Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
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Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q And was it kind of a relief in a sense?
A You know, it was a relief because I started, and it was very stressful because I was a week away from getting laid off the entire time I was there. There was never a moment of, like, This is gonna be the career. It was more like, ok, we started, and it was like crisis, right? I never spent any money, I saved money, cuz I'm like, ok, I'm gonna get laid off, and I'm probably gonna have a very hard time finding a job. And so, it was a relief, cuz I'm like, ok, now it's, has some finality. Um, but it also was nice, because I literally didn't spend anything. I was like, afraid, And so I, I was able to save, uh, money, and what's nice is I was able to use 6000 dollars of that to start Spot Hero.
AI assessment note: “You know, it was a relief because I started, and it was very stressful”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q Did you need the money at that point?
A I would say yes. I mean, I know how beneficial, you know, joining Techstar Chicago is now. I didn't at the time, but I remember thinking when we raised, like, we're like, we raised 50,000 dollars. Like, it just felt so good, and I'm like, we did it. Like, it took a year, almost a year and a half, to hit 1000 dollars Of sales in a month. Okay. And, which meant, like, we're taking home, what, like, um, you know, a 150 bucks. Um, but I remember in 2012, sales ramped in, you know, January, February, March, April, May, from, uh, you know, 5000 a month to, to 80,000 a month in May. But the worry was, is this gonna last? And so we were, you know, kind of scared to hire someone, and, and that 50,000 dollars gave us the confidence To make our first hire.
AI assessment note: “I would say yes. I mean, I know how beneficial, you know”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.60
Q But meantime, all over the United States, clones started to pop up. Companies doing the exact same thing, but expanding faster. In New York, in Washington, D.C., and L.A., etc. Give me a sense of how investors reacted to that. Were your, even your seed round investors, were they saying, hey, what's going on? Why are, why are you just in Chicago?
A Yeah, I would say there was, there was a lot of pressure. Why are you just in Chicago? If you're not in these other markets, you're not relevant. Um, Uber was also relevant. Launching and, and, and, and lift, and there was this whole idea of blitzscaling, and, and moving fast, making sure that, that, you know, the land grab didn't happen, you know, by, by somebody else. And my point of view was, the parking industry was more about relationships. Um, at the time, you know, 60, 70% of the dollars spent in parking were cash. It was a very, You know, old school group of folks that had, you know, set ways of doing things. And this idea that you can just throw money at a problem didn't work with an industry that was, you know, really about relationships and, and trust.
AI assessment note: “there was a lot of pressure. Why are you just in Chicago?”
Answered produced feed
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 3 3.85
Q Yeah. Interesting. No, I mean, it makes sense. And their record's very good, but obviously they have to make a decision. Was that disappointing when you, when you didn't get in?
A You know, it, it was, but I was so, like, excited at the time to be in San Francisco to have just been in the room at a Y Combinator, you know, interview. I felt it also clarified a lot of things for the business just by actually filling out the application. You know, Because of the experience, I was so excited to apply to other, um, ones, and, you know, did all these interviews, and, you know, kept getting turned down, and then, um, I remember we got in, they accepted us into Techstar Chicago, and it was interesting because we all weren't sure if we wanted to do it, and, you know, myself, Larry, and Jeremy talked, and we actually decided no, and, you know, ultimately sat for, you know, a few hours talking to them, Um, about, you know, pros and cons, and like what we're going through, and, you know, conversations like, you said I have to be in all these meetings, meeting all these different people. I'm like, I, I'm like, I don't have time for anything. I'm going door to door. I'm having meetings to get parking spots. I'm, I'm, I'm doing our SEO and our pay-per-click. I'm, I'm like, right now, I'm like, look, I'm missing customer service calls. People are, they need me, and I can't answer the phone because I'm here in this meeting with you. And, um, Um, I was told, well, you could, you know, just, you could hire someone. Have you thought about hiring anyone? And I'm like, hiring…
AI assessment note: “You know, it, it was, but I was so, like, excited at the time”
