Micromobility

This week Oliver interviews Eric Qwidwenus-Wahlforss, Founder and CEO of Dance. When we first heard that the founders of SoundCloud had got into electric bikes we wondered how does the world of software paralleled across to the world of hardware and electric bikes. But Eric puts up a convincing argument and Dance has made a splash with their launch. This is a great conversation about the nature of how the industry has changed over time and how the business model of micromobility parallels to a lot of other subscription Internet businesses. Specifically, they dig into: * The backstory to Dance, including Eric’s background at Soundcloud in Berlin and the climate motivations for starting Dance * Why they chose the rental business model, and what that enables * More about the bike and the service, and how they see competition * The reception to date * The challenges and ease of fundraising and what has changed in the space over time * Manufacturing in an era of COVID

This week we’re releasing the first of the content from the recent Micromobility America conference. In this interview, Lauren Goode from Wired interviews Andrew Yang who was one of the headline speakers. Lauren and Andrew talk about Forward, his new American political party, before moving on to talk about role of micromobility in the future of transport. It’s a great conversation and we in the team really appreciate it when politicians have such progressive takes and are willing to embrace technology in transport like this. Specifically they dig into: - Andrew’s new political party, Forward, and why its important - How local, state and federal regulations play a part in Micromobility’s future - How many scooters Andrew owns - Why micromobility is important for health, both mental and physical - The need for cities to better accomodate these new modes - Why he likes small companies and innovation, and why micromobility is well suited to this - The challenges of electrifying other parts of the fleets. - T

This week Oliver interviews one of his heroes in the urbanist space, Gabe Klein. Gabe has successfully managed to successfully operate in both the private and public sectors, as one of the first execs at Zipcar, helping form the company that became Car2Go and then was appointed head of DOT in both Washington DC and Chicago. He has a great grounding in the space and understands what works and what doesn’t in cities giving him great perspective of what micromobility offers to the cities and urban transport conversation. It was a wonderful conversation - more like a catch up with a friend than an interview. The team hopes you enjoy! Specifically they dig into: - His background starting in bikes, moving on to Zipcar/what became Car2Go - His move into city government - both DC and then Chicago - and what he learned there around the challenges/opportunities to help shape cities and their transport systems - What he thinks micromobility offers to the transport conversation - both owned and shared - on the variab

This week Oliver interviews Jaideep Dhanoa, Founder and CEO of Fenix, about his experience within the micromobility industry across Asia and the Middle East. Jaideep is an absolute OG of the space. They talk about his experiences with the Chinese bikeshare boom while at Grab, his move back to the Middle East with Circ and now his efforts with Fenix. They talk Turkey which is a market that hasn’t been on the radar till now, but could well become the next Paris or Seoul. It's a great conversation and they really hope you enjoy as much as they did.  Specifically they dig into: - Jaideep’s background at Grab working on micromobility integrations, and why that foretold the future explosion of the sector. - His journey back to the Middle East and his efforts with Circ and then the rise from the ashes of Fenix. - The challenges and opportunities for the rise of micromobility in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC). - The significance of the funding rounds that they’ve received. - The largest markets across the

Hey team, this week Oliver interviews Olaf Sakkers about his new book, Mobility Disruption Framework. Olaf is one of the General Partners at Redblue Capital, a new mobility venture investment firm that he founded. Prior to this, he was at Maniv Mobility for 6 years with Michael Granoff, a friend of Micromobility Industries and a previous guest on the podcast. This is one of our favourite episodes. Olaf’s work feels seminal, which is always a good place to start from. It covers a lot of the same ideas covered on this podcast all in one, coherent and cogent framework, and helped us really get our head around concepts that we’ve been thinking about for years but have struggled to  articulate. We cannot recommend it highly enough.  Thank you to Reilly Brennan for putting us onto it via his excellent Future of Transportation weekly newsletter. Specifically they talk about: Olaf’s history with Maniv Mobility and his new venture Redblue. The origins of the Mobility Disruption framework and its audience. Why Ola

