The Problem:
Valet parking takes too long to retrieve your car. Last weekend, at a restaurant in Bethesda, I waited outside in the rain for fifteen minutes. Why not just be able to call and enter your ticket number and have your car queued up for pick-up? Valet parking is surprisingly low-tech, with their reactive model and doors full of unprotected keys.
The Business
A software/phone system that valets can use where patrons can call ahead with their ticket number and have their car waiting for them.
Doableness
There is a restaurant in Rockville, Seasons 52, which is already doing this. So it’s very doable. However, after much googling, I don’t see where anyone is selling this product wholesale. I asked Seasons 52 who they used, and they pointed me to a Florida company. Investigation of the FL valet company didn’t help me determine anything. As best I can tell, this is a good idea that’s already out there, waiting to be widely distributed.
My Thoughts
A business, even when it comes with the word “start-up” attached, isn’t always about commercializing some genius product, process or invention. It’s about solving a customer need. A great product or invention isn’t truly great if .01% of the population gets to use it. Sometimes a business is about getting a product into the hands of many.