Parkaze - Host & Rent Privately Owned Parking Spots

Introduce yourself and tell us about Parkaze?

I am Amal, the co-founder, and CEO of Parkaze, a Boston-based parking startup. We offer an online platform for individual homeowners/renters to host their parking spaces, and drivers to book parking. We also provide B2B functionalities for property management companies, churches, universities, and hotels to efficiently manage their parking inventory as well as open up their parking spaces to the general public.

What problem is Parkaze solving?

Parkaze is tackling the economic and environmental problems linked to parking. Our mission is to economically empower people with technology to monetize their parking spaces while providing a cheaper and smarter alternative for people looking for homes for their cars.

What sacrifices have you made to become an entrepreneur?

The biggest sacrifice I made was quitting my full-time job in management consulting as an Associate at Stax Inc in Boston. Leaving the corporate world to start an entrepreneurial journey was obviously a tough decision but I had been on Parkaze with my co-founders for some time, so the transition was pretty natural.

How are you marketing Parkaze?

We’ve been marketing our platform and services in many different ways. Our current strategies involve creating informational content on social media, interviewing industry professionals like transportation and real estate experts, and creating partnerships and referral programs.

Tell us about a time you took a risk in your business?

I believe taking risks is an integral part of being an entrepreneur, and at Parkaze, we strive to seize every opportunity. We have invested in various strategies, such as a direct mail marketing campaign we are currently working on. We always thoroughly test each campaign and learn from the results.

What is your long term strategy to grow the business?

Our long-term strategy is to break into the B2B parking market. We are working on building partnerships with property management companies, churches, schools, universities, and so on. Our other goal is expanding to other densely populated cities outside of Boston like NYC and Chicago.

What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs?

My advice for new entrepreneurs would be to constantly ask yourself WHY you are doing this. The WHY is always more important than WHAT you are building and HOW you are building it. For Parkaze the WHY is to be able to live freely and to create new economic opportunities for communities by driving sustainable smarter cities.

The WHAT is to make the end-to-end parking experience hassle-free, affordable, and sustainable by building the best parking management platform ever. The HOW is through our website, apps, our unique supply-side partners, our marketing strategy, and so on.