I Just Interviewed The CEO of Zirx, The Valet App Everyone Is Talking About
Written by Greg Muender, cofounder of Fatberry
|| Written for The Berry Farm, a Medium Publication for stories about startups. ||
It’s easy to see that Sean Behr is a car guy. When I ask him what his dream car would be, he fires off three very specific choices as if he’s been thinking about the answer for days on end. Auto enthusiasm aside, Sean’s the cofounder and CEO of Zirx, an app that is revolutionizing valet parking as we know it. Perhaps you could say that he cofounded Zirx to solve a problem, or to capitalize on an opportunity, or to make a ton of money. I say he did it because he loves cars.
All over the world, the vast (but admittedly shrinking) majority of us still look at our car as the liberating machine that it is, rather than the hunk-of-steel-and-plastic burden that it is often referred to as.
There has been a lot of attention in the last couple of years over personal logistics (aka getting you and your groceries from Trader Joe’s to home.) Ridesharing behemoths Uber and Lyft have famously duked it out, raising hundreds of millions to seemingly launch at one another in order to gain market share as if missiles were made out of Benjamins.
Add in the dozen-or-so other players in the space, and there is a ton of influence changing the way that we think about owning and operating a car. They tell us parking is a hassle, and that a car is inconvenient to maintain and keep clean, and that it’s quicker to let someone else drive.
It’s a narrative that’s been growing momentum with urban dwellers:
“You don’t need a car. You shouldn’t have a car.”
Sean is fighting the good fight for those of us car aficionados that aren’t exactly ready and willing to transition to an alternate vehicular lifestyle; whether it be a global network of self driving cars by Google, a Prius on every street corner by Uber, or a rumored iCar by the Cupertino firm that made i your favorite letter.
So what exactly is Zirx? Imagine valet driving 2.0, if you will. Valet for the 21st century that is tech-first and powered by the device in your pocket. Open up the app, and like magic, someone is whisked to your location, ready and able to take your car off your hands and park it in a safe spot. It’s astonishingly cheap too; just $1 per hour. In a classic but rare win-win scenario, you get all of the convenience without any price premium at all.
But as much as Zirx is a much better valet service, Sean is adamant that it is so much more than that.
The folks who park the cars aren’t called valet drivers, they are called agents. Zirx is careful to set a precedent that suggests parking, and the driving associated with it, is just one of the functions of the service. The agents have earned this nomenclature because they are the keepers of your car.
Today, they make sure it’s parked in a safe location, fueled up with the explosive juice of your choosing, and clean as a whistle. Down the line, Sean hints to me that they’ll keep it up to date with maintenance, and coordinate the logistics of any needed repairs. All while your car would otherwise be idle.
To use Zirx consistently is to experience an indefinitely clean and perpetually maintained car. Doing so turns your car into a constant instead of a variable. There’s just nothing to worry about, Zirx has happily and eagerly taken on much of burden that is often associated with ownership.
Gone are the days of wasting a Saturday reading two-year-old ESPN Magazines at the tire center. With Zirx, your car gets some new rubber while you are at the office, your favorite restaurant, or even a baseball game.
Say goodbye to choosing to leave your car at home because parking is too much of a hassle. You can pull right up to where you need to go, and the proximity and convenience is nearly unmatched by any other method.
And finally, rest assured that nevermore will you have to add time to your commute to wash your car or fuel it. “I haven’t been to a gas station in 6 months” Sean enthusiastically tells me. “I use a button to fill up my car now.”
Of course, he’s talking about the gas ‘er up feature of the app. When you car is parked, a simple flick of the toggle means a full tank. Sure, you pay a bit more than market rates, but Sean makes a compelling case that the time savings is worth any premium. For many users, a few bucks is a reasonable price to pay for avoiding an extra quarter-hour tacked on to a commute.
Sames goes for the car wash. Could you go elsewhere and get one for a bit cheaper than the Zirx price of $30? I’m sure you could, but it would undoubtedly burn some time to do so. Use Zirx and you buy some of your time back.
Sean has had massive successes before, at one point even being involved with Adap.tv during their 2013 sale to AOL for a reported $405 million. If Sean’s past is any indicator of his nascent company’s future, I think we’re all going to start seeing a lot more Zirx agents running around cities for years to come.
Here is the full interview:
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Show Notes
