So, here we go again.

April 3, 2009

Later today we will be publishing our business plan on-line. There are a few reasons for doing so, mainly that we have not secured financing for our first production run. But why public? We feel we have a good idea and the experience to execute it. We feel that if the public think it is a dog based on feedback, we will re-tool. What we are proposing is nothing new in the industry, its just that no one in the industry has attempted to put it all together, so exposing our plan isn’t risky from a business sense. In fact we would love for others to join us, it would make our path easier.

It has been a long two years since the idea came together. We became a LLC on April 4th 2007. The first eight months were spent figuring out target market, bikes spec’s and courting investors. It all went pretty quickly and we were successful in nailing all three by Christmas ’07. We cut our first purchase order on January 19th, 2008. In sixty days we were in business. Not bad we figured, a one year turnaround for a line of bikes was pretty good considering the industry norms.

Lots of hits on our site, lots of interest via email – then trouble hit – our bikes were delayed and an investor pulled out in March. Scaling back, we pulled it together again and got production back on track for late May. Then we experienced production delays and then another loss of financing by July.

As we were retooling, again, all hell broke loose in the credit markets by late summer. Surely it couldn’t get worse? Knocking on doors used to at least get us in, but now, no one was answering. By Interbike, we shelved the plan waiting to see where the credit markets, bike sales and the economy were going. It got worse, much worse. On hold ‘till about Christmas, we decided to dust off the old bizplan and take another look and what was happening in the industry. We changed course a little.

The high end market, while cool and fun for us, just wasn’t where we needed to be as a company. Our goal is to sell as many bikes as possible so people can just get around easy breezy. By focusing on the high end, we were limiting our reach. So the decision was made to bring bike shop quality bikes that make sense in an urban setting at affordable prices.

What does affordable mean? About $150 – $600.

75% of all bikes sold are less than $600. 95% of all mass bikes sell for less than $200. So that’s where we are going to be. Stay tuned to see how we think we can do it.

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