Alex Stephany steps down as JustPark CEO

Sharing economy company reduces workforce by a quarter

Alex Stephany has stepped down as the chief executive of JustPark, the online parking reservation service. Stephany had been with JustPark for four years, serving as CEO. During his tenure Stephany oversaw the rebranding of what was ParkatmyHouse as JustPark and the raising of £3.7m via a headline grabbing crowd-funding campaign earlier this year.

Stephany's work at JustPark was a key element of his recent book about the global sharing economy The Business of Sharing.

Since Stephany's departure last week, the company’s founder Alex Eskinazi has stepped back into the CEO role. “Alex has been thinking about new opportunities for a while and is looking to move over to the US to start the next chapter in his career,” Eskinazi told Parking Review. “I will resume my duties as CEO, a position I held before I recruited Alex.”

The London-based sharing economy company is also restructuring, a process which has seen it reduce its team, primarily in the marketing department. It is understood at least 10 of its 40 or so staff were made redundant.

“It is not unusual to let a few people go when there is a change in focus,” said Eskinazi. “Our marketing team has been significantly reduced, as has a remote development team because we decided as part of this process to bring all development in-house. We were investing time and resources in the wrong areas and are confident that the reduced headcount – and focussing on what will drive value – will speed up our growth. We grew a bit too quickly, but learnt a lot during that process and we are in a very strong position to make an even bigger impact on the parking industry.”

JustPark's long-term investors include BMW and Index Ventures. Eskinazi said the changes are driven by JustPark itself and have the full support of its investors. 

Eskinazi refutes press speculation that the restructuring of the workforce reflects problems with the business. “Unfortunately, the reporter who first published the story got nearly all of the facts wrong, which made this story sound like the company was in trouble,” he said. “We raised £3.7m less than seven months ago and have very strong revenues, growing at over 100% year-on-year. We have over 24 months of cash in the business, so this decision was primarily made to refocus rather than for any other reason.

"All our key metrics continue to move in the right direction and I look forward to sharing very positive news with you over the coming weeks and months. A fast-growing business needs to identify which opportunities will allow it to achieve the speed of growth that it needs. We have discovered what will allow us to keep growing this business, and what will provide value to our customers and partners. I am confident and have already seen evidence that we will achieve even faster growth over the coming months with a smaller, focused team.” 

He added: “The majority of my former colleagues have already found alternative work.”

Eskinazi launched the driveway parking website ParkatmyHouse in 2006 at the age of 23. The site connected property owners with unused parking to drivers with a need to park. The company’s initial investors include BMW and Index Ventures, who remain involved with the company. The company rebranded as JustPark in 2014, reflecting its move into acting as a booking platform for commercial car parks as well as residential properties. 

JustPark now acts as a marketplace offering spaces in car parks run by operators such as APCOA Parking (UK), NCP, Q-Park and RCP Parking, as well as Network Rail, a number of hotel chains and local authorities across the UK. The company has around 750,000 registered drivers. Its core market is in the UK, but it also has user bases in the USA, Canada and Australia.

It has also launched an app allowing bookings to be made via smartphones or connected systems – the app now comes as standard on BMW MINIs.