Ride AI

This week we're releasing another interview from Oliver's tour of micromobility companies in Southern California. 

This episode is with LeGrand Crewse, founder of Super73, on the growth of his very distinctive brand. Ever since Oliver first saw the first image of the electrified mini taco bike, he thought that Super73 were on to something - they clearly understood what electrification buys you in terms of bike design, and they had focused on knobbly tyres, aesthetics and the likelihood that riders would end up using the throttle over really peddling to create something that was a substantial departure from anything we’d really seen in popular bike design before - most companies just electrified the existing form factors that they’d been making. 

So, it was awesome to sit down with LeGrand and talk about the history and where things are going for the company, including its expansion into motorbikes. 

Also, we didn’t really discuss it, but Oliver got to test ride their kids bike afterwards too, and that thing is going to sell like hotcakes. It’s built super tough and has an adult mode meaning that adults can ride it as well - check out Oliver's SoCal tour write up on Twitter for a video of him checking it out.  

Specifically they tackle:

- The history of Super73

- How the company has grown over time

- Funding and how they have thought about it

- Why they chose to raise less than their competitors

- The new motorbikes and the impact that they will have on servicing and maintenance

Take a closer look at Super73 on their website

And with that, here’s LeGrand!

Catch us on Twitter. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our Micromobility Newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. And for those who want more, we offer Micromobility Pro membership that includes exclusive content and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team.

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week we're excited to bring you an interview from Oliver's recent tour of Southern California ahead of our Micromobility World online event. Oliver flew up from NZ to be with James, Julia and the team to produce the event but while he was there also took the chance to visit a whole heap of companies working in micromobility, either as vehicle makers or peripherally. He learnt a huge amount - especially from those who have been in the industry for a while. 

Benno Baenziger is an OG of the bike space, founding Electra Bikes back in 1993 as a recent immigrant to California from Germany and growing it through the 90s and 2000s till he sold it to a private equity group in 2008. He stuck around but eventually left to start Benno bikes in 2015 with a focus on what electric can bring to the bike industry. 

There’s a few things that you should know about Benno. Firstly, the company has less than 10 employees. He has really understood the bike industry and what makes for great bikes so focusses on the very specific points that he has as a designer to make great bikes and leaves the rest to others, a very different strategy to other companies in this space like Vanmoof or Cowboy who have chosen to eschew the old bike industry and try and do it themselves. 

Secondly, he’s profitable with no outside funding beyond what capital he put in himself.

Like the conversation with Josh Hon from Tern, Oliver learns so much about how the world works with experiences like this. It is an honour to bring you material like this and we hope that we get to do more of the tours - it’s always better to do these interviews in person! 

Finally, Micromobility World went great. It was one of our largest events to dates and We had a lot of really excellent content come out of it, the relevant ones of which we will drop as podcasts soon. 

And here's Benno!

Specifically they tackle:

- His background founding Electra Bikes and then moving on 

- Why, despite him saying that he’d not do another bike business, Benno Bikes exists 

- What is ‘etility’ and what does it offer to the customer 

- Why he’s chosen to go a more traditional route for componentry and servicing 

- How he has managed to self fund the company to date 

- The importance of design and quality in a brand

Catch us on Twitter. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our Micromobility Newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. And for those who want more, we offer Micromobility Pro membership that includes exclusive content and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team.

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week, Oliver interviews Dong Tran, founder of Ryvid, who make electric motorbikes in California. We’ve not covered heaps of motorbikes on the show so far, but that’s changing and we will have a bunch more next year. There’s a few really interesting things about Ryvid... 

Firstly, they’ve got a pretty unique new metal folding technique for frame design which, if you listen to Horace and how he talks about how manufacturing techniques dictate how products evolve, has a lot of potential in offering lower cost, more innovative vehicle designs and companies. 

Secondly, they’re about to go into production with only around $1m raised, and 

Thirdly, they’ve just been the recipients of a $20m calcompete grant in California, which is one of the largest grants that we’ve ever seen given to a Micromobility company. We really like Dong and his attitude, and it’s a pleasure to be able to bring you this conversation.

