Rahul Sharma (Editor)

CARMAnation

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Type
  
Private

Industry
  
Transportation Network Company (TNC)

Founded
  
2013; 4 years ago (2013)

Founder
  
Ilya Movshovich, Ashley Cummings

Headquarters
  
San Francisco, California, United States

Key people
  
Ilya Movshovich, Co-founder & CEO Ashley Cummings, Co-founder & CCO

CARMAnation is a website for people to rent out their private parking. Founded by Ilya Movshovich and Ashley Cummings, in January 2013, and headquartered in San Francisco, the company is privately owned and operated by Carmanation, Inc.

Contents

Users of the site must register and create a personal online profile before using the site. Every parking spot is associated with a host whose profile includes recommendations by other users, reviews by previous guests, as well as a response rating and private messaging system.

The company is also looking into including corporate parking lots that clear out when employees go home after 5 pm.

History

In December 2012, Ilya Movshovich created the initial concept for CARMAnation (at that time calling it Swap-n-park). A few months later Ashley Cummings joined as a co-founder of "Swap-n-park". The company was founded on January 1, 2013.

Name change and growth

In January 2013, the conceptual name "Swap-n-park" was officially changed to CARMAnation and registered under Carmanation, Inc. CARMAnation.com officially launched in San Francisco and the Bay Area on March 1, 2014.

Company

One year later from the original conception, the founding team headquarters itself in Movshovich’s condominium on Sansome Street in San Francisco. As of June 2014 the founding team is self-funding the company, and has started speaking with investors to raise their first seed round to continue the rapid growth in San Francisco and future expansion into other cities, with a plan to move into its first San Francisco office space.

The CARMAnation founding team acts as the key managerial staff for CARMAnation: Ilya Movshovich, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; Ashley Cummings, Co-Founder and Vice President of Communication.

Business model

CARMAnation runs on a marketplace platform model where it connects parking hosts and drivers, and enables transactions without owning any parking spots itself. Such platforms disrupt traditional industries by creating new sources of supply and relying on curation for developing quality.

Operation

CARMAnation is an online marketplace for parking sharing, that connects users with private parking to users looking for parking spaces. Users are categorized as “Parking Hosts” and “Guests;” both of which must register with CARMAnation using a variety of means. A valid email address or Facebook account are the only requirements to build a unique user profile on the website.

CARMAnation facilitates online payments from guest to parking host through Stripe.com which securely processes payment transactions. The company’s revenue comes from a 15% commission of the guest payment. If the parking host offers their parking space free-of-charge, the company charges 30 cents to cover the transaction cost acquired through access to Stripe.com, the rest in full goes into an established bank account of the respective charity.

Charities

CARMAnation allows the parking host to offer the profits from their parking space to go to a local charity which partnered with the company.

The company currently has partnered with the following charities:

  • Make-A-Wish Foundation
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • Guide Dogs for the Blind
  • Project Night Night
  • Raphael House
  • References

    CARMAnation Wikipedia