The Micromobility Podcast

Seattle has quietly become one of America’s biggest shared micromobility success stories.

In 2021, the city recorded roughly 2.3 million shared micromobility trips. By 2025, that had grown to 10.53 million trips, with another ~20% growth underway in 2026.

In this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, Prabin Joel Jones speaks with Kim Pearson, Shared Mobility Program Manager at the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), about what Seattle did differently—and what other cities can learn from it.

They unpack the city’s journey from becoming the first U.S. city to launch free-floating bike share in 2017 to today’s large-scale bike and scooter network.

Kim explains why protected bike infrastructure has probably been the single biggest driver of growth, alongside reliable vehicle availability, equity requirements, reduced fares, transit integration, and new vehicle formats such as seated scooters.

The conversation also covers Seattle’s reduced-fare program—which generated more than one million trips in 2025—the rapid adoption of seated scooters, performance-based fleet caps, Seattle’s hybrid approach to parking corrals, and how micromobility helped move tens of thousands of people during the World Cup.

If you work in cities, transportation, shared mobility, bike share, scooters, or urban planning, this is a detailed look at how a city can turn micromobility from a pilot program into a meaningful part of its transportation system.

Guest: Kim Pearson, Shared Mobility Program Manager, Seattle Department of Transportation
Host: Prabin Joel Jones, CEO, Micromobility Industries

In this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, Prabin Joel Jones sits down with Alan Zhao, General Manager of Segway’s Commercial Division, to discuss the evolution of shared micromobility and Segway’s role in shaping the industry.

Alan has been part of Segway’s sharing business since the early days, when the team was only a few people. The conversation covers the rise of shared scooters, the transition from consumer hardware to purpose-built fleet vehicles, total cost of ownership, hardware durability, operator profitability, e-bikes, autonomous scooters, last-mile delivery, and the future of the market.

They also discuss why some micromobility operators succeeded while others failed, what separates strong operators from weak ones, and the lessons Alan has taken from nearly a decade in the industry.  

Recorded live at Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin, this fireside chat features Christian Springub, Co-Founder & CEO of Dance, discussing the journey of building one of Europe’s most recognizable e-bike subscription companies — and the road that ultimately led to Dance joining forces with Swapfiets.

Coming from a software and tech background, Christian and his co-founders set out to build something tangible: a premium e-bike subscription service with its own custom hardware, software stack, logistics, warehouses, mechanics and repair operations.

That journey turned out to be far harder than expected.

Christian shares what he learned about moving from software to hardware, why Dance customized too much of its first-generation bike, the enormous cost of making mistakes once hardware is already on the road, and why hardware companies need to grow very differently from traditional software startups.

We also dig into the decisions that helped make Dance stand out: its distinctive bike design and prism colour, its obsessive attention to branding, its premium positioning, its influencer strategy, and the factors that made Paris one of its strongest markets.

Christian also reflects on fundraising roughly €60 million across debt and equity, the consequences of scaling too quickly during the COVID-era funding boom, why he no longer sees businesses like Dance as traditional venture-capital businesses, and why profitability and strategic backing matter so much in asset-heavy mobility.

Finally, we discuss the acquisition by Swapfiets, what brought two longtime “frenemies” together, the complexity of restructuring debt to complete the transaction, and Christian’s advice to founders building hardware companies today.

Recorded at Micromobility Europe 2026, Berlin.

What is Mobility as a Service, and can it really replace the convenience of owning a car?

On this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, hosted by Prabin Joel Jones, CEO of Micromobility Industries, Sampo Hietanen, widely credited with coining the term Mobility as a Service (MaaS), takes us through nearly two decades of thinking, building, experimenting and learning about the future of mobility.

From developing the original MaaS concept in 2006 to founding MaaS Global and launching Whim, Hietanen has seen both the promise and challenges of creating a seamless alternative to car ownership.

In this conversation, he shares what MaaS was originally designed to solve, why the car is the real competitor, and what building Whim taught him about convenience, subscriptions and user experience.

The conversation also explores how AI could change the way people interact with mobility, moving us beyond apps and toward services that simply understand where we need to go and how we prefer to get there.

Today, through his work at Swavia, Hietanen is also exploring another evolution of the idea — Mobility as a Feature, where mobility becomes part of products and services such as real estate and retail rather than a standalone product.

