This episode of "How I Built This" interviews Mark Lawrence, founder of SpotHero, a parking app. The interview traces SpotHero's journey from a peer-to-peer driveway rental service to a major digital parking platform, highlighting challenges like intense competition and pivoting to a business model focused on partnerships with parking garages. Lawrence discusses the crucial decision to prioritize deep market penetration in Chicago before expanding, resisting pressure to blitz-scale, and ultimately outlasting competitors who raised significantly more funding. SpotHero's success demonstrates the value of a focused, relationship-driven approach, even in the face of significant competitive pressure and funding disparities. The interview also touches upon the company's struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent recovery.
