The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Entrepreneurship => Topic started by: bunchbikes on July 15, 2017, 10:47:41 PM
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This is really cool. I don't have a need for one of these yet, but I'm posting to follow for sure.
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Love the product!!! And the website is gorgeous! Excellent job on the faQs, too. Just a smokin' schtick all 'round. Well done!!!
Maybe Mr MM would give it a tweet? (He did for my book!)
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Hey!!! Great!!!!! :))))
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What a fabulous website! Congratulations! Seems like you've taken a big step towards building your own Happy City :)
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We just got back from a European vacation where we spent some time in Amsterdam. I was so impressed with their biking infrastructure, and the huge numbers of people biking. I got home and started reading The Happy City, and felt convicted about local activism. Then I saw MMM's tweet about your new company. Very cool. I wish you much success.
BTW, what is specifications on the electric version? The details on the website were very vague.
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Great story and thanks for helping to promote change! I too have been frustrated by the lack of cargo bikes in the US. You have brought that price down considerably with this. I'm really struggling between the regular and the electric. For just myself I would likely not get the electric, but it might help my wife to have the electric assist as we do have some hills in town. I was trying to glean from the few videos you have how hard it is to ride with the weight of kids on the front. How would you compare it to pulling a trailer with kids (this is what we do now)?
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Very nice looking product! Are you handling the design and manufacture of these bikes? Do you feel comfortable sharing how the initial launch is going? I hope these questions aren't too intrusive...As a mechanical engineer and serial entrepreneur I've always been interested in launching a product of my own design!
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That looks awesome. Seriously considering this...
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Very nice looking product! Are you handling the design and manufacture of these bikes? Do you feel comfortable sharing how the initial launch is going? I hope these questions aren't too intrusive...As a mechanical engineer and serial entrepreneur I've always been interested in launching a product of my own design!
I'm interested in hearing more about this as well. What were the challenges you faced in the production process?
Overall, it looks great! I live in an area where biking is very popular and I see quite a few cargo and ebikes so I can imagine that you'll have success by combining the two.
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It's going well, and about what I expected. Hard to not do well when MMM gives you a shoutout on social media.
It's your product and site :)
Heaps of people scooped up my freebie, but I think the whole thing resulted in two sales?
MMMers generally don't love paying for books, d'oh!
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Awesome effort and a great product. I wish you the best of luck with growing the business.
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CargoBiker - this is awesome. I didn't know this was your business when MMM made the tweet.
I agree on the electric assist. You are right on target with the "lazy" biker. I know "my wife" is just like that. I'm obviously all the way to Mr. Money Mustache levels of biking badassity...or not! :)
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Nicely done! Good luck with your business!
Do you have a physical location? When I was shopping for a cargo bike 5 years ago, the biggest hurdle was not being able to try them out. Two (!) family biking stores have opened up locally since then (I'm in a bikey city), but the cargo bike I ended up getting at the time was the one where the builder let me test ride it first. He was delivering a bike to Canada, and was driving through my city so he let me try it out.
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In the case of my tweet, there was no funnel. Amazon is in control of all contacts for that distribution. I was relying on the freebie to spread the word past the freebie day and to additional people. It didn't. Site traffic soared the day of, heaps of freebies were snatched up, and that was the end. It was tough, for sure.
Would I have done a thousand things differently, had I known more? Yep.
Was the book's failure mine? Yep.
My note re: MMM folks generally not loving paying for books is based on a couple of things:
1. The sheer number of times people on this forum have said so, have opted for library copies, have urged others to stop paying for books, etc.
2. Comments on the forum and responses to the MMM Tweet that the book "should be free."
We don't say that as much for food, bicycles, hammers, etc.
I'm grateful that you might buy that author's book! Thank you for supporting folks who work hard at writing (and marketing)!
I don't "blame" people for catching freebies where they can, or for receiving a gift (!)...but I also don't "blame" myself for not having known more about marketing before I launched. No one did anything wrong :) I did a lot right by working wildly hard to develop an excellent product, a forum member and Pete did a huge kindness by getting that tweet to happen, and I 100% flubbed the marketing. It's okay for me to acknowledge, too, that a lot of folks are loathe to pay for books.
