Middle Tech

Most people see parking as a necessary evil—a frustrating obstacle between you and wherever you're going. Grant Murray saw an opportunity to turn it into something cities, businesses, and consumers all benefit from.In this episode, Grant joins us to share how he built Proximity Parking, a platform that transforms parking payments into an economic development tool by connecting drivers with nearby local businesses at the exact moment they're parking.Grant traces his path from UK accounting student to Connetic Ventures intern to founder, explaining how he raised $1.5 million from Connetic, KeyHorse Capital, and strategic angels to build a product he's now rolling out across Kentucky. We dig into how he validated the idea by talking to businesses before writing a line of code, why governments are harder (but not impossible) to sell to, and how being based at Covington's SparkHaus helped him land his first city customers. With Lexington, Covington, and soon Newport live—and Louisville and Cincinna