24A- Venture No.1

Mark N'Park 

Opportunity: The people who have the need for available parking spaces on a local level are college students and families in Gainesville. The main environmental factor for this demand is due to the high number of restrictive parking across the city of Gainesville and the low number of available street parking close or around the campus. During the busy time of the semester, it is difficult for many students to find open spaces on campus so they have to arrive earlier on campus to make sure that they get a parking spot or are forced to find another alternative solution to the problem. For instance, after interviewing several college students, each of them experienced the same exact issue but reacted to the problem differently. One individual would park their car 15 minutes away from campus and walk the rest of the way to his class, while another student would take the bus so they would not have to risk being late to their class. On the perspective of the families, many parents experienced the same issue as the college students in finding parking throughout Gainesville. One parent mentioned that the parking garage of the apartment complex that her daughter lives in is always full and even has restrictive parking within the garage. She said that she is only allowed to park on the third floor because the second floor is only limited to retail parking and the other levels of the garage are for the residents of the apartment and for local businesses around the complex that have permission for their customers to park in. In order to satisfy the need, she has to end up spending time looking for street parking or wait until there is availability in the parking garage of the apartment complex. When she does park her car in either of these places, she leaves her car there for the rest of her visit and only walks to the restaurants near the apartment because she is scared she is going to lost her spot.

   This is a relatively big opportunity because there are tens of thousands of students at the University of Florida. The students (ages 18-24), the parents, and even visitors of the city of Gainesville mainly experience this problem. The “window of opportunity” is going to continuous because students are always going to need parking near or around campus to get to their classes and families are always going to be looking for availability because they are going to want to visit their child at the university.

Innovation: In order to help combat such an issue on a local level, the app “Mark N’ Park” is specially designed to help reduce the issue of parking within Gainesville. This app is intended to be integrated within a parking garage so the system would be able to determine whether the parking garage is full and if there are any available spaces in the garage.  When the driver initially enters the parking garage, the driver will receive a ticket from the machine of the parking garage that will assign the driver a parking space. Once the driver finds their spot, they just have to download the app and input their parking space number so they know where they parked and the system is able to detect that specific spot is occupied. Customers would want to buy my innovation because they are in high need of parking and the app will make money through advertisements, sponsorships, and the developers or owners of the parking garages.

Venture Concept: This innovation will address this opportunity because it will reduce the time that people have to spend looking for available parking and will be incorporated in parking garages that do not have restrictive parking. Customers would want to use this product because they need to find parking spaces for their car especially in a city like Gainesville that is highly populated around the campus. City developers would be interested in this concept because they would still be making a profit from the $5 an hour they make customers pay for parking in the garage and would attract more customers because people now know they can park there without fear of being towed. The rates could even go higher on special events like game days to increase profit. The app itself would make its money through advertisements via banner or native ad or sponsorship from the developer companies of the garage. The direct target customers that would be using the app would not have to pay to use the app themselves.

   It would not be difficult to get people to use this product because there isn’t anything like it on the market and there aren’t any direct competitors in this situation. The available street parking spaces that charge lower prices for parking may be a threat to the concept, but it is not always guaranteed that people will be able to find a vacant spot. In terms of customer support and service, customers will be able to have access to a number or input their opinions of their experience with the app system to ensure that they are satisfied with the service. The designated location would help support the business concept because it is in an area where parking is in high demand and there are currently limited spots for people to park their cars in. The roles that are in the venture are the contractors of the parking garage and city developers who would have to agree to this installment system. In the future, I would eventually incorporate a deal with local restaurants and businesses where customers could get a discount or a bogo if they use the app in the parking garage,

Three Minor Elements: I think my most important resource is my ability to self-reflect and use the constructive criticism that I am given to improve upon myself or a concept. In this case, the feedback that I would be able to receive from my customers directly through the app will allow me to see which elements they like and which ones I could alter to provide a more satisfying experience. This would make it difficult for other competitors because they may not care to hear about their customers’ experiences and are only worried about making a profit. The next venture that I would like to tackle is taking this business concept into other locations that have highly populated cities (New York City, Miami, LA, etc.). I think this idea would be successful in these cities because there are a lot of people living and visiting there and these cities make a lot more of a profit than Gainesville. Assuming I launched, I would want to see my app being used in 10 major US cities in the next five years and eventually be spread out across the whole nation. On an even longer term, I would want the app to be used on an international level. This first venture would help me achieve my vision because it would help me determine how successful it would be and how attractive it is for my customers.