Michael Oviosu is looking to shake up the U.S. parking industry.

Over the past year, Oviosu has co-founded a new startup idea, ParkAmigo. He hopes the business will bypass the long struggle to find parking spaces with the service it provides.

“We’re looking to disrupt the $30 billion dollar parking industry by providing a cost-effective and safe alternative to parking in busy neighborhoods,” Michael Oviosu said.

The sophomore economics major from Lagos, Nigeria has invested most of his time and efforts since 2014 into developing a service that allows homeowners to rent out their driveways as parking space.

“The idea came, like a lot of them do, from a really bad experience I had,” Oviosu said. “We were driving around (Washington, D.C.) for ages just looking for a parking spot, and that’s where ParkAmigo was born… I don’t think anyone needs to spend 25 minutes like I did.”

His co-founder and head of technology, Natã Barbosa, who created ParkAmigo with Oviosu when he was a visiting student at SU last year, is heavily involved with the construction of ParkAmigo. He’s currently finishing his undergraduate education in Brazil.

Oviosu said he had to teach himself a lot of skills to create ParkAmigo, but received help from many advisers at the College of Arts and Sciences along the way.

“It’s been a really long project, and we’re nearing the final stages,” Oviosu said.

The road ahead includes two competitions which Oviosu hopes to win to secure fundraising — the Panasci Business Plan Competition and the RvD IDEA Awards. Beyond that lies the launch of the startup’s website, the rollout of the app and finally, the beginning of business.

“We’re confident that we have what it takes,” Oviosu said. “The support we’ve received from students in Syracuse University and several professors has been very helpful and inspiring.”

Published on March 30, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Momin: mrafi@syr.edu