Daniel Battaglia’s leadership has driven Parksy to over 500,000 listings in 57 countries, transforming how people secure parking.
Daniel Battaglia is the founder and CEO of Parksy (formerly Parking Made Easy), a peer-to-peer parking marketplace he has bootstrapped since 2011 — with no external funding — to roughly 143,629 members and 103,664 listings across 57 countries.
He has spent over a decade solving parking from the inside: building the technology, writing the content, and talking to the drivers and space-owners who use it. Today Parksy spans parking search, pricing, fines and appeals.
Daniel holds a double degree — Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) and Bachelor of Arts (European Studies) — from the University of Wollongong, and is a former Associate member of CPA Australia (ASA). Before founding Parksy he spent six years in banking and finance, including roles at Lehman Brothers, RBC Capital Markets, RBC Dexia and Macquarie Bank.
In 2023 he published Parking Made Easy - Making Life Easier (ISBN 979-8223929253), drawing on years of first-hand experience running a parking business.
Why I Built Parksy
I started what became Parksy in 2011 after one too many days circling Sydney looking for a space that did not cost a fortune. I had spent six years in banking — Lehman Brothers, RBC and Macquarie — and I kept thinking that the same problem markets solve every day, matching supply to demand, was completely unsolved on the kerb outside my office. People had empty driveways; other people were paying $60 a day in commercial car parks fifty metres away. There was no marketplace connecting them.
So I built one, and I have bootstrapped it ever since — no venture capital and no outside owners. That constraint shaped everything. I could not outspend the incumbents, so I had to out-teach them: write the guide for every suburb, document the real rules and real prices, and answer the questions drivers actually ask — where the free parking is, what a fine will cost, and how to appeal it when it is unfair.
Thirteen years on, I still write much of that content myself and read the messages members send. Parksy now covers parking search, pricing, permits, towing and fine appeals across 57 countries, but the test has not changed: would this have saved me time and money on that first frustrating afternoon in the city?
What I work on now is making that knowledge useful the moment someone needs it. A driver should be able to ask where to park near an address, what the meter rules are, whether a permit zone applies, and what to do about a ticket — and get a specific, accurate answer for that exact street, not a generic article. That means keeping location data current, writing guides that reflect real local rules, and building free tools like the fine-appeal calculator that turn a photo of a ticket into a usable appeal letter. I care about parking because it is one of those small, daily frictions that quietly costs people money and time, and most of it is fixable with better information.
As Featured In
- Sydney Morning Herald — “CBD parking secrets”
- news.com.au — “Startup boss vs NRMA: David-and-Goliath IP battle”
- SmartCompany — “Sydney founder on reaching half a million users”
- The Sun — “Parking ticket protection program”
- 9News — “Dodging the parking fine” (video)
Connect
LinkedIn · danielmbattaglia.com.au · Parking Made Easy (book site) · Buy the book