Entrepreneurs / Small Business  November 12, 2014

Where to park? It’s easier than ever

BOULDER – Ever circled downtown Boulder on a Friday night searching in vain for a metered parking spot or spiraled to the top of a parking garage only to see the car in front of you snag the last space?

Those already-late-for-my-dinner-reservations-why-can’t-I-just-find-a-stinking-place-to-park moments could soon be a thing of past.

Denver startup Parkifi’s first customer, the city of Boulder, will start utilizing the service next month, giving drivers the ability to cruise right to a spot thanks to real-time data on their smartphones.

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Parkifi was one of nine startups pitching at the Boomtown accelerator’s demo day in front of a few hundred investors and community members who braved the weather (and toughed out the busted heating system at the Boulder Theater) to hear about the new companies.

The Parkifi app, which works by placing small sensors in each city parking spot, will not only make life better for drivers. But the idea is also to provide a wealth of data to cities or parking lot management companies to help them optimize pricing and streamline parking enforcement, with the cities and other customers paying not for the sensors but for the wealth of data they provide.

In addition to Boulder, Parkifi – founded by former SendGrid employees Ryan Sullivan and Rishi Malik – has deals lined up with a parking management company in Denver that represents 7,000 parking spots and another in Pittsburgh with 25,000 spots.

The model is one that former SendGrid CEO Jim Franklin, who introduced the Parkifi team Wednesday, said has transformed him from “skeptic to investor.”

For drivers, Sullivan said, it makes the parking process as easy as saying, “Siri, where should I park?”

The Boomtown demo day was the second for the seed-stage accelerator that was launched earlier this year by former Crispin Porter + Bogusky principal Alex Bogusky and veterans from the media and technology worlds.

Boomtown’s sprint 2015 cohort begins in March, with applications due Nov. 20.

Other startups that pitched Wednesday included:

 

Bitsbox, a Boulder-based startup that has developed a way to teach kids computer programming by allowing them to build apps through a website along with a monthly subscription box that contains a variety of programming projects.

 

Peach, a Baltimore-based startup that helps consumers easily find, compare and purchase extended warranties via mobile or web for goods they purchase without feeling pressured into buying them by store representatives.

 

Thrivepass, a Boulder startup that’s developed a “wellness spending account,” allowing companies to provide funds for employees’ preventive healthcare while also ensuring that the money provided by companies is used in the correct manner and not wasted.

 

Derive, another Boulder startup that has developed a way to turn raw sensor data into human language to provide meaningful insights and data from connected devices.

 

Factivate, a North Carolina-based company that has created a cloud-based spreadsheet to help users automate business processes within the spreadsheet environment.

 

MediaNest, an Austin, Texas-based company that’s developed a way for companies to manage, distribute, promote and analyze their online videos and campaigns.

 

Truthly, a startup that is developing a database of scientific research in an online platform to help people find their way to the most useful information about health issues.

 

Kickfurther, a Boulder company that has created a crowdfunding platform that gives businesses a way to raise capital investment from non-accredited investors.

 

BOULDER – Ever circled downtown Boulder on a Friday night searching in vain for a metered parking spot or spiraled to the top of a parking garage only to see the car in front of you snag the last space?

Those already-late-for-my-dinner-reservations-why-can’t-I-just-find-a-stinking-place-to-park moments could soon be a thing of past.

Denver startup Parkifi’s first customer, the city of Boulder, will start utilizing the service next month, giving drivers the ability to cruise right to a spot thanks to real-time data on their smartphones.

Parkifi was one of nine startups pitching at the Boomtown accelerator’s demo day in front of a few hundred investors…

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