Alumni startup ‘Parking Bee’ works to make parking more affordable

While interning with Merrill Lynch two summers ago, Mike Black found his weekly commute into New York City was costing him $45 a day in parking fees alone. “That’s when it hit me,” said Black, who graduated from Penn State in 2016 with a degree in finance. “I would have happily paid $30 a day to rent my friend’s space. And he was gone for a whole week — he could have made $150 on his spot.” With help from Lion LaunchPad, Black took that idea and transformed it into the startup Parking Bee.