost. Composition shifts over time:

  • Leased buildings (Sparky Mack) — rent paid to landlord. Operating leverage capped by lease economics. Phasing out as leases convert to owned RE.
  • Owned buildings (per-property SPE) — debt service + property tax + maintenance. Higher capex, much higher long-run yield.
  • Build-out capex — soundproofing, HVAC, security, amenity buildouts. Funded via Fund & Capital Structure (SPE equity + debt).
  • QOZF program — Opportunity Zone Funds for qualifying properties (e.g. MG10 Cherry City via 676 Church QOZF, MG11 via 720 Flanders QOZF). Capital-structure advantage.

The strategic move is migration leased → owned, recapturing the spread between lease cost and ownership economics on members who are already paying the same rent. See strategy.md.

Operations (Pillar 02 Studios + Platform)

  • City Managers and field staff — per-location staffing cost, scales with location count not member count.
  • Facility upkeep — utilities, cleaning, maintenance, supplies.
  • Vendor stack — Stripe, Supabase, Vercel, UniFi, Twilio, Resend, etc. See stack.md.
  • Marketing acquisition — paid Meta + organic + referral. See docs/marketing/paid-meta.md.
  • Headcount — Platform shared services + leadership. Small team; current roster in people.md.

Why the unit economics work

  1. Sticky tenancy. Median tenure 3+ years means CAC amortizes over 36+ months of $300–500/mo rent.
  2. Embedded rent escalator. $5/mo/door per year compounds; market-rate-on-renewal closes the gap to current asking. The pricing book never falls behind inflation, and existing customers don't churn over it (the alternatives are still worse).
  3. Purpose-built buildouts are defensible. Generic CRE doesn't convert quickly. First-mover scale in a market means new entrants face a real moat.
  4. Migration capability. When a leased building closes, MG can migrate members to a new owned building (e.g., MG2 + MG8 → 1720 NE 9th Irvington at 78% pre-leased day-one). Same members, same rent, owned instead of leased.
  5. Platform leverage. One PMS, one CRM, one access-control integration scales across all locations. Each new building drops marginal tech cost.

Why it's a real business and not just a real-estate play

  • Demand exceeds supply at every building. 401/401 doors leased with active waitlists.
  • The community layer (SESHN) plus local programming (Pillar 02 Engage) is what drives 2× self-storage tenure. Without it, this would be specialty self-storage. With it, members renew because of who they are inside the community, not just where their gear is.
  • The CTO function and proprietary .com PMS mean the operating model isn't bottlenecked by people-per-location. Scaling from 9 to 50 buildings doesn't 5× headcount in shared services.

Outstanding items

  • [ ] SESHN current pricing and member count.
  • [ ] Hourly revenue contribution as % of total (1H 2026).
  • [ ] Total active membership count across monthly + hourly + SESHN.
  • [ ] Any other revenue lines worth listing (sponsorships, partnerships, content licensing)?
  • [ ] Capital position. The OnPoint deck is a debt conversation; equity capital state (active raises, QOZF status, runway) is owned by the CEO and to be confirmed before this section asserts numbers.