Asked how he got the idea for his business, CEO of Spotter Albie Brown said it came during high school.
“I was driving to school in San Francisco and [I had] to wake up about half an hour early in order to drive around searching for parking spots,” Brown said in an interview. “Meanwhile, all these other people were leaving for work and leaving these driveways wide open.”
To get the supply in touch with the demand, Brown created Spotter — which he describes as a peer-to-peer parking marketplace or, in short, the “Airbnb for driveways.”
"It’s a great way for businesses to just add another revenue stream"
Here's how it works. Thanks to Spotter, parking spot owners can earn money by renting out their space (or spaces) to people who need it. All they have to do is listing their spot on the app, where users can find it and rent it thanks to a real-time map. Users pay $1 per hour to park their car.
Spotter, which keeps 20 percent of the income, pays out renters on a monthly basis when they have earned at least $30. According to the company, renters - who can list the times the spot is available - can make up to $128 if they rent the spot during the business week. Earnings can grow up to $176 if they rent during the weekends or $576 if the parking spot is always available.
“We work with a few non-profits and businesses who have extra space in their parking lots,” Brown said. “So it’s a great way for businesses to just add another revenue stream.”
A couple of things to remember. Currently, Spotter works only in Providence, where the company launched in 2016. In the case of office parking spots, renters should get authorization from whoever manages the property before listing them on Spotter.
The company didn’t disclose the number of users, citing a need to be careful due to many competitors working on parking applications. One of them has almost the same name — Spot — and it’s currently active in many cities including Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Brown, who graduated from Brown University with a degree in computer science, started to develop the Spotter app with a couple of friends during his senior year. The company has two employees based in Providence and three people in the Bay Area. The West Coast, Brown said, will likely be the next market for Spotter.
Currently, the app is available only for iPhone. Brown said he’s working on an Android version, which should be ready by this fall.
