rocketPark

November 2017

With over 100k people coming to Ann Arbor for football games, finding parking near the stadium is always a challenge. People with houses near the stadium sell parking spots in their driveway and yard, cramming in as many vehicles as then can for $20-100 per spot. I made rocketPark as a way to make it easier for sellers to advertise their spots and for buyers to find them, all before gameday.

The app lets sellers create a listing for their spot for multiple games, setting the price and number of spots. Sellers can then browse for spots on the map, reserve for one or more games, and pay through the app.

The app was largely a learning process for me, since I had never made a iOS app before (using swift), especially one with a backend and payments. I figured out how to use Google Firebase for the backend server, Stripe to process payments, the Google Maps API to display the spots map, and how to integrate everything in the app.

Working with a friend, we promoted the app for a couple games and sold a few spots, but ultimately decided to not pursue the business. As a freshman, I didn’t have the time to promote the app and give up precious gamedays to sell spots.