Were it not for a fateful hike, “Hawaii’s first virtual parking meter” might still just be an idle idea in need of a good mental dusting.
Tyler Saenz had the idea for Parklinq — a digital broker app that pairs up parking stall owners with drivers in need of a stall — back in 2018, but it took a nudge from fellow furloughed hospitality worker Wes Wendler on a visit to a Manoa Valley trail to get things moving.
Saenz had gotten no traction when he floated the idea to prospective partners three years ago, but then, after getting together in spring 2020, the two realized that the societal shift toward touchless tech suddenly made it workable.
“It was such a great idea,” said Wendler, Parklinq’s head of sales. “You can’t let something like this sit there, doing nothing.”
Part of Parklinq’s mission is to actually help vehicles; instead of circling around for 15 or more minutes looking for a stall, which contributes to carbon pollution and clogged traffic in areas like Waikiki.”
People want to know, they reasoned, that they can go straight to a reserved stall, at a price of $1 to $4 per hour or $30 per day, in contrast to the state’s nation-high daily garage/lot parking average of $50, according to their research.
Users can open the app, browse available sites and compare prices hourly, daily or monthly, (those are set by the stall owners, who typically receive a 70/30 split per transaction), then get GPS guidance to their spot. Prices change depending on day and time.
In October, Parklinq launched. It currently has a few hundred stalls at 20 different locations around town, mostly in Waikiki, but is open to adding partners anywhere on Oahu where parking can be tough, especially Kapolei and the North Shore.
It took a $250,000 up-front investment to get off the ground, but the parking signage at partner stalls — at $50 a pop, relatively cheap — has been huge as an unintended form of advertising. They iterated the signs to include QR and near field communication, NFC, codes for people who come across them organically, which has turned out to be about 75% of all transactions.
Parklinq has experienced 60% growth month-over-month since its launch, Saenz said.
The pair still fields calls personally, sometimes early in the morning, from tech-challenged customers who need help booking a stall. They smile; it’s all part of the startup process. However, they are looking to grow their team of 11 coinciding with an upcoming expansion to Maui.
The ultimate goal is to be a disruptor of the parking industry, which has changed little in decades, while contributing to environmental causes; Parklinq donates 1% of revenue to carbon capture efforts.
In 2008, at age 21, Saenz was driving in his native California and forced off the road by an 18-wheeler, breaking his neck in three places. He was expected to be quadriplegic — but successful surgery had him on the mend. It gave him new perspective.
“I’ve had the best few years of my life out here in Hawaii,” Saenz said. “And having the opportunity to start a company like this out of a personal frustration of driving around and not being able to find a parking spot is … a dream come true. I couldn’t be happier, man.”
Saenz’s biggest emphasis right now is convincing business and property owners that instead of investing $100,000 for a traditional parking gate arm, they can go from free to paid parking on their property for next to no cost, and make stalls available on their own schedules.
A long-term goal is a collaboration with the City and County of Honolulu, which currently is bound by ordinance to have fixed street parking pricing — something Parklinq sees as a lost opportunity.
“What Tyler and I bring to the table is fresh eyes on an old problem,” said Wendler, who spent 15 years sailing around the world before settling in Hawaii. “If you just go about doing it the same way it’s always been done because that’s what you know to do, you’re not going to be innovating and creating change.”
PARKLINQ
Tyler Saenz, founder and CEO; Wes Wendler, partner and head of sales
Phone: 808-517-5017
Website: parklinq.com
Instagram: @parklinq
