JustPark founder: I'm delighted not to be CEO anymore

Anthony Eskinazi founded the start-up JustPark in 2006, two years before Airbnb launched. Originally called ParkatmyHouse, the idea was to let people rent out their driveways or parking spaces on a short-term basis.

He was inspired by his friend’s father, a Chelsea supporter who came to a private arrangement with someone who lived near the Stamford Bridge football ground to access a parking space on match days. It has been a slow burn, though. It took nearly two decades of gradual growth followed by incremental external investment to scale the business.

Now, more than 45,000 people – mainly in the UK – rent out their private parking spaces through the JustPark platform. Around 50 million people use the app. Institutions like churches and schools with parking facilities have joined the platform too, seeing it as a way to raise money.

“We’ve helped to repair a lot of church roofs,” says Eskinazi.

In 2024, JustPark was sold in a multi-million dollar deal to ParkHub. The US company focused on selling parking spots around sports and entertainment events. It adopted the JustPark name for its global brand, but Eskinazi stepped down as CEO to become president. He still plays a prominent role leading the company in the UK, though he has in effect “exited” his business, he says.

There are several lessons from JustPark’s story that other entrepreneurs, especially in the UK, can learn, according to Eskinazi.

First, he advises founders to get out and “meet people in your sector”. This might involve attending formal networking events, or award shows and product launches. This is how to meet potential collaborators.

He also advises doing lots of press and interviews at the early stage of a business because the coverage “will really help with SEO”, building online traction.

But in order to scale, he found the vital step was to get capital investment. JustPark didn’t get institutional backing until BMW i Ventures invested £250,000 in 2011, half a decade into JustPark's journey.

Eskinazi found that once he had an investment, he was finally “able to hire people, taking the strain away from me [as founder] playing every single role.”

“I was bogged down in maintaining the business rather than growing it [before then],” says Eskinazi. Funding proved to be a big unlock.

In order to access further funding, he was one of the first to use crowdfunding sites like Crowdcube to entice institutional investors, leveraging the in-built support of his user base in the sharing economy. JustPark raised a record-breaking £3.5m on Crowdcube in 2015, with around 80 per cent of that investment coming from its own users. In total, it would raise £17m on the platform.

This helped to generate interest from well-known investors like Index Ventures, which backed the business in 2014. When JustPark was sold to ParkHub more than 10,000 retail investors received a positive return on their investment.