Jonathon Barkl discusses raising money for a parking company, an industry many VCs dismiss as unsexy. He emphasizes meeting investors early to build credibility, and notes that while some chase AI and crypto trends, others now prefer real revenue-generating businesses with strong unit economics and predictable markets.
Questions this video answers
Founders often encounter immediate disinterest from many VCs who dismiss the sector as uninteresting. Barkl recommends meeting investors before a formal raise to educate them about the market’s size, the company’s technology differentiation, and its proven revenue model. This pre‑emptive outreach helps separate investors who care about trends from those who value sustainable, cash‑generating businesses.
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I actually had a question from a founder that asked in advance, and they were asking or mentioned as far as operating in parking in a, I would say, like an industry or market that might not be as quote unquote like sexy or as kind of like trending at the moment in time when it comes to venture capital. Did you have any challenges around that and maybe kind of like educating some investors and kind of getting them excited about the opportunity?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, At our Series A, I think we say we got introduced to like 30 different venture firms all at the same time. Probably 5 to 7 of those immediately were just writing off, hey, we're not interested in parking. And I think that that's where the value of meeting investors before you're actually fundraising comes in because it's really easy, especially when it was 2021 and everybody's crazy busy trying to do rounds. It's really easy to look at something and say, I don't know anything about this space. I don't know why it's interesting. I'm just not going to take a meeting. And so that's where educating people instead of just going in cold as a pitch helps a lot with these things. And I think that, you know, there's been a little bit of an investor mindset shift in the last few years about these types of things where the benefit that I think we have, you know, we operate in an unsexy industry, but we are doing it in a very technologically forward way that is very differentiated from pretty much anything else anybody is doing in the industry. And the benefit that we have is it's a real business, right? Like from day one, we have been making money from every contract that we've signed. We don't have any locations that are negative in terms of the P&L that they drive for the business. So we've always been very focused on unit economics and building a sustainable business and making sure all of that works. And so, you know, there's certain subsets of investors where they're excited about the next flashy AI or crypto or consumer thing, which is cool. And then they sort of, you know, there's a different group of investors where they want to invest in real physical world businesses that are actually driving revenue and things like that. And that's, you know, you just have to sort of learn to separate those people and not be offended that the people that are looking at the next AI thing are not interested in your sexy, unsexy marketplace, you know, sort of business, right? And that's something you just have to accept. Personally, I love running a business in an unsexy way or an unsexy industry. And I will say one of our investors who's on our board, you know, at one point when crypto was going through some really turbulent times, he has, you know, crypto companies in his portfolio. He and I were on a just one-on-one conversation and he said something to the effect of like, you know, Everybody else in like these other industries that are like, you know, hot or not hot at any given time, they're just like, you know, they're bottles floating on the waves of the ocean being carried by the currents and sort of, you know, at the whim of the industry that they're in ocean currents-wise. And you guys are just kind of like, just keep going because there's really not any currents in this industry and there's not some crazy wave that you're either riding or crashing on. And I think about that a lot where it's, you know, hey, the market is pretty stable and it's just a matter of Can we go after it? And everything that we do is therefore within our control to affect the outcome of, instead of it being, hey, the industry is changing so rapidly around us that no matter what we do, we can't really gain any traction, right? So I definitely appreciate operating in an unsexy market.