Specifically they tackle

 And with that, here’s Dong!!

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week Oliver interviews Robin Eriksson from Cogo app which is the largest shared micromobility aggregator in Europe. Horace and Oliver have long had a theory that the world of micromobility will mature to be more like the public transport or airline industry over time. So it’s no surprise to us to see the rise of Cogo, which allows for discovery to be handled in a single app for all micromobility providers in a city. 

We were excited to hear that they’ve recently added payments, and so wanted to have them on to run through their growth and where they think the marketplace for mobility is going. 

We really enjoyed this conversation with Robin - he’s super smart and has clearly navigated through the challenges to build a product that we're really excited to use when next in Europe.

Specifically they tackle:

Learn more about Cogo App on their website.

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

As we tick over from 2022 to 2023 we wanted to reshare our most popular episode from 2022. 

Our recent Spotify Wrapped and general analytics we get from our podcast platform gave us a few really cool stats about the podcast. We’re in the top 5% of followed and shared podcasts shared globally, with listeners from 61 countries and the majority of you being new listeners who only found us in the last year. 

Exciting times! 

We're excited to rerelease what was our most listened to episode from 2022.  What is Micromobility and Why does it matter (2022 edition) that Horace and Oliver recorded at Micromobility Europe in June. We do these every so often as a recap of the thesis about why lightweight electric vehicles are interesting - cheap, best suited to the majority of trips that most people take and as vehicles, fast to evolve - and what micro therefore offers to the transport and decarbonisation conversation. 

In this episode we discuss what we got right back in 2018 when we started this podcast, what we were hoping to see that is either starting to happen or now common place, and what we got wrong. 

Specifically they tackle:

Right before we head off to this. we wanted to also suggest that you check out the Rider Choice awards. These are the Oscars of the micromobility world ahead of Micromobility World on the 19th of Jan. We’ve just shifted to the semi-final rounds for many of the categories, and we’re excited to see which brands are considered the most popular whether it’s your favourite scooter, ebike, shared service or more - with tens of thousands of votes already in, be sure to not miss out. Check it out at Micromobility.io.

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week Oliver interviews Danny Kim from Lit Motors. Danny is an OG of the micromobility space. He was thinking about the impact of electric and what it’d enable in vehicle architectures well before pretty much anybody else, evidenced by both the Kubo and their C1. The C1 is an enclosed gyro balanced electric motorbike that in our view has amazing potential in terms of providing something that is as performance, weather protection and safety of a car, but in the package of a motorbike. We think that what Lit motors are trying to build is not without very substantial risks but has the potential to be a real game changer in the conversation in urban mobility if they manage.

It would be remiss not to note that Lit Motors has a storied history, to say the least. A quick scan of their Wikipedia page certainly makes that clear - like Oliver, there are a bunch of people who did put in pre-orders back in 2012 and 2013 that haven't seen a vehicle. But after meeting Danny and learning more about both his journey and also what technical issues they’ve managed to work through we are more excited than ever for the potential future of having lots of these crazy amazing vehicles zooming around our cities. We love bold founders who show incredible tenacity and grit in building something as bold as this.

Full disclosure, as mentioned in this episode, Oliver recently invested in Lit Motors on the basis of their team and technology. None of this should be construed as financial advice, and we are VERY aware that it was an insanely risky investment, but like Marc Randolph, the founder of Netflix said in a recent tweet storm, there are some times when you just want to have a seat in the arena to watch the journey, and to cheer on those crazy enough to try and build a better world. Danny is, in our mind, one of those.

Specifically they dig into:

- The early days of Lit Motors

- The promise and potential of gyro-balacing technology in car/vehicles

- Danny's accident in 2015 and the impact of that

- The team he's built

- The plan for the next few years

- The addressable market and implications of these vehicles if they work.

Right before we head off to this. we wanted to also suggest that you check out the Rider Choice awards. These are the Oscars of the micromobility world ahead of Micromobility World on the 19th of Jan. We’ve just shifted to the semi-final rounds for many of the categories, and we’re excited to see which brands are considered the most popular whether it’s your favourite scooter, ebike, shared service or more - with tens of thousands of votes already in, be sure to not miss out. Check it out at Micromobility.io.

