ParkOffice CEO and Founder Garret Flower is an experienced entrepreneur specializing in prop-tech. An established innovator, he has founded several successful businesses and was featured among Ireland’s “30 under 30 business leaders” in 2017 and 2018. An advocate for technology, traffic management solutions, and sustainability, Garret currently leads ParkOffice where he and his team are on a mission to revolutionize parking for workers and employers worldwide.
1. The most successful business ideas are born out of the personal experience of the founder. Was this the case with your business?
I was in my mid 20s when I bought my first car. I could not believe how inefficient the parking process was. It is mad when you go your whole life without experiencing a pain point and then bang, it becomes a part of your everyday life.
I just knew there had to be a better way of doing things. I spent a few years developing ideas in the parking technology space. When you start to dig into car parking, you realize quickly it is a vastly broad industry. This is why I decided to focus on employee parking with ParkOffice.io.
Why employee parking? It is simple really, of all the types of parking, employee parking is easily the most dysfunctional. In 3 short years, our results have been remarkable. We are solving parking problems on a daily basis for 20,000+ commuters from companies like eBay, Sodexo & Sanofi.
2. You come from a line of business owners and entrepreneurs, in your parents and grandfather. How did this shape your career plans?
I am a firm believer in the need to see it to be it. Being surrounded by entrepreneurs from an early age definitely exposed me to a different way of working. When I finished college, I actually spent a year working for a large fund accounting firm, but I quickly realized that this was not for me.
It is interesting when I look at our founding team. Nearly all of us have had strong entrepreneurial influences within our families or working lives. A massive question for anyone working in entrepreneur development is how to open the doors of opportunity to people who maybe have not been exposed to the entrepreneurial mindset throughout their lives.
3. As workplaces get back up to full speed and capacity, what do you believe are the main considerations for employers to ensure staff are well looked after?
It really depends on workplace strategy. Most office-based companies appear to be striving for a hybrid working environment. The biggest challenge here is going to be how to manage the extra complexity which flexibility brings.
