The Tech Cocktail events have become legendary in the Chicago tech scene, and ParkWhiz was lucky enough to demo at last Thursday’s TC4. Over 500 people came out, and Aashish and I enjoyed spreading the word about intelligent parking. Big thanks to Justin and John at Menuism who saved us when we realized we needed a power adapter.

As always Eric and Frank, the TC co-founders, did a great job making sure the even went off without a hitch. These guys are becoming superstars and are taking the Tech Cocktail event nationwide. Next stop…DC!

This past Friday was a cool day for me personally. I got to stand in the booth with radio personalities Eddie and JoBo of Chicago’s WBBM-FM B-96. Prior to founding ParkWhiz, I used to drive endless hours to my job and the only thing that kept me awake (and sane) in the morning was listening to these guys. It was a thrill to meet them. It’s amazing after all these years in the spotlight how friendly and approachable they are. They took the time to check out ParkWhiz.com and for a good 5 minutes everyone in the booth began bantering about where the best monthly parking space was around the area.

Overall, the staff at WBBM and B-96 was most gracious and extremely excited about ParkWhiz. Considering that people are in their car listening to the radio on their way to work, it can be a very effective medium to get the word out on ParkWhiz. Don’t touch that dial, because you’ll be hearing more of ParkWhiz soon.

Well, after a bustling 3 days of jam-packed meetings, pitches, and pow-wow sessions, we are finally settled back in Chicago. CTIA was an overwhelming, but great experience. Obviously, we are very excited to have won the Navteq LBS Challenge Navigation Category. Navteq and its sponsors were amazing and I highly encourage anyone with a LBS application to think about entering this competition. It’s great in terms of developing your product and the judges really provide some great feedback on what they think works and what does not.

We made some great friends at the LBS Challenge and hope to continue working with them, including the category winner of business applications, Jentro. Jentro is having a pretty good year as they just came from the 3GSM Conference in Barcelona where they won the European LBS Challenge Grand Prize. Jentro’s activepilot is the leading location-based end-to-end solution, offering local search, community tools, e911, and offboard navigation. They recently opened an office in Chicago, so we’ll be seeing them quite a bit now. They have a great platform and it’s no surprise they won their category, despite some stiff competition from the likes of loopt, which also has an amazing interface and userbase. We also want to mention our friends at Ten 23 Software, Chris and Chris, whose SpotKast app keeps your phone updated with the information relevant to users, helping them to save time and read their favorite web content, find a place to eat, avoid traffic jams, and find friends quickly through one easy to use interface. We’re hoping to get our parking information on their platform soon.

Aside from the competition, the CTIA convention was great as well. Although we missed out on seeing George Bush and Bill Clinton give their keynotes (due to hectic schedules), we met numerous carriers and providers who seem excited to work with ParkWhiz. Everyone seems to recognize what a pain parking can be and after seeing our app in motion, they all think we are on to something. The weather was gorgeous, albeit a bit windy, but overall was a nice break from the cold. We’re looking forward to next year’s CTIA and hope to return as contestants to the Navteq LBS Challenge with our eyes set on winning the grand prize!

ParkWhiz Mobile topped the navigation category of this year’s NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge. There were some pretty cool companies in the competition (ComVu won the grand prize for an app that lets you BROADCAST video from your cell phone — check them out), and we’re excited to be recognized.

ParkWhiz is a finalist for the 2007 LBS Challenge, sponsored by Navteq. The competition will take place March 26th – March 28th during the CTIA Wireless Conference in Orlando, Florida.

We’re extremely grateful to be selected as a finalist and look forward to showing off the ParkWhiz mobile application.

If you’re in the area or plan to attend the conference and would like to learn more about ParkWhiz, feel free to contact me to arrange a time and meet. I can be reached at (312) 520-1963 or adalal@parkwhiz.com.

…unless I wrote it.

I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions about ParkWhiz.

