In his previous career writing TV commercials, Dan Hubert, learned not to take no for an answer - a trait that comes in handy for an entrepreneur. Determined to make his mark on the world and dismayed by the fact that so many conversations in Britain revolve around the weather and parking, he founded AppyParking, an app that directs users to available parking spaces in real-time and integrates with sat nav.

What inspired you to start AppyParking?

I was going to a gig one night at The Royal Albert Hall, trying to park was a complete nightmare as all the paid bays and resident bays were full and they had different controlled hours to add confusion. I noticed hundreds of yards of empty single yellow lines and thought; ‘If I could park on there I could park like a VIP right outside the entrance’.

I asked a passing traffic warden for his opinion. He said I was fine to park here after 6.30pm. When I asked where the signs were he helpfully said signposts were two streets away! It was then that I realised there was a problem that desperately needed fixing.

What is it about your business that gets you up in the morning?

I used to be an advertising creative for 13 years in London’s top agencies. I spent my whole career problem solving for multi-million pound companies. Turning complicated messages into simple and consumerable messages.

It was fun for a long time apart from my ideas being in the destiny of account managers who had to sell the big idea into a nervous client. The odds of creation were slim to say the least and I realised only one part of my brain was being used.

When I started AppyParking I soon realised that my skill set strangely applied to the world of parking, turning complicated and fragmented messages into simple messages. And even more so, parking is actually a commodity that is currently being sold really badly.

Parking in a big city can be a mind-numbing experience

On top of all that I had a brutal learning curve where I had to learn about tech, business, financial models, fundraising, team leadership and start-ups. Oh and becoming a complete and utter parking geek at the same time.

My whole brain ached in a good way and it seemed there wasn’t enough hours in the day to take it all in. After two and half years of quitting advertising there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t learn something new or have to make a decision that has quite serious consequences.

They say the early bird catches the worm - AppyParking is the worm that throws me incredible opportunities. That’s definitely worth getting up for.

What has been your proudest moment?

Being in a start up is unbelievably fast paced and relentless so it’s very easy to forget about little victories and focus on the ‘Big One’.  This can become extremely wearing. Although it’s important to keep your eye on the prize, I try had not to forget small things that happen each week.

At the end of each week we always seem to have a bit of unsolicited good news and we’ve called it ‘Good News Friday’. It’s not always game changing but it makes me proud that we’re creating something that people want in some shape or another. I guess along the way the biggest things I’m most proud of are:

- Ford Motors becoming our first client and being mentioned by their CEO at the Vegas CES conference.

- Winning the Virgin Media Business Pitch to Rich competition.

- Being selected as one of London’s Evening Standard top five-travel apps.

- Being selected to go to Israel with Boris Johnson on a Smart City trade mission.

- Creating the world’s first ‘One Click’ parking trial with Vodafone and Westminster.

Finally I’m very proud of closing a $1.5m Seed Plus Investment round with Aviva, the UK’s largest insurer.

What has been the biggest challenge of launching the app nationwide?

There are so many challenges with launching nationally but luckily we’re pretty well versed with most issues as we learnt our trade in London. We’re a ‘big data big detail’ company that rely on good relations with all the UK’s local authorities.  It’s hard enough to order a recycling bin so you need the patience of a saint to get the data sets we require.

We’ve got 33 individual London boroughs in our service and over ten cities across the UK with more coming soon. Having the data and showing it is one thing, getting drivers to know about is another. Luckily we won £50,000 in prize money for the Virgin Media Business Pitch to Rich competition. This money has been amazing in helping us spread the good news to the nation about our offering.

Winning Virgin's Pitch to Rich competition, securing investment and some high-profile shout-outs put Dan's business in the driving seat

Have there been any bumps in the road and how have you overcome them?

As I mentioned earlier there are literally bumps every week. It’s one big roller-coaster that has the massive highs and lows. At the beginning AppyParking was lucky enough to get a load of support from being on the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator there was an amazing team and network of mentors.

There can be a danger of getting too many opinions and drowning in multi solutions. Ultimately the bumps you experience are the same bumps that someone else has been through and they’ve learned from it for better or for worse. I ask as many people as it takes to find the right answer and then listen to my gut.

Do you enjoy about being an entrepreneur?

It’s quite funny because I don’t like to use the word ‘entrepreneur’. I’m not sure I’d go to a pub and announce to a stranger that I am one. Strangely through I think it’s becoming more acceptable to be one? Perhaps because people keep telling me I am one and I’m getting used to the career changing definition.

At the end of the day it feels great to have created a solution from a personal problem. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of defying the laws of ‘start up’ failure by using my inclination, patience and perseverance. Now I have a team of amazing people fighting my corner and all working towards a shared end goal.

Having a great team is the fuel behind any successful start-up

What are your top tips for entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own business?

1 - Find a problem that directly affects you or that you’re passionate about. Because if it goes well you’ll be talking about your solution non-stop for a good five years.

2 – Find people with opposite skill sets to you in order to create a solid well rounded team.

3 – Do a tonne of research about who else is doing something similar to you and make a long list of how you can make it ten times better.

4 - Never make a list of how many hours it will take create your idea because you’ll run out of time.

5 – If you need investment, take money from people you’d like to have a beer with.

6 - Be prepared to say goodbye to your life for a while.

7– Never take no for an answer and never ever give up.