> "Suddenly, two months ago, we received a phone call from the city explaining that traditional parking companies were not happy with the way we were poaching business from them and that we had to slow down our growth. We ignored this warning."
This was the mistake (and strongly reminiscent of the mistake they made with sweetch) they ignored the people who set rules for their business. Overcoming the incumbent competitors is a challenge because they've existed for quite some time, a less idealistic (more mature?) businessman could've identified this and started conversations with the appropriate people in power before they were forced to seek their assistance as an unknown.
If things operated like they were supposed to, Vatler would've stood a chance, in most cities there is a complex web of politics to navigate and these guys ignored that twice. Airbnb has gotten by because it's impossible for hoteliers to identify the residences that are taking their business, valets are on the street and labeled so they have to address the issue much sooner.
These guys are super talented and I want them to succeed but I hope they finally learnt their lesson about getting ahead of the politics, otherwise their next business will end the same way as the last two.
That almost sounds like a case of criminally corrupt city officials and police department? Shows how important it is to separate PDs from politicians to enable them act as independently as possible to just uphold the law.
"Suddenly, two months ago, we received a phone call from the city explaining that traditional parking companies were not happy with the way we were poaching business from them and that we had to slow down our growth. We ignored this warning. Ten days later, we received a phone call from the police department telling us that our permits had not been granted and they gave us a warning because we were operating illegally in most of our locations."
Did these people not have lawyers? That's what I don't understand. The job of the police is not to help you understand the law. I suspect that the other valet companies had their lawyers send a letter to the police explaining the law and how Vatler violated it. If you'r going to operate in a regulated environment you can complain about it, or bring lawyers.
The concept did not work in San Francisco, therefore shut it down? How entrepreneurial is that? Answer: none. Is there an assumption that if it cannot work in SFO, it won't work anywhere? I completely disagree. Take your MVP to a more friendly town and try again.
Interested to hear from people inside of VATLER about Luxe (http://luxe.com). I see people in Luxe hoodies and scooters all over San Francisco. Seems like Luxe is doing awesome and taking over. What did they do different from VATLER?
AFAICT:
It looks like it might possibly that VATLER was working as a valet provider for the locations, instead of a general valet provider to the end-customer. Luxe has no specific valet locations, but is more widely available. Not quite sure if that is enough to side-step the permitting process, but it looks like it's a possibility.
[0]> This permit is required for any valet parking
operator who performs parking services at a restaurant
or any place that regularly uses valet services.
This was the mistake (and strongly reminiscent of the mistake they made with sweetch) they ignored the people who set rules for their business. Overcoming the incumbent competitors is a challenge because they've existed for quite some time, a less idealistic (more mature?) businessman could've identified this and started conversations with the appropriate people in power before they were forced to seek their assistance as an unknown.
If things operated like they were supposed to, Vatler would've stood a chance, in most cities there is a complex web of politics to navigate and these guys ignored that twice. Airbnb has gotten by because it's impossible for hoteliers to identify the residences that are taking their business, valets are on the street and labeled so they have to address the issue much sooner.
These guys are super talented and I want them to succeed but I hope they finally learnt their lesson about getting ahead of the politics, otherwise their next business will end the same way as the last two.