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week Oliver interviews David Hansen from Weel Bike based in Seattle. Oliver has known David since the early days of Micromobility Industries, and indeed, Weel was one of the companies that the Microbility VC syndicate invested in back in 2019 when we were running it, so full disclosure, Oliver does have some skin in the game. 

We love what they’re doing - they really have taken to heart what Horace talked about early on with the concept of what a smartphone on wheels would look like, rather than being a bike with phone bits stuck on. With the company about to ship bikes in Q1 next year, We wanted to bring David on to discuss their product but also their philosophy and what makes their vehicle different to any other bikes in the space. It’s a bold strategy, but I’m excited to see what conversations it’ll provoke about what a bike is or should be.

Specifically they tackle

Learn more about David here.

Visit the Weel website.

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week Oliver got to interview Josh Hon from Tern bikes. If you’ve not come across the Tern brand before, they’re now a mid-size bike company, but have really found a strong niche providing high quality utility bikes like their best selling mid-drive short tail compact cargo bike the GSD. 

Tern is different from a lot of the other micromobility companies that we've had on the Micromobility Podcast in that it’s definitely more of a traditional bike company, using bike shops etc to sell and service their bikes in what has now grown to be 61 countries.

They also pass over it relatively quickly in this episode, but Tern is an amazing story in that Josh has raised only around 6m in funding to date.  

 We really valued Josh’s humility and perspective as someone who has been around the bike industry for a really long time, especially on his insights into Taiwan and what does/doesn’t work there. We are really looking forward to future discussions with him.

Specifically they tackle:

Josh's personal history and how he came to start Tern

The current range - what’s notable right now

How they’ve raised capital and built their team

Building in Taiwan - what should people know about what they’ve done

Also, if you haven’t already, please be sure to check out our Rider Choice Awards - the Oscars of the micromobility world. Voting is open now ahead of Micromobility World on the 19th of January. We’re excited to see which brands are considered the most popular whether it’s your favourite scooter, ebike, shared service or more - with tens of thousands of votes already in, be sure to not miss out. Check it out at Micromobility.io

To learn more about Tern Bikes, click here

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This Week Oliver interviews Murvah Iqbal from HIVED. Every so often we come across entrepreneurs where we come away thinking that they’re going to own a segment in a way that the incumbents are going to struggle to respond to. 

Murvah is one of those. We loved this interview. We got into the backstory for HIVED, what they’re building and why micro is core to their strategy. The world of package delivery is one that is here and real. We're super excited to follow her career and see them succeed.

In the meantime, if you haven’t check out our latest effort, the Rider Choice Awards. It is our industries version of the oscars, the baftas, the Top Gear Speed Week and the webby’s all tied into one. You can select the best firms and vehicles in more than 30 categories and get them selected for consideration ahead of judging for Micromobiltiy World, which is happening on January 19th online. We have many of the top brands in the world currently battling it out for top spot in the bike, scooter, pod, subscription business, shared operator and more from around the world. We’ve been blown away by the level of excitement from the community and are super excited to share the preliminary results with you. The first round of cutoff is coming this month, and then again next month so get your votes in quickly!

And now, here’s Murvah.

Specifically, they dig into:

In the meantime, if you haven’t check out our latest effort, the Rider Choice Awards. It is our industries version of the Oscars, the Baftas, the Top Gear Speed Week and the Webby’s all tied into one. You can select the best firms and vehicles in more than 30 categories and get them selected for consideration ahead of judging for Micromobiltiy World, which is happening on January 19th online. We have many of the top brands in the world currently battling it out for top spot in the bike, scooter, pod, subscription business, shared operator and more from around the world. We’ve been blown away by the level of excitement from the community and are super excited to share the preliminary results with you. The first round of cutoff is coming this month, and then again next month so get your votes in quickly!

Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you.

Our newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday morning here! And for those who want more, we offer our Micromobility membership (mmm — “Triple M”) which includes exclusive content, swag, and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team!

We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.