This week Oliver interviews Horace about his recent thoughts on the impact of lithium ion batteries on power tools and how the market and products have developed. He also spawns a new framework: batteries we carry, batteries that carry us and batteries that carry themselves. It’s Horace at his best - riffing and letting his brain do what it does. In the meantime, make sure that you get your tickets for Micromobility America, the world’s largest summit devoted to small electric vehicles. It returns to the SF Bay Area on September 23, 2021 for an immersive, in-person gathering. The team are hellbent on breaking the old paradigm of car dependency and getting the world moving again, safely and sustainably. The event will be a jam-packed day of talks, demos, meetings, and test rides with micromobility’s top global founders, policymakers, investors, and influencers. Meet over 500 startups and established players, test the latest technology and vehicles for the first time in nearly two years. It’ll take advantage o

Today Oliver interviews Michael Dunne, founder of Zozogo, former VP of JD Power in China, GM of General Motors Indonesia and host of the Winning in Asia podcast which covers the auto sector in China. Mike has a huge depth of experience in China, which is an area that the team haven’t covered as much as we’d like on this show. The conversation gave rise to a lot of discussions about the lay of the land in the Chinese auto sector, the role of the Chinese auto sector in Micromobility and how micromobility will need to change to see adoption from those who are coming from poverty into wealth and are looking for highly performant and high status vehicles. It’s a great discussion and one that we think you’ll really enjoy. Specifically they dig into: - Mike’s background and how a kid from Detroit ended up in China in the 1990s. - the Dynamics of the local Chinese car industry, including a breakdown of local vs joint ventures vs Tesla.  - what (totally crazy!) excess capacity in the auto sector looks like and why

Today Oliver interviews Kyle Doerksen, founder/CEO of Onewheel, about the companies journey. Kyle has been in the space since the very beginning and epitomises the builder mentality - having tinkered with lots of components back in the late 2000’s to build his first prototypes. They also talk a lot about funding and manufacturing as OneWheel has taken quite a different approach to others in the space in the USA. This video is also up as a Youtube video, complete with images of the vehicle as well. Specifically, they dig into: * The origins of Onewheel/Kyle’s background and motivation for starting the company * The vehicles and where they're finding a market including the breakdown between commuters and recreational users. * How Kyle thinks about community building, including Onewheel racing events. * How they think about countering the learning curve for the vehicle and their target demographic. * What the market for funding etc. has been like on your journey since the late 2000’s and why Kyle is a fan of

Today, Oliver interviews Erdem Ovacik, CEO of Donkey Republic, the first shared micromobility player to go public globally. Donkey Republic is listed on the Nasdaq First North exchange in the Nordics. It’s a great discussion about how the market has evolved, and why they see increasingly tight cooperation with governments being the next phase of shared market developments. Specifically, they dig into: - the backstory of Donkey, including where the name came from and the development of the bikeshare market in Europe - Donkey’s unique approach of being both an operator and SaaS business and the economics of the varying parts of the business. - Why they’ve pursued a ‘virtual dock’ solution rather than just straight free-float and what that’s enabled them as a business. - Why they see the growth of the business being in publicly funded bike share systems in the EU. - How their valuation compares to other companies in the shared space, and what the reception of investors has been like. - what the listing has

This week Oliver interviews Richard Thorpe, CEO of Gocycle. Gocycle are the world’s premier electric folding bike manufacturer, and Richard has been at the game longer than most, starting to work on the project back in the early 2000’s. In this episode, they dig into the history of the company, why folding matters in a multimodal future, and the importance of vehicle weight. Specifically: - Richard’s background at Mclaren and how that informed his view on weight - The challenge of building an electric bike company in the 2000s - What matters for consumers, and how that informs how they bring their bikes to market - The new G4 range, and what that offers over prior models - What has helped and hindered with marketing Also, the next Micromobility America conference is now scheduled for the 23rd of September. It’ll be in Pier 70 in San Francisco and have more than 50 top speakers from the industry, more than 1000 global participants and 500ish startups and brands represented. If you love this space and want

