YouSaid · the spoken record

Mark Lawrence

lines on the record: 83
first: 2025-03-10
most recent: 2025-03-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“So, yes, it was cheaper, and they would sell excess inventory. So they knew, for example, I'm going to have 800 empty spaces after 3 p.m. And I might only have 50 spaces during the day.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And so, you know, some of the conversations with Eric, like looking back are just kind of funny because he said, you know what, I'll try this out. Why don't we start something small like a couple of thousand spots? And I remember try to keep it cool. I'm like, wow, a couple thousand spots. I remember I said, Eric, so are the spots open every day? And he's like, what do you mean? It's a parking garage. I'm like, yeah, well, like a lot of the people we work with sometimes they're at work or like they need to move their car or they use it on a certain day. And he's like, yeah, it's a parking garage. It's open 24-7.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And so he had reached out. And so we met. And it was interesting because, again, never sold parking in a garage. And to date, we had 50 spots, like 50 spots.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. We were using Twitter at the time to tweet about parking and seeing can we attract people or see people who are frustrated with parking in Chicago or for Wrigley and say, hey, have you heard of Spot Hero? It caught the eye of someone named Eric Elo, who was at Central Parking, which at the time was the second largest parking company in the country.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so that was where our first customers came from. In addition, we also posted on Craigslist too. Those would always get flagged and we'd have to go through different hoops. But between the content marketing and SEO and Craigslist, and we just went down the list when you Google, how do you get customers? There were things came up like pay-per-click or SEM. And our budgets were super low, like, you know, a few hundred dollars a month. But, you know, it added up. We didn't have too many parking spots, but we were able to kind of grow neighborhood by neighborhood.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I went on the street and I would map every inch that you could park for free with pictures of the signs and where you couldn't park. And we had these maps that I made in Microsoft Paint. So if you thought our website spot here was Jenky, you should see my artwork of maps for free parking. And then when it was there, I was like, hey, if you don't want to risk free parking, click on this link to go to Spothero.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I mean, there was definitely a lot of friction because the only way that it would work is you had to print out your confirmation. So you had to print out an email. So you had to have a printer. And so, you know, and if you didn't print it out and put that on your dashboard, you would get tow So there was definitely enormous friction. No app, just a website, and required a printer.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Me and Jeremy and some other friends. And we came up with a whole bunch of different names. And it's actually kind of funny because Spothero was the second name we wanted, the first name. I'm so glad it was the domain was not available, but the first name was Park Shark. Domain was taken, so we went to the second one, which was Spothero. And so we got the domain spothero.com. And then we went on 99 designs and paid $99 to get a logo made.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, but I wasn't thinking about it like that. I was more like, okay, we got double digit sales in a month, right? You know, a funny milestone was when two people tried to buy the spot at the same time and the site crashed.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's, you know, like thinking back, it seems ridiculous, gosh, like 50 spots a year, but at the time it was like one foot in front of the other. We've got five spots. We've got 10 spots. Wow, we've got 25. And when you're kind of like crawling around in the dark, you don't know what's next. Like it could be 100 spots, right? It could be 200.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and it's not also easy in Chicago in the snow, you know, because we would try to get ahead of it. So in the winter, we went and wanted to get ahead for the season. So we would, you know, tell people like, hey, you know, six months from now, you know, we can make you money on your spot to get contacts. So, you know, we went to, I don't know how many homes, but ultimately even people that said yes, they might have moved or they're like, I need my spot now. And we were able to get about 50 spots after about a year.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was not a lot of money, but it was more exciting to sell one spot. Like at the at that time, it wasn't like, oh, we're making $3.50 or here's a financial model. It was like, I remember, I'm like, wow, like how good it felt when... Someone went on our own website and purchased one single spot. It was so cool. And then I remember the first month where we had double digit sales, 11 spot sold. It was like, we had a milestone. We have double digit sales, 11 spot sold in a month.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and some people were extremely upset. Like, no way I do it myself. I don't need you. I stand on a corner with a sign and there's a big culture around that. And other people are like, yeah, like, of course. Like, wait, I don't have to do anything, right? Like, I'm in.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we each put in $6,000. And so then the next step was I called my uncle, my mom's brother, and he was an engineer, software engineer by background. And I said, you know, what do you think I should do? And he said, well, you should use Python. And it's funny because obviously Python is a critical component of what we do, but I said to him, I said, what's a Python? What does that mean”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Correct. And what we would do is we'd have two, we had two different ads. One was for self park, and then the other was valet, which I was the valet. And I had my car. So they would park and then I could drive them to the as close as you could get to where pedestrians can walk in. So we had South Park and a valet option for Brett Spot.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The neighborhood Wrigleyville, in the alley behind his apartment. Our first spot was called Brett Spot that was named Brett Spot versus the addresses like today. So the first thing I did was ask him, hey, can we sell this online? He said, yeah, I'm not using it. So no problem. And then the next thing we did were like, well, how do we get customers? So we would go on Craigslist and tell people they could park there.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, right? So banks close Sunday, right? So, you know, the bank's going to be completely open on Sunday. The church is going to be completely packed, right? So why can't we bring all of this new parking to market and solve all these tickets?”