Over 2,500 companies applied for this fall’s cohort of Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups Batch 19. Of this group, the storied startup accelerator accepted less than three percent of those companies. That's an acceptance rate more competitive than MIT or Harvard.
One of the companies selected hails from Austin.
Co-founded in January 2016 by serial entrepreneurs Jenn Starr and Ben Cantey, Park Evergreen headed west for the four-month program in October.
The startup hopes to be a solution to some of Austin's traffic woes. The idea is to replace a company's need for manual planning of downtown parking options with an online platform that offers unlimited parking to employees across a network of available lots in the city.
That B2B approach is the reason Starr said they beat out their competition for the accelerator.
“Our competitors are going more after the consumer market, maybe those who go downtown one to two times a week,” said Starr. “We’re looking at who goes downtown every day, and these are employees. I think that 500 saw that we are really looking at it from a different perspective, and we’re gaining traction with investors because of this.”
Rather than calling up lot owners to find availability, office managers can log into Park Evergreen’s online dashboard to instantly grab a spot from the system’s parking inventory. Then, users can assign it to a new employee via e-mail or deactivate employees who leave the company.
The convenience factor remains at the heart of the Park Evergreen mission, but Starr said the company also plans to offer a free database of spots available from other vacant lots that employees can use for personal use. That way, when an employee dips out of work to head to happy hour, they can park for free by reserving through the Park Evergreen app.
“We really wanted to add value to both the companies subscribing to the monthly service and the employees who need it,” said Starr.
Starr said the team has been learning from 500 Startups' global community of mentors and companies, seeking advice and best practices on scaling. The incubator invests $150,000 in the companies in exchange for a six percent participation fee.
Since the beginning of the program, the Park Evergreen team has secured three local companies in need of over 200 parking spots. The team of five is actively seeking a funding round and plans to launch first in Austin, then Nashville within 12 to 18 months.
“We’ve been meeting with coaches that are part of the 500 team, meeting with people who have done this before, and who have scaled companies that are really seasoned at this,” said Starr. “It's been tremendous, and we are looking forward to taking everything we learn to grow our company as quickly as possible."
Batch 19 will conclude with a demo day on Feb. 19. Park Evergreen plans to return to Austin shortly after.
Images provided by Park Evergreen.
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