This week, Oliver and Horace interview Amir Haleem, CEO of Helium, about the rise of distributed telco infrastructure. This was originally recorded for the Critical Path, but given that Amir has been a guest on the podcast in the past and there’s a direct link between what they’re building and low cost connectivity for micromobility, we wanted to share here as well. If you’re interested in Helium and wondering how it sits within the telecommunication industry business model, this is a great episode. Specifically they dig into: - The Helium model for telco and what problem they were trying to solve. - Why Horace calls this the first 'useful crypto' he's found. - Horace talks about the traps of infrastructure financing, and ponders whether the Helium model invalidate these challenges. - Horace and Amir break down whether/how the model is disruptive to existing infrastructure. - They talk about the future challenges they can foresee, and how Helium will potentially react. Also, the next Micromobility Ameri

This week we’re releasing an audio version of the recent Micromobility Membership webinar on low end micromobility that Oliver did with reporter Lavender Au and Nat Bullard, Head of Content at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. They discuss Lavender’s lauded RestofWorld article on low end micromobility in China. In lieu of full-size cars, Chinese commuters are flocking to tiny alternatives that look and perform more like golf carts or rickshaws than Teslas. In 2019, these low-cost, low-speed vehicles actually outsold traditional electric cars by 2 to 1. It’s a great discussion about how the sector these lightweight electric vehicles in China have emerged, and where they might fit into a global transport future going forward. It is an incredibly illuminating discussion about a topic that receives far too little press. Also, the next Micromobility America conference is now scheduled for the 23rd of September. It’ll be in Pier 70 in San Francisco and have more than 50 top speakers from the industry, more than 1000

In celebration of Earth Day 2021, Oliver interviews Horace about his latest project - looking at the carbon emissions in the transport sector and modelling the pathways for the current options. You can probably imagine where they get to, but they don’t want to spoil the show. This is still a work in progress, and they are putting this out as a primer so that folks may understand the narrative arc, and the background/context of why Horace is looking at this. Specifically they look at: - The math of emissions, and why transport is hard - The lifecycles of vehicles and why the shift to electric cars will take a long time - The ‘gap’ that exists between existing emissions reduction plans and reality - Where micromobility might contribute Also, the next Micromobility America conference is now scheduled for the 23rd of September. It’ll be in Pier 70 in San Francisco and have more than 50 top speakers from the industry, more than 1000 global participants and 500ish startups and brands represented. If you love

Between COVID work stoppages, a massive stock surge, a strategic tech acquisition, partnering with legendary automotive engineer Sandy Munro, and the general fits and starts of pre-production, Arcimoto, maker of semi-enclosed electric three-wheelers, has had an eventful year. This week Oliver interviews their CEO, Mark Frohnmayer, to shed light on the company’s manufacturing progress and long-term ambitions—and why he believes heavy micromobility is vital to the future of electric vehicles. This is the audio version of the video from the Micromobility Show on Youtube. Check out the link to the video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTzO9wekyiA). If you like this, you will also likely like the interview we did with Mark back in November 2019 on Episode 46. Specifically, they dig into: - What is Arcimoto and the FUV? - How Mark got into lightweight electric vehicles - The no man’s land between bikes and cars - Arcimoto’s coming "Platform 2" - The regulatory situation for 3-wheeled vehicles - Licensing

This week Oliver brings you an exclusive interview with Salvatore Palella, CEO of Helbiz, which is about to list on the NASDAQ as the first shared micromobility player to go public globally. It’s a fascinating conversation about the current state of the market, how valuations are reached in the SPAC space, and what possibilities are enabled for micromobility by the public markets. Specifically, they dig into: - Salvatore’s background, including as one of the youngest professional football club owners in Europe. - The origin story through to the current state of Helbiz, including where they started, how they operate and how many vehicles they have. - They talk through the SPAC fundraising journey, and how Salvatore raised early capital for the company. - They talk through the post-public market plans for the company including thoughts on mergers and acquisitions strategy. - How they have viewed hardware. - A discussion of their early forays into cryptocurrencies, and what Salvatore thinks the future will lo