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We weren't like, hey, let's build a company. We were like, hey, we both have this problem with parking and parking tickets. Let's see what we could do, right? Like what we looked at is we're like, there's all this parking that you can't have access to. And if we bring all of this parking supply, we're going to start the Airbnb of parking.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, yeah. And then there's the overnight towing band. Like, if it snows more than a certain number of inches, then they just tow every car. I mean, there's definitely some efficiency for parking fines in the city of Chicago.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and then what they do is they put up these temporary signs, these almost pieces of paper, plastic around trees. And then, you know,”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, they're so great at it, right? Like, here's what's crazy street cleaning, it's so confusing, right? Like it's not on a specific date. It's like the second Tuesday.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I remember I'm like, oh, well, I'll just, you know, I'll go down and I'll beat this. I'll pay one, but I'll save on two. And so, you know, they're just like, well, is it not true that you were at 301, 302, and 303 p.m. more than six inches away from curb? And I was like, okay, well, technically, but and they're like, okay, so guilty. And I was like, wait, what? Like, I was like, that's bullshit. And they're like, you can't say that in court. Like, do you want to go to jail? And I'm like, wow, am I going to go to jail for parking tickets?”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, if you don't pay your parking tickets in Chicago, they're going to boot or tow your vehicle. And I remember actually call it, I don't know if it's peak demoralization, but I got three tickets for the same thing about a minute apart, which was parking more than six inches away from the curve or something like that. Yeah.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So he was at Motorola. And he was in the finance department at Motorola. And in the beginning, him and I kind of, I don't know what the right, like we would butt heads because I was so done with the corporate world. Bank of America. And he was like in love, like with Motorola. He's like corporate America is amazing and Motorola is the best and, you know, going on. And I remember saying to him, I was like, I'm sorry I have to say this, but I forgot Motorola existed until you reminded me. But yeah, we definitely bought it heads in the beginning.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He went on the bike trip, and Brandon was like, hey, I need someone to take over the lease. So I didn't even know Jeremy. And so Brandon was like, hey, you guys have to live together. So I can bike longer.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was going to start in Alexandria, Egypt, and then go to Cape Town. But the person I was supposed to go with, Brandon, he biked, he started in Europe, and then he biked all across Asia. And we were supposed to meet up in Africa.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that was the plan. I mean, I researched down to the weight of every single item that I would bring on that bicycle because like every 10 grams, like it all adds up, right? Especially if you're going uphill.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mean, we were living so lean. I remember there was a friend of mine, Brandon James, who went to high school with and we ended up reconnecting at Bank of America. We read the book by Rolf Potts called Vagabonding. And it was like a contest of like how little we could spend because we're like, we're getting laid off. And him and I, we were roommates and we would eat like just rice and beans. And I remember when all I bought was like a chicken breast to eat with the rice and beans that I cooked myself. And I bought a beard trimmer. Okay, like off Amazon for like $30. And he was so disappointed. He's like, I can't believe. He's like, you don't need the beard trimmer and you don't need the chicken. I was like, I know, but I've been eating rice and peas for months. And so we kind of had that like accountability between us.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know it was a relief because I started and it was very stressful because. I was a week away from getting laid off. The entire time I was there, there was never a moment of like This is going to be the career. It was more like, okay, we started, and it was like crisis, right? I never spent any money. I saved money because I'm like, okay, I'm going to get laid off and I'm probably going to have a very hard time finding a job. And so it was a relief because I'm like, okay, now it has some finality. But it also was nice because I literally didn't spend anything. I was like afraid. And so I was able to save money. And what's nice is I was able to use $6,000 of that to start Spothero.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Remember sitting there, and there was another guy, and he was supposed to be the last to leave because he took a long launch for some appointment. And so we're both just like waiting for each other to leave. And it's 11 o'clock at night. And we've like been working on nothing. And we're the only one.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So funny, I haven't thought about that in a really long time. So, yes, a bit embarrassing. But yeah, I did chronicle, you know, frustrations with working at a big company. One that I remember was called Fake Work because it felt like a lot of the work there was just completely fake. And I remember like I had a doctor's appointment and I was told, well, hey, if you're taking a long lunch, which is like an hour and a half for a doctor's appointment, you got to be the last one to leave the office. And I was like, okay, well, and there was really nothing to work on then.”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the movie The Big Short for me is a documentary. It's funny and it has ridiculous things, but that's like exactly how it was. And they were making jokes about writing mortgages to dogs. And so, I mean, like, it was not a very pleasant kind of place. There were pleasant people, you know, and I did make some friends and I worked with some great folks, but a lot of the A lot of the talk was like, hey, did you hear we're not going to get bonuses this year? Isn't that ridiculous? And I was like, what would the bonuses be for?”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. I mean, this was quite possibly one of the most stressful periods that we had experienced to date. Not only had we had only raised $7 million, but these companies had raised $40, $50, $60, $77 million. I remember a board meeting where I was told, Mark, we've been telling you're going slow. You're not expanding fast enough. And now there's this new model, and it looks like you guys are dead. You're being disrupted before you have the chance to disrupt”
2025-03-10 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · SpotHero: Mark Lawrence · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT