Arrive. Building a two-sided marketplace from scratch that reached 50K active users and a 4.8-star rating by solving urban parking scarcity through peer-to-peer driveway sharing.
01 — Market Research
Quantifying the $30B urban parking problem
I validated the market by surveying 200+ urban drivers and analyzing parking data from 3 cities. The data showed that 30% of city traffic is caused by parking search. I also interviewed 50 homeowners and found that 78% were interested in monetizing their empty driveways — the supply side was ready.
02 — UI/UX & Brand
Designing for drivers in motion
Drivers make parking decisions while navigating traffic — so every interaction had to be completable in under 3 seconds. I designed a map-centric interface with oversized availability markers, one-tap booking, and a predictive 'spots near your destination' feature that pre-loads results before arrival.
03 — Development
Real-time availability at scale
I built the MVP with React Native for cross-platform reach and Node.js for the backend. The biggest technical challenge was real-time spot availability — I implemented a WebSocket-based system that updates availability within 500ms of a booking change, preventing double-bookings across concurrent users.
04 — Go-to-Market
Solving the chicken-and-egg with geo-focused launch
I solved the classic marketplace cold-start problem by launching hyper-locally: one neighborhood at a time. I door-knocked 200 homes in the first target area, offering $50 signup bonuses. Once supply density hit a critical threshold (15 spots per square mile), I activated demand through geo-targeted Instagram and Google ads.
Project Outcome
“Reached 50k active drivers in the first year with a 4.8 star app store rating.”
Arrive Parking