Katharine Lau

Katharine Lau is the CEO and co-founder of Stuf, a tech-enabled self-storage solution, overseeing the company’s strategic vision and execution of the company’s growth goals. She works closely with employees on day-to-day operations, helping them learn about the industry and grow the business, providing mentorship and support for all sections of the business. With her commercial real estate background, she is responsible for leading the supply acquisition of new locations throughout the country.

Since founding the company in 2020, Lau has turned her startup into a successful business model that partners with property owners to monetize underutilized space while providing a new amenity to the local community. It now operates over 20 locations across the U.S. in major metro cities, including New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco and Seattle. Stuf tripled its real estate footprint in 2023, partnering on deals with property owners including Jamestown, The Swig Company, Rubicon Point Partners and RXR, generating over $1 million in revenue. Stuf recently opened a new location in Brooklyn that also includes retail space, with more locations in New York and Los Angeles coming soon.

From 2015 to 2020, Lau led supply growth at Industrious, a premium shared workplace provider. She built and managed a team of 20-plus members and oversaw the company’s rapid expansion while developing go-to-market strategies for new digital products and tenant experience services. As VP of Real Estate, Lau pioneered an “industry first” asset and liability-light growth strategy, leading to CBRE’s partial acquisition of Industrious in early 2021.

Being a female in the real estate industry, and specifically self-storage, is an ongoing challenge Lau continues to overcome every day. Starting a business in 2020 was also a challenge for many; however, despite a global pandemic, Lau raised over $11 million in funding to bring her startup idea to life. In the midst of starting Stuf, securing investors and raising funding, she also started a family, recently having her second child.

These are just a few reasons we selected Katharine Lau as one of Connect CRE’s New York & Tri-State 2024 Next Generation Award winners. Connect CRE’s seventh annual Next Generation Awards recognize young leaders who will strongly influence the commercial real estate industry.