Thanks to the “sharing economy,” you can make money off your home, off your vehicle, and now, your driveway.
A new Portland-based startup called Citifyd is developing an app that connects owners of an open driveway or parking lot with people searching for a place to leave their vehicle. It’s basically Airbnb for parking spots.
The company was spun out of Ziba Labs, a startup incubation arm of the Portland design firm Ziba. Sohrab Vossoughi, who founded Ziba more than three decades ago, is also CEO and founder of Citifyd.
Vossoughi came up with the idea for Citifyd after he had trouble finding a parking spot before attending a Portland Timbers soccer match last year.
“As I rushed to the stadium, I noticed quite a few empty private parking spaces,” he recalled.
Citifyd, which is in beta and will launch in September, is targeting both private residences and open lots at churches, lawyer’s offices, or other businesses which may own parking spaces that go unused for any portion of a day or week. The company makes money by charging the driver a convenience fee and taking a cut from the seller’s revenue.
There are certainly many entrepreneurs trying to tackle the parking problem with mobile apps, but Vossoughi isn’t worried.
“Apple launched the iPod at a time when the market was flooded with music players,” he noted. “What Citifyd brings is the Ziba focus on user experience. Ziba is one of the foremost design firms on user experience, with a legacy of that focus that goes back 30 years. And virtually our entire staff is from Ziba.”
Citifyd employs eight and is backed by more than $1 million in funding. Vossoughi said he’s looking to raise another $1 million this summer, before the app launches to the public in Portland.