• ParkWhiz can tell you when street parking is available FALSE! ParkWhiz only searches off-street parking, such as lots, garages, and driveways.
• ParkWhiz is an auction service for parking FALSE! There are no auctions and no bidding on ParkWhiz. Sellers set a price for parking, and that’s how much it costs. If you reserve parking on ParkWhiz, it’s yours; no worrying about being outbid or having your spot swiped.
• ParkWhiz is only available in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York FALSE! Anyone in the US can list parking for rent on ParkWhiz, whether you’re in Portland, OR, or Portland, ME. In the words of Howard Dean, “We’re going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico. We’re going to California and Texas and New York, and we’re going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan… Byaaah!!!”

If you’re not sure, just ask!

After much hard work and a couple false starts, the ParkWhiz Marketplace is now open to the general public. For those that are visiting ParkWhiz for the first time, here’s a quick rundown of what ParkWhiz is:

• A place to find parking. Quickly search our database of thousands of parking spots to find the best parking near your destination. You can reserve parking in advance at select locations.
• A place to sell parking. You could be a parking garage operator with excess space or just an average Joe (or Josephine) that wants to offer up their driveway for parking. ParkWhiz makes it easy to turn your unused parking into cash.
• Free for everyone. It costs nothing to become a ParkWhiz member, whether you’re selling parking or looking for it
• Environmental friendly. Studies have suggested that driving around for parking increases urban traffic congestion by up to 30%, leading to greater emissions and air pollution. By increasing the pool of available parking and helping people park there quickly, we have less traffic circling for parking spaces and cleaner air to breathe in.

On behalf of Aashish and the rest of the ParkWhiz team, welcome. We look forward to solving your parking problems.  If you have any comments or questions, don’t hesitate to email info@parkwhiz.com or call our CEO, Aashish, at (312) 520-1963 during normal business hours.

I was recently invited to speak at a Northwestern University Kellogg MBA class to discuss the challenges of starting a company, specifically a “Web 2.0” company. While I don’t necessarily care for the categorization as a “Web 2.0” company, I was excited to receive the feedback of some of the sharpest business minds in the country. The overall session was extremely positive and well-received. As we were leaving, I was approached by one of the students who asked me “given that the majority of startups fail, why do you think ParkWhiz will succeed?”

I answered the gentleman’s question with an air of confidence, but over the next few days, the question got me thinking. Ideas are everywhere and at their infancy can sound off-the-wall or even insane. eBay was a laughable concept to many 10 years ago. Was Pierre Omidyar crazy to start eBay? Clearly, in his wildest imagination, he never thought eBay would evolve to its current day stage. Jeff Fluhr, who recently sold his company, StubHub, to eBay for $300M+ knew he had a great idea 6 years ago, but probably faced challenges and stresses he also never imagined. The same could be said for Jeff Bezos, Paul Graham and other entrepreneurs who eventually became successful.

I know the numbers – 9 in 10 startup businesses will fail. Those are pretty daunting numbers and can make anyone question their life’s path. Nevertheless, people continue to create startups and at a furious pace. The reason: we are all wannabe Omidyar’s, Bezo’s, and Fluhr’s etc. and truly believe we can help create the next great thing. And the statistics suggest today is a great time to start a business.

According to Pew Research,

-75%+, or more than 150 million Americans, are Internet users
-50% of US Internet users access it through a broadband connection
-91% use a search engine to find information
-84% search for a map or driving directions
-73% get travel info via the Internet
-63% buy or make a reservation for travel
-39% read someone else’s blog
-35% send or receive text messages using a cell phone
-28% rate a product, service or person using an online rating system
-12.5% maintain their own website
-7.5% keep a blog; which more than doubles than numbers three years ago

But I know, despite any statistic, good or bad, the key to any successful company, whether classfied as a traditional business or a “Web 2.0” company is and always will be the same. You need to have a solid idea, a great team, and ultimately the right execution. It has been the foundation of successful businesses since the dawn of time and will always continue to be that way. It also doesn’t hurt to have a bit of luck as well!

Pop quiz – put your books and pencils away. There’s just one question…define Revenue Management.

zzzz….boring! Yea, the topic of revenue management may be the perfect cure for your latest bout of insomnia, but it’s also a critical cog in many industries today. Revenue management, also known as yield management, is the process of understanding, anticipating and reacting to consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits (see Figure 1) . In other words, by manipulating price, companies can maximize their profits. Read the rest of this entry »

Aashish recently discussed ParkWhiz in an interview with Mark Scheffler of Business POV. Check it out here.