Week 6 BOC: Parking Panda

www.parkingpanda.com - “Have a driveway or other parking spot? List it for rent and let it earn you extra cash whenever you're not using it. Set your spot's price and availability to suit your schedule, and change this anytime. We'll notify you whenever someone books your spot, and a check will be on its way to you! Parking Panda users are daily commuters, concert-goers, art aficionados, foodies, shoppers, and most importantly Ravens and Redskins fans. Everyone needs parking. We have stringent standards to verify that every user of our site is a real live person (or panda) with up-to-date contact info on file so that we can ensure every transaction goes smoothly.”
www.techcrunch.com - “The other part involves working with parking garage owners in major cities on yield optimization for their own empty spaces. When lots are empty, garages can massively discount the lots to fill them up. When the lots again approach full, garages can begin to charge more. As for which model dominates, it depends on the time of the year. As co-founder Nick Miller told us, when Parking Panda launched its beta in Baltimore, it arrived during football season. At the time, around 70% of its bookings were via the so-called “collaborative consumption” model where individual space owners would rent out their spaces to other drivers. After football season ended, however, the garages began to dominate, with individual space owners’ rentals dropping to 15%-20% of company’s total bookings.”
www.mashable.com - “The startup has raised an undisclosed amount of funding and is still in the process of raising more, Miller tells us. Parking Panda has helped more than 1,000 people park in Baltimore, he adds, and has recently begun working with parking garages to increase its inventory. ParkWhiz, another online startup in the parking space, focuses on helping people find parking in major commercial lots.”