With Love from plazz or a Letter of Goodbye

One year ago we set out to create a platform to revolutionize traffic flows in Berlin. We believed (and still do!) that transport system needs a change and decided to be the pioneers of it.

Understanding the urgent need for cities to become smart, we set two main goals: reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in Berlin and help people save money and time spent looking for a place park. This is how plazz – an app showing free parking slots in Prenzlauer Berg – was born.

Along the way we proved that parking in Berlin is a problem that has to be addressed.  We brought together a community of more than 1000 users, built a team of 12 people and in the last 3 months only discovered a total of 105968 parking slots.

During the last year, we had a number of ups and downs, faced an uncountable number of challenges and had a lot of fun. Sadly, after a long process of learning, plazz has reached its end. Not because we don’t believe that it’s needed, but because urban mobility problems have to be addressed in a different way. At least for now.

We quickly realized that earning enough money just to keep the company going is a great challenge on its own. To collect the data we employed around 15 spotters per week who were running around Prenzlauer Berg putting the newest information into the app. Despite a number of plazz users, revenue couldn’t cover the costs.

Secondly, and the most importantly, parking problem in Berlin is SO huge, that our app just didn’t have enough data to show. Simple logic – it is not easy to show free parking slots when there are none.

Despite a sad resolution, we all feel very blessed. During this time we brought several great people on board, learned more than we could put in words and became a part of an inspiring mobility community in Berlin.

The only thing left to say is a big thank you – to our customers, readers, followers, friends, team mates and of course :agile – this wonderful year wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for you all. Don’t worry, we will stick around trying to make a positive change in Berlin´s startup scene. When there is a wish, there is always a way.

All the best from plazz team and may you always find what you are looking for in life