ZoomThru replaces parking garage spreadsheets with big data

Lexi Sprague and Richard Malone met at Draper University, a Silicon Valley accelerator program designed to shape the next generation of entrepreneurs. During a hackathon, Sprague and Malone were asked to come up with a technology that answered the question ‘if humans lived forever, what company would you build?’ Sprague decided that cars should be personal assistants, running errands for humans, letting them to focus more deeply on solving problems at work and the world at large. At the Draper Demo Day, Sprague and Malone met Mara Lewis, managing director of StartCo, who recruited them to StartCo’s Upstart accelerator for women-led companies.

Since then, Sprague and Malone have built ZoomThru, a multi-sided platform that features a data analytics dashboard for parking garage operators, while also making it simple for parkers to tie their payment method to their license plate.  “We allow parking garage operators to customize, analyze and act upon information gathered in their garage. Right now, all that information gets thrown around and nobody knows what’s going on. In order to implement best practices, manage employees and costs, they need to understand the information created,” said Sprague, CEO of ZoomThru.  

Over the course of the accelerator, ZoomThru pivoted, like many startups do. The original user for ZoomThru was purely the driver of cars, specifically going through fast food drive thrus. After spending some time in Memphis and doing research, Sprague and Malone shifted the use of their license-plate technology cameras to parking garages. Due to this shift, ZoomThru will be relocating to a city better-suited for pilot customers. “Since we’ve pivoted towards parking, cities that are very busy with sprawling downtown areas are better suited to our solution. We don’t regret being here at all, it’s just unfortunate that Memphis didn’t end up being the proper market,” COO Malone said.

ZoomThru has filed one provisional patent, and is narrowing down other patents to file during their next rounds of fundraising. While it may be goodbye to Memphis for now, Sprague holds hope that the technology will be utilized here as well. “We have built relationships in Memphis with garage operators. Now it’s like ‘let me go do a pilot in San Francisco, you can watch and we’ll sign you up as the second customer.’ Which was not our original intention – but startups are funny that way,” Sprague said.