EBS STARTUP BLOG: PART 3 – “Ajujaht? Yes!”

Ajujaht?/!
A topic came up on yet another meeting we had: business idea competition and accelerator „Ajujaht“, which was suggested to us by our blog’s star-lecturer Ülle Pihlak. We understood right away, that Ajujaht is a good opportunity for a quick start and a priceless experience. We grabbed the bull by the horns and the decision to participate was made.

We asked ourselves, why do we want to take part of Ajujaht? The reasons were:

1. Opportunity to get advice from top-class mentors.
2. The prize fund of this competition would give us the needed startup capital.
3. It would give us the social network and public attention, which might come in handy.
4. EBS scholarship for students who get into TOP 30 of Ajujaht.

 

We set our goal of course to be TOP 1, but at first we needed to get into the TOP 100. We submitted our idea and started waiting for (hopefully good) news. Actually we didn’t just wait, but from the moment we registered to Ajujaht, we started with intensive idea development, because we needed to show something to the judges.

Full speed ahead!
At first we took on the passion filled name topic. We realized, that we had been wasting an improportionately high amount of time on choosing a name. Thankfully we had only two potential options to decide between: ParknGo and Locare. We thought, weighed the options, discussed. Eventually, came up with the decision that Locare sounds slightly like a home for the elderly, therefore we decided that ParknGo is much better and made it our name.

The main topics of the following meetings were income, market-statistics, the questions of the judges in Ajujaht and most importantly – preparations for the pitch and gathering information. Firstly, we generated questions that the judges might ask us and also tried answering these. It went very swiftly. Secondly, we went on with trying to think through everything that was still unclear to us. For example, the pre-booking system, which felt extremely difficult to make, that even at one point we were considering on leaving it out. But no need, we found a solution for everything!

For the pitch we dug out supporting numbers, which would show our market size, potential amount of clients and the potential revenue. It wasn’t an easy task but we were clever with it. For example: On one morning the topic of discussion in Terevisioon was the lack of parking spaces in Tallinn. The people discussing on the topic were specialists of the same field. Pure gold! We searched their names in Google and started calling them. Thanks to that we got access to a TalTech thesis, which focused on parking spots in Tallinn old-town and center. The creator of the thesis had done in addition to every thing else and found the important numbers relevant for us, counted even all of the privately owned parking spaces in the vicinity. It’s unbelievable what people are actually willing to do. But for this we are very thankful and send our thanks! A piece of advice – Keep your eyes open and be brave to ask others!

We also did a thorough analysis of competitors, during which became evident that in foreign countries we have a lot of competitors, which doesn’t have to be a bad figure. During the research of their solutions it became clear that we have to emphasize that our app is focused on providing the service as a C2C not B2C model. Also in Estonia we have a competitor – Barking. Again, it might not be a bad thing. Firstly, a market without competition is a bad sign and secondly, Barking was the first to make the first steps into entering the market, which will make our entry much easier. Another piece of advice here – If you don’t know yourself how to do something then spectate what others are doing. No one can stop you from testing the products/services of your competitors, to analyze them and then to make conclusions from them.

 

We finally came to realize as to what exactly we are doing. Christopher will go into more details regarding this.

Christopher: “So what does our idea exactly consist of and how are we planning on earning profit with it? Have you ever felt that you can’t find a spot to part your car in the city or you own a parking spot that stays empty most of the time and you are interested in earning additional income? ParknGo solves both of these issues!

We offer a parking space renting service from one private consumer to the other, through which we are able to keep the city streets clean from cars and to offer parking spot owners a method for earning passive income. For example if a parking space owner is at work for half of the day, their private parking space stays empty. With our app they would be able to rent their parking spot and earn money. It’s like finding money on the ground.

We would earn profit from commission fees and rental fee of the gate opening devices. The market may have competitors but we differentiate by being private consumer centered. They are the ones who can earn profit and the whole process is designed in a way most convenient and simple for them.“

 

That’s that! This time we will let Markus sign us off: „By the next time we (and you as well) will find out if we made it to the top 100. Not that I doubt us of reaching it. It’s more of getting a confirmation of us getting into it. And also for style I can say that even if we don’t get into the top 100, then it’s fine as well. I don’t intend on giving up, I mean… I wont give up!“