When a problem turns into a successful business opportunity
Discover Uliana Torkunova’s experience, LetMePark CEO, who joined IMPACT Connected Car Community at FundingBox to chat with us
Uliana Torkunova felt tired of always looking around for a place to park her car. While being a student at IE Business School, she decided to start a project to make her life, and that of everybody else, easier. A year ago she came up with the idea of creating an app to save drivers time when parking. That is how LetMePark was born. She shared with us her story at IMPACT Connected Car Community in an interactive Q&A session.
LetMePark allows you to find the parking according to your needs: the closest, the cheapest, with car wash, with reservation, with electric chargers, etc. You can even book them. It also provides information about parking services in restaurants, bars and clubs.
Launched a couple of months ago, the app is already working in Ukraine and in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga in Spain. Also, in a few months it will be ready to be used in California in collaboration with a local partner.
Despite the quick expansion, Uliana is facing some challenges at LetMePark, as getting quality location data. To face it, her team uses public information from different sources, getting it automatically, although they also gather some information manually, talking to parkings and partners.
Parking is not the only problem drivers face in our cities nowadays, that is why at LetMePark they decided to go one step ahead, and offer a second solution: to connect drivers with alternative mobility services. Imagine that the closest parking you left your car is still far away from your final destination, and the connection with public transport isn’t good. You can use LetMePark to look for car-sharing or scooter services to arrive to the place you have to go.
Entrepreneurs, start small and then go big
Problems and needs turn into business opportunities for entrepreneurs. Uliana advices to start small and then go big. “Satisfy at least 3 or 5 users, giving them a great service, and you will see that you start growing. Then satisfy everybody at the same time with that same great service”. She adds that persistence is the key to success in the startup world, without forgetting that contacts, good communication and human relationships are the success factor number 2.
The CEO of LetMePark also recommends to apply for public programs. She explained to IMPACT Connected Car Community (ICCar) members that for LetMePark it is specially easy to work with Madrid, because they received some help from Madrid City Hall through a program called La Nave.
ICCar is a program coordinated by FundingBox to bring smart mobility solutions to life and to solve real problems. FundingBox offers acceleration and internationalization services. It fosters innovation among entrepreneurs, and helps them to network throughout its fresh communities. At FundingBox we are growth catalysts specialized in equity-free public funded programs.
Join IMPACT Connected Car Community on FundingBox to discover funding opportunities, events and get inspired by the stories of experts and entrepreneurs, as Uliana’s!
