
The story of Vatler’s shutdown - kschua
https://medium.com/startup-study-group/inside-story-of-vatler-s-shut-down-8c42bad83f09#.924xpnwfc
======
iaw
> "Suddenly, two months ago, we received a phone call from the city explaining
> that traditional parking companies were not happy with the way we were
> poaching business from them and that we had to slow down our growth. We
> ignored this warning."

This was the mistake (and strongly reminiscent of the mistake they made with
sweetch) they ignored the people who set rules for their business. Overcoming
the incumbent competitors is a challenge because they've existed for quite
some time, a less idealistic (more mature?) businessman could've identified
this and started conversations with the appropriate people in power before
they were forced to seek their assistance as an unknown.

If things operated like they were supposed to, Vatler would've stood a chance,
in most cities there is a complex web of politics to navigate and these guys
ignored that twice. Airbnb has gotten by because it's impossible for hoteliers
to identify the residences that are taking their business, valets are on the
street and labeled so they have to address the issue much sooner.

These guys are super talented and I want them to succeed but I hope they
finally learnt their lesson about getting ahead of the politics, otherwise
their next business will end the same way as the last two.

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wmt
That almost sounds like a case of criminally corrupt city officials and police
department? Shows how important it is to separate PDs from politicians to
enable them act as independently as possible to just uphold the law.

"Suddenly, two months ago, we received a phone call from the city explaining
that traditional parking companies were not happy with the way we were
poaching business from them and that we had to slow down our growth. We
ignored this warning. Ten days later, we received a phone call from the police
department telling us that our permits had not been granted and they gave us a
warning because we were operating illegally in most of our locations."

~~~
sawthat
Did these people not have lawyers? That's what I don't understand. The job of
the police is not to help you understand the law. I suspect that the other
valet companies had their lawyers send a letter to the police explaining the
law and how Vatler violated it. If you'r going to operate in a regulated
environment you can complain about it, or bring lawyers.

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paul_f
The concept did not work in San Francisco, therefore shut it down? How
entrepreneurial is that? Answer: none. Is there an assumption that if it
cannot work in SFO, it won't work anywhere? I completely disagree. Take your
MVP to a more friendly town and try again.

------
nodesocket
Interested to hear from people inside of VATLER about Luxe
([http://luxe.com](http://luxe.com)). I see people in Luxe hoodies and
scooters all over San Francisco. Seems like Luxe is doing awesome and taking
over. What did they do different from VATLER?

~~~
jimminy
AFAICT: It looks like it might possibly that VATLER was working as a valet
provider for the locations, instead of a general valet provider to the end-
customer. Luxe has no specific valet locations, but is more widely available.
Not quite sure if that is enough to side-step the permitting process, but it
looks like it's a possibility.

    
    
      [0]> This permit is required for any valet parking
      operator who performs parking services at a restaurant
      or any place that regularly uses valet services.
    

[0]:
[http://businessportal.sfgov.org/node/2979](http://businessportal.sfgov.org/node/2979)

