Secrets of the $131 Billion Parking Industry with Jonathon Barkl (Co-founder and CEO of AirGarage)

The Peel with Turner Novak

Jonathon Barkl is the Co-founder and CEO of AirGarage, a full-stack parking management company that helps real estate owners increase their income.

Jonathon and his co-founders Chelsea and Scott started the company in 2017. They’ve since raised roughly $15 million from investors including Founders Fund, Floodgate, a16z, Abstract, and prior guest of the show Ryan Delk.

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Topics discussed:

• A crash course on the business model of parking
• Why parking lots make most of their money from tickets and towing
• The reason American cities dedicate up to 30% of space to parking
• How the $131 Billion parking industry evolved to be so complicated and outdated
• Why dynamic pricing in parking is harder than hotels and airlines
• The three primary business models for a parking lot
• Why Air Garage can increase a parking lots profitability by 4-5x
• How part of its business was inspired by scooter companies like Bird and Lime
• Starting “Airbnb for Driveways” in 2016 to solve their own problem as college students
• The sales lessons Jonathon learned doing door-to-door sales in the Arizona heat
• How getting scammed out of $6,000 led to pivoting their business model
• Moving to San Francisco with no connections and raising a Seed round
• How they closed a Series A in a week
• The importance of investor brand when hiring early employees
• Why Jonathon cares so much about branding as a parking company

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Referenced:

• 
  https://www.airgarage.com/
  
• 
  https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/
• Mac vs PC ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eEG5LVXdKo
• Never Split the Difference: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805
  
• 
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit
  
• 
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_States

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Where to find Jonathon:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonathonbarkl
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathonbarkl

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Where to find Turner:

• Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak
• Banana Capital: https://bananacapital.vc

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