In this episode

• Why the real competitor to MaaS is car ownership
• How the original MaaS concept started in 2006
• What Mobility as a Service actually means
• The lessons from building Whim
• Why subscriptions could unlock the potential of MaaS
• Why convenience matters more than mobility ideology
• How AI agents could transform the mobility experience
• Why mobility could become a feature of real estate and other products
• What the future of car ownership could look like

In this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, Prabin Joel Jones sits down with Tomi Viiala, former CEO of Stromer, to talk about building one of the most distinctive premium e-bike brands in the world and his next, far more ambitious project: Viiala.

Tomi spent more than a decade at Stromer, helping take the Swiss speed-pedelec company from startup to an international brand operating across 25 countries. During that journey, Stromer pushed e-bike pricing from around €5,000 into the €10,000+ range, pioneered connected bikes, and built an unusually loyal community around the riding experience rather than individual components.

We discuss why Stromer succeeded in creating a premium category, why Belgium became one of the world's strongest markets for speed pedelecs, why Germany has struggled to achieve the same adoption, and what Tomi learned about brand, pricing, distribution, product quality and protecting resale value.

Then we get into what comes next.

Together with former Audemars Piguet CEO François-Henry Bennahmias, Tomi is building Viiala, a new company developing what it calls a hyperbike.

The first bike is expected to start at around €30,000, with a new motor system, battery technology, advanced electronics, V2X connectivity, integrated safety systems and a connected helmet ecosystem. Rather than designing a bike to hit a predetermined price point, the team is taking the opposite approach: engineer the system they want first and determine the price afterwards.

Viiala also plans to source around 90% of its components from Europe, manufacture its carbon frames in Slovakia, assemble the bikes in Europe and initially produce only around 300–500 units of its first hyperbike.

We talk about:

• How Stromer created a cult following around speed pedelecs
• Why getting customers on a test ride was more important than talking about price
• Building a brand instead of selling Shimano, Bosch or other component specifications
• Why Stromer avoided model years and heavy discounting
• How premium pricing helped protect second-hand values
• Why Belgium became such a successful speed-pedelec market
• The regulatory barriers holding speed pedelecs back in Germany
• Tomi's biggest lessons from more than a decade at Stromer
• Why Viiala is building the brand before revealing the bike
• The thinking behind a €30,000 hyperbike
• Developing a proprietary motor, battery and technology platform
• Bringing automotive-style safety technology to two wheels
• Why Viiala wants to manufacture and assemble in Europe
• Whether ultra-luxury bicycles can become a category like luxury cars and watches
• Viiala's plans for more accessible commuter and urban models
• The roadmap toward the first customer deliveries

At Micromobility Europe 2026, Philippe Crist is joined by Fredrik Hjelm, CEO of Voi Technology, and Maxim Romain, CEO of Dott, for a discussion on how Europe's leading operators are navigating the industry's next chapter.

After years of rapid growth, market consolidation, and changing investor sentiment, both companies are now profitable and focused on long-term growth.

The discussion covers:
• How Voi and Dott reached profitability
• Why cities are offering longer-term licences
• The evolution from scooters to multimodal fleets
• Better infrastructure and parking
• Shared micromobility as part of public transport
• Why subscriptions and better hardware are driving growth
• Lime's IPO and renewed investor confidence
• The future of European shared mobility

Speakers
Maxim Romain – Co-Founder & CEO, Dott
Fredrik Hjelm – Co-Founder & CEO, Voi Technology

Moderator
Philippe Crist - Mobility Expert
📍 Recorded live at Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin.

Long before dockless bikes and scooters became a global industry, Ryan Rzepecki was building connected bicycles.

In this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, Ryan tells the remarkable story of Social Bicycles, its transformation into JUMP Bikes, and the decade-long journey that ultimately led to its acquisition by Uber.

Ryan explains how his team built connected bikes before IoT technology became mainstream, survived for years with less than six months of runway, and created an e-bike experience that many still consider the gold standard for shared micromobility.