This week, Oliver interviews Jameson Dietweiler, CEO of Fantasmo. Fantasmo has been around since 2014 to build maps for machines, and has been working specifically on micromobility since the earliest days in 2017. With the recent announcement that they’ve partnered with Tier to roll out an innovative phone based parking verification technology Oliver was excited to have a chance to bring them on the show. They use camera based positioning to better locate vehicles like scooters and ebikes in cities where often GPS is an insufficeint technology to provide highly accurate location data. They talk about the pivots that the company has made and why their ultimate goal is to own the basemaps that are used for positioning in cities all over the world, using micrombility as the first step. At Micromobility Industries, we’ve been long excited about companies that are building software layers to the micromobility experience. It also provides a good answer to regulators and city officials who ask how hard it is t

This week, Oliver interview Joseph Brennan, co-founder of Zoba, an analytics company working on optimizing micromobility operations. It’s a pretty nerdy topic, but the topline is that their clients have seen up to 74% more rides per scooter simply from operational tweaks that Joseph and the team have suggested. As micromobility operations get more sophisticated and cities get stricter on operators and rule enforcement, services like what Zoba offers will become even more important. This was originally published as a video on our Youtube channel. Check it out here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ipNkpCEN4. Specifically, they dig into: - The history of Zoba and how Joseph and his team came to found the company. - The variables that they’re working with, and how they engage with customers - A discussion on the benefits of new technologies coming down the pipe, including swappable batteries. - The biggest operational challenges for both operators and governments - How has their business fared in the b

We're excited to bring you this interview with Carson Brown, co-founder of TAUR Scooters who are building one of the best designed and coolest looking scooters we've seen on the market. With their team based in London, it’s an excellent discussion about the role of design in micro, and why these new vehicles reflect the culture and environment that they’re designed in. We really hope that you enjoy it.  This was originally a Youtube video for Micromobility Industries - if you’re keen to check that out, check out the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elwybg1Vmeo Specifically they dig into:  - Carson's background working on electric unicycles - Why they decided to chase after personally owned scooters - The importance of design in owned objects - What does their development process look like, and what were the design decisions they had to weigh up. - How they thought about the TAUR brand from the get go. - How they think about the 'hard' part of being in hardware, and what they're facing as a c

This week, Oliver interviews Horace about the ‘Trillion Dollar Question’. With Arcimoto (who we’ve covered on episode 46) hitting a $1b market cap, and the recent article from RestofWorld covering the rise of low end Chinese micro-EV’s, we wanted to circle back to the question of what will heavy micromobility - those vehicles in the 50-500kg category - look like and why could they be where we find the defining vehicles of our time. Specifically we cover: - A quick summary of Horace’s research into carbon emission modelling for micromobility (more to come on this soon!) - How Horace and Oliver both got into micromobility - The rise of the Chinese low-end and what’s interesting about them - How small cars like the Gordon Murray T25 or the golf cars sit in ‘no-mans-land’ - Why the criteria for disruption in vehicle type might sometimes require getting creative with the rules and being ‘unsafe’ - The rise of Arcimoto and their creative interpretation of the rules - Why these vehicles will answer the ‘trillion

This week, we release the first of the many incredible sessions from the 2021 Micromobility World conference, wherein Benedict Evans and Horace Dediu discussed the disruptive potential of micromobility. It was an incredible conversation between two people who clearly have a lot of time and are excited by each others ideas. We hope you enjoy it! Specifically they dig into: - Why Benedicts background as a historian makes him a great analyst. - The micromobiltiy disruption thesis - low end, the asymmetric nature of unbundling trips (market for vehicles vs. market for miles), the role of fun/enjoyment, speed of interaction - Why micromobility is more interesting that autonomy - The role of Marchetti’s constant in transport, and why that matters for micrombility’s unique capabilities - What the rise of elevators can teach us about new urban transport technologies - What the platform game will look like in this space. - What the impact of COVID has been on how we think about transport - How micromobility will