this senario should look familiar to you: “You circle the block a dozen times, just barely missing one open parking spot, mistaking a loading zone for another, before finally resigning yourself to parking blocks away from your destination”

The good news is that Parkifi is trying to solve it!

Parkifi was cofounded by Ryan Sullivan and Rishi Malik. It makes sensors and the corresponding technology to let people know whether spots are occupied. This isn’t new, but they’re doing it for much, much cheaper.

The sensors are “about the size of a hockey puck” and cost $30 apiece — nearly 90% cheaper than competitors, Sullivan says. The sensors are adhered to individual parking spaces or recessed so they’re flush with the surface (which is key in Parkifi’s home state of Colorado, when snowplows scrape at the asphalt all winter long).

Currently, Parkifi has about 500 sensors deployed in Boulder and Denver. But in the coming weeks, it’ll be announcing partnerships with two “top-tier cities” (Sullivan won’t disclose what they are just yet), as well as a large mall operator in California and several major sporting arenas.

Read more at cnn