Sunshine State resident JJ Paulsen says growing up in a Florida Gator family meant plenty of trips to Gainesville and Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. And there’s one aspect of going to see the Gators over the years that he’s never forgotten.
“A lot of my fondest memories as a kid were at those games, and the only negative experience was finding a parking spot when we arrived,” said the 20-year-old Orlando native, now an economics major in Florida. “In fact, we had a running joke in our family: How long would it take to find a parking spot this time?”
Paulsen, who also spent time selling parking spots at Florida State football games, said he and his business partner Dustin Karp (a Florida State alumnus) decided there had to be a better way to buy and sell parking spots, so they founded Perch, a service aimed at making the process easier for everyone involved. In its first year, Perch has helped more than 2,000 college football fans find a parking spot for home games in Florida.
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Now Paulsen and Karp are bringing Perch to Athens.
“Nobody goes somewhere to park; they go there to watch the football game,” Paulsen said. “Parking is really an amenity that a lot of people don’t think about, but it’s the first and last impression for fans going to games. When you go to a game, the first thing you do is park your car and the last thing you do is get it out of the car and drive away.”
“Our goal is to make this process as simple as possible and provide a positive first and last impression for fans coming to games, so they come back year after year.”
Perch has already reached an agreement on a lot near Sanford Stadium, and Paulsen said he and Karp are reaching out to other lot owners to set up a digital marketplace to make the game-day experience a little less annoying for buyers and sellers who haven’t yet reserved spaces.
“We came together to create this platform that allows businesses, homes, churches, elementary schools — pretty much anyone who sells parking on game day — to list those spots on our platform so fans coming to games can reserve a spot,” Paulsen said.
Paulsen added that lot owners set their own prices for the spaces and said that in its inaugural season in Athens, Perch will avoid fees to build inventory and goodwill.
“For the upcoming season, we are running a promotion where all new onboarding batches will have our transaction fee waived for the first year to encourage more people to try our platform and show how it can make their lives easier,” he said.
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“This platform is made by football fans for football fans. We are more focused on building inventory and helping as many lot owners and football fans as we can.”
Paulsen also hopes to expand beyond Gainesville and Athens and is targeting Florida State, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee as possible locations for Perch. When asked about how his in-person gameday experience in Gainesville will unfold this fall, Paulsen said he and Karp will prioritize being available to lot owners and customers.
“The platform is built to be fully sustainable, so everyone who lists with us has their own personalized dashboard that lists prices and reservations,” he said. “They don’t need us to do anything directly – we put as much power as possible in the hands of the lot owners, but we take care of customer support, so if customers reach out with issues or questions, I make sure I’m available to answer and provide support to the lot owner.”
It’s likely that in the coming years, with EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville set to undergo improvements that could close the facility for the 2026 and 2027 Georgia-Florida games, the celebrated rivalry will move to alternate venues, possibly even for a head-to-head matchup.
If that’s the case, Paulsen said Perch will welcome Bulldogs fans to Gainesville with open arms.
“Last year, we helped a lot of visiting fans looking for parking,” he said. “We definitely don’t discriminate just because we’re Gator fans. When the Bulldogs come to Gainesville, we’ll definitely have parking for them.”
For more information, visit www.parkwithperch.com.