It's smart when people like the fellow you pointed to acknowledge that and learn the marketing curve too. If I get more resourced one day (time, energy), I'll definitely do that too.
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Good for you! I recently purchased a different style of cargo bike from a competitor (using it to commute). If we ever want a second, I will keep you in mind!
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Your cargo bike guy was delivering bikes himself? That doesn't sound like a good use of time to me, especially if it's a significant distance, however that's cool that he made the stop for you.
It's a 1-man operation, he's not looking to scale up (he wants to build bikes rather than manage people), and he uses deliveries as an excuse to take road trips. :)
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Congratulations, that sounds awesome.
I just shared your business info in one of the MMM Facebook groups (discussion on cargo bikes.
Will also link to this thread.
All the best for your business!
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What a fabulous product. Love the electric version.
I am sans kids but have a geriatric dog that can't walk further than 1km. I have seen old dogs and puppies in trailers here in Aus so there is must be a market for fur-kid parents. Do you have a no-bench option? Maybe you could offer screw in attachments for a dog harness.
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Maybe Mr MM would give it a tweet? (He did for my book!)
He tweeted it out yesterday, thanks for encouraging me to reach out to him!
It is crazy how much traffic a single tweet from MMM can drive. I didn't eat lunch until 4pm, because I couldn't step away from the computer for 3 hours, chatting with people about the bikes.
Awesome product!!!
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doh! In love. I'm easy, so no surprise there. But then I showed my husband and he was like "let's buy it". WHAAAA?
Um...this is all moving so fast!
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Looks amazing! Any plans to develop a BakFiets style bike? I'm finding there is a major lack of options (especially affordable ones) in North America. I've been looking for something for next season to transport me and my 3 little ones and sell the 2nd vehicle, but with the terrain and distances in my city a three wheeler doesn't seem like the right option.
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Yes, I've been asked this a lot, and the 2-wheeler "bakfiets" style bike is in the works, and the prototype will be here in 6 weeks or so, and the first production line should be ready beginning of February.
Not sure on pricing yet, but it will probably be similar to what we're charging for the 3-wheeler.
The plan has been to offer a few different models, I just started off with the 3-wheeler, because that's what 9/10 bikes I saw in Copenhagen were, and the stats I could find supported that too, so I figured there was something more appealing about them.
Who knows though, maybe in the U.S. our 2-wheeler will outsell the trike.
My gut feel is that the 2-wheeler is a better option for North America, just based on the distances and the way the cycling infrastructure is set up. At least its what I see starting to take off in my neck of the woods. Exciting stuff though, keep us in the loop!
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We have four kids and live in a shitty town for biking (massive hills) so I think this would be really awesome for our family to be able to bike places!
One parent would take the cargo bike and the other would go solo. Sounds really nice! And I just found out my hubby has high blood pressure :( We've been trying to lower it for about two months now. I know that more exercise will help.
It sounds amazing. But I'm worried because it's a huge cost and I'm scared we will be lazy and not use it.
But it's still in the back of my mind. Maybe when our third rental is finished being built and we get some extra dough rolling in!
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I actually just recently saw one of the Yuba Cargo Bikes in person. I thought they were very interesting as well. Their page is here: https://yubabikes.com/
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Have you run across the Madsen cargo bike? We lived in SLC, UT for a while and ran across a few examples since that is where they are based. I do like the thought of being able to see my kids in front of me with your bike.
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Oh my gosh I covet this. I wish I had a few neighbors that could/would share it with me!
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Did you sell your business or just re-brand?
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Looks like it's been a couple weeks since he's been on, so I'll answer for him.
He re-branded to Bunch Bike (bunchbike.com (http://bunchbike.com)).
Same owner, same family-oriented mission, new name.
And for anyone who asked before, he has a two-wheel version coming out in the fall.
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Looks like it's been a couple weeks since he's been on, so I'll answer for him.
He re-branded to Bunch Bike (bunchbike.com (http://bunchbike.com)).
Same owner, same family-oriented mission, new name.
And for anyone who asked before, he has a two-wheel version coming out in the fall.
Cool, thanks!
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What a fabulous website! Congratulations! Seems like