Cornell-born startup HermitGo claimed first place at PIE’s 2025 Accelerate! Parking Pitch Competition, impressing judges with its app that turns idle parked cars into shared mobility options.

By Jay Landers

Of the five companies vying for recognition in this year’s Accelerate! Parking Pitch Competition at the recent Parking Industry Expo (PIE), HermitGo captured top honors. The young startup’s innovative take on car sharing at off-airport parking facilities stood out in the second annual edition of the competition, where entrepreneurs pitch their parking-related solutions live to a panel of expert judges.

Accelerate! debuted in 2024 as a PIE-exclusive platform for startup companies working to solve parking and mobility challenges. Now in its second year, the competition brings together emerging ventures to present their business models, respond to judges’ questions, and connect directly with potential collaborators and customers in the audience. (For more details on the results of this year’s competition, see Parking Startups Take Center Stage.)

The Airbnb of airport parking

HermitGo fits into a broader shift toward asset-sharing and travel flexibility. Launched last summer, the company enables travelers to drop off their cars at participating airport parking lots and have them rented out while they’re away. Vehicle owners receive free parking and a share of the rental income. Renters get access to well-maintained, fully insured vehicles with clear, affordable pricing and a straightforward pickup process.

The concept for HermitGo came to Damani a few years ago as he arrived at an airport to catch a flight. He noticed that the parking lots where departing passengers could park their vehicles were located beside a car rental business offering vehicles to arriving passengers. This observation sparked an innovative idea for a more efficient approach to balancing supply and demand for rental vehicles at airports. 

“I thought, what if we can make this the same thing?” Damani said. Much like AirBnB did for home rentals, the idea was to “utilize an unused asset and provide value for people on both sides of the equation,” he said, but with parked cars rather than empty homes.

Damani, who was attending Cornell University at the time, shared the concept with Jacob Berchtold, a fellow student. “We’ve been friends since freshman year,” Damani said. He studied computer and information science, while Berchtold majored in business through Cornell’s Dyson School. The pair co-founded HermitGo, launching it in August 2024 while still in school.

Streamlined from start to finish

Key to HermitGo’s model is its integration with parking operators at or near airports. Cars must meet age and mileage requirements, and owners register their vehicles via HermitGo’s app. The platform verifies vehicle eligibility, including confirming that it is not older than 12 years and has less than 150,000 miles on it. Key handoffs are handled securely using smart dropboxes. 

HermitGo also provides insurance for participating vehicles. “That was one of the main things that we had to do before launching — getting insurance,” Damani said. “That took a long time.”

The renter experience is similarly streamlined. Approved users can search for available vehicles, reserve them via the app, and retrieve keys from the secure box. All renters are screened through a background and driving history check, and each transaction is rated by both parties to ensure accountability.

The goal was to create a process that is straightforward and simple for vehicle owners and renters, Damani said. “We want it to be frictionless.” Renters also benefit from the below-market rates that HermitGo typically can offer.

Participating parking operators can benefit from either a revenue-sharing approach or a lease-based agreement. “It really depends on what works the best when we’re working with a specific parking lot,” Damani said.

The result is a system that benefits all parties: Car owners turn liabilities into income, renters enjoy affordability and convenience, and parking operators gain additional revenue or lease income from underutilized space.

HermitGo’s next move

HermitGo is currently active at one off-airport location near Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. According to Damani, they selected Bradley as a midsize airport that offered proximity to their base and the right scale for testing and refining their platform. 

Damani and Berchtold’s achievements to date with HermitGo are especially impressive considering that both were in school until late May 2025, when they graduated from Cornell. With their student days behind them, the pair aim to focus all their energies on growing their business. 

“We’ll be working on this full time as soon as we graduate,” Damani told Parking Today a week before their graduation day. “We are definitely looking to expand now,” he said, noting that they would like to work with more off-airport parking facilities. “We’re trying to find the right parking operators to work with,” Damani said. “We’re open to opportunities.”

The company is looking to add “one more location in the next couple months and then a couple more locations in the next couple of years,” Berchtold said. “That’s what we’re focusing on right now.”

Victory provides validation

For Damani and Berchtold, building a startup in the parking sector hasn’t always been easy. The industry, they noted, tends to be conservative and cautious in adopting new technology, making it harder for tech-enabled startups to gain traction. But they’re hopeful that their Accelerate! victory will help them bridge the gap.

“I feel like it’s really difficult to find a place in the parking industry if you’re more tech focused,” Damani said. “So [Accelerate!] sort of gave that platform for us.” 

Attending PIE itself also proved fruitful, Damani noted. “You learn a lot talking to people who have been there before you, and it’s a great opportunity to network and just be a part of the industry.” 

Damani continued: “Everyone had some great advice for us and great potential partnerships for us,” he said. “One thing I noticed pretty quickly is that while parking is a large industry, everyone knows each other. So, having that opportunity to speak with [attendees] was great.”

Making every car count

As HermitGo prepares to scale beyond its initial Connecticut location, the startup represents a new generation of mobility solutions that blur traditional industry boundaries. Their success could signal a shift in how airports, parking operators, and travelers think about underutilized assets in the transportation ecosystem.

For an industry built on maximizing space efficiency, the concept of making every parked car work harder seems like a natural evolution, one that could reshape airport parking from a necessary expense into an active revenue opportunity for travelers.

JAY LANDERS is the editor-in-chief of Parking Today. He can be reached at [email protected].