We discuss:
• How an urban planner without a hardware or software background started JUMP
• Building connected bikes before smartphones and IoT became mainstream
• Bootstrapping the company to $10 million in revenue
• Why 2017 was the hardest year of Ryan’s professional life
• The rebrand from Social Bicycles to JUMP
• How the team perfected JUMP’s iconic red bike and natural motor assistance
• How the Stripe founders discovered JUMP and helped with fundraising
• Why Uber acquired the company
• What changed when JUMP went from a capital-constrained startup to operating inside Uber
• How JUMP’s technology and industrial design shaped Lime’s current bike fleet
• Why nobody has managed to build a clearly better shared e-bike
• The biggest mistakes founders make when building hardware startups
• Why hardware companies need recurring software or service revenue
• Ryan’s new augmented-reality company, MeshMap, and its first immersive experience in New York City

Ryan also shares his view on the future of micromobility, autonomous vehicles, battery swapping, local operations and why micromobility companies could eventually become broader transportation operators.

This is the story of one of the most influential companies in modern shared mobility and the founder whose work can still be seen on the streets of cities around the world.

Subscribe to the Micromobility Podcast for more conversations with the founders and leaders shaping the future of transportation.

Why does cycling continue to lead the micromobility revolution?

At Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin, Henk Swarttouw, President of the European Cyclists' Federation (ECF), joins Karen Vancluysen, Secretary General of POLIS, to discuss why cycling remains the backbone of sustainable urban mobility. 

They explore how cities should rethink street space, the rise of autonomous vehicles, the impact of e-bikes, integrating cycling with public transport, the future of bike infrastructure, and the European policies shaping active mobility.

Topics covered:

• Why cycling is still at the centre of micromobility
• Reclaiming street space from cars
• Autonomous vehicles and urban mobility
• E-bikes and the next wave of cycling growth
• Shared bikes vs. e-scooters
• Bike lanes, cargo bikes and infrastructure challenges
• Cycling and public transport integration
• Supercycle highways and commuter cycling
• EuroVelo and cycling tourism
• European cycling policy and funding
• Safe routes to school and getting more children on bikes

Speakers

• Henk Swarttouw – President, European Cyclists' Federation (ECF)
• Karen Vancluysen – Secretary General, Polis

📍 Recorded live at Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin.

🌐 https://micromobility.io

What does it take to build one of Europe's largest bike-sharing operators over 22 years?

At Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin, Johan Høgåsen-Hallesby sits down with Sebastian Popp to explore the evolution of bike sharing—from manually unlocking bikes via a hotline in 2004 to operating integrated mobility networks across more than 400 cities today.

Sebastian shares the story of Nextbike's early years, surviving on limited resources, winning city tenders across Europe, securing its first investment after a decade of bootstrapping, and navigating its acquisition by Tier before becoming independent again.

The conversation also examines how bike sharing is evolving, the growing convergence of B2G and B2C mobility models, public transport integration, regional mobility networks, fleet customization, European manufacturing, and why subsidized bike-sharing systems remain critical for cities looking to reduce car dependency.

Topics covered:
• The founding story of Nextbike and Europe's early bike-sharing market
• Scaling to tens of thousands of bikes through city tenders
• Lessons from the Tier acquisition
• How Nextbike transformed into a rider-focused organization
• Public transport integration and regional mobility networks
• The future of bike sharing, micromobility, and city partnerships
• Why cities should continue investing in shared mobility infrastructure

Speakers:
• Sebastian Popp, CEO, Nextbike
• Johan Høgåsen-Hallesby, Co-founding Partner, Beta Mobility

Recorded live at Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin.

Subscribe for more conversations with the leaders shaping the future of urban mobility.

Patrick Bion, Co-Founder and CEO of Minimal, joins Prabin Joel Jones on the Micromobility Podcast to talk about the future of last-mile delivery, right-sized vehicles, and why cities need a new generation of commercial vehicles.
Patrick has spent more than a decade building electric vehicles, starting at Tesla in the early days of Model S, Model X and Model 3, before moving to Arrival, where he worked on commercial EVs for major customers including Amazon and UPS.

Now, with Minimal, he is taking a different approach: smaller, smarter, more efficient vehicles designed specifically for dense urban logistics.
In this conversation, Patrick explains why simply electrifying vans is not enough, how Minimal’s Pedal Four vehicle can replace van routes in dense city centres, and why the company is building a full stack of right-sized delivery vehicles, from pedal-assist cargo vehicles to microvans and eventually autonomous delivery platforms.

They also discuss Minimal’s microfactory strategy, Fleet OS software platform, battery and charging model, regulation around cargo vehicles in bike lanes, the economics of parcel delivery, and why the future of urban logistics may depend on moving more with less.