Amal Radhakrishnan
Parkaze Founder Amal Radhakrishnan Finds Flexibility, Support to Launch Business
Amal Radhakrishnan
Co-Founder and CEO, Parkaze
MS in Computer Science, Concentration in Data Analytics (MET’19); BTech, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
Why did you choose BU MET for your graduate studies? What set MET apart from other programs you were considering?
What attracted me to BU MET was the flexibility—from having the freedom to pick the right courses for myself to the evening schedule of classes. Everything played into it. I was able to take high-quality courses like Cloud Computing, Machine Learning (MET CS 767), and Artificial Intelligence (MET CS 664)—it was exactly what I hoped for when I came to the United States for my master’s.
Were you able to use faculty as a resource? Is there a particular faculty member who enhanced your experience?
I must mention Associate Professor Eric Braude, who taught Machine Learning my final semester. He put a lot of emphasis on our course project in machine learning, which actually first sparked my interest in mobility.
His support on that semester’s project was enlightening for me as I pursued my MS in Computer Science with a concentration in Data Analytics. After that course, I took on a role as his teaching assistant for his Machine Learning course, and I’m actually also currently assisting him for this semester’s Artificial Intelligence course. It’s been really rewarding to give back to students who are going through what I did not long ago. The support I’ve received from Professor Braude has been really great over the last couple of years.
How were you able to adapt to some of the challenges of balancing work, home-life, and school? Did you benefit from BU MET’s flexible class delivery options?
Yes, I did benefit—more than I ever could have hoped for. The evening schedule helped me a lot, perfectly complementing my part-time job. I worked part-time as a quality assurance intern at BU IT Services since my first semester coming here, and I was able to balance my life as a full-time student. It allowed me to gain valuable connections with peers and helped offset my living expenses during my stay studying in Boston.
What inspired the idea of Parkaze? What steps did you take to develop it from an idea to a company?
Parkaze started as a hackathon project at Boston Hacks 2018. Towards the end of my final semester in the program, two MET computer science friends of mine and I decided that we wanted to spend some time building something during Boston Hacks. We started to consider the challenge of parking in cities like Boston, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, and so on—because all three of us had experienced parking-related issues one way or another during our stay in Boston.
That was when we came up with Parkaze, which operates similarly to AirBnb, allowing people to rent out their privately-owned parking spaces. We built the program during the Hackathon before taking it to the BU Spark! Program. We also went through a VC-funded accelerator program back in Dallas. In August 2019, we launched a website in beta testing, and this past January, we launched our full website. We currently have 70 parking spaces in the greater Boston area and 40 hosts that rent out their parking spaces. Today, we have four BU interns and three core team members, and we will be growing as fast as we can over the next couple of months.
What is next for Parkaze?
We are growing as fast as possible! We are on track to launch our mobile app for US users by summer 2020. We are also interested in connecting with anyone who can act as a point-of-contact in high-growth marketplace tech startups in Boston, or is interested to have a casual chat over coffee about potential growth models. We’re looking for people to talk to and share ideas with.
Do you have any advice for students who are interested in starting their own company?
From my experience coming to Boston, some people, it seems, do not believe that it is possible for students to start their own company, particularly international students.
I disagree. It is difficult, but there is a lot of opportunity to be had. If you are committed to the idea Boston University and Metropolitan College offer substantial resources. There’s the BU MIT Law Clinic and BUild Lab, there are professors that will support you, and other fellow entrepreneurs within the BUild Lab that are ready and willing to help.
There are also a lot of programs within the United States that can help, even as an international student coming for a graduate or undergraduate degree. As a student going through the process of starting a business in Boston over the last year, my biggest advice would simply be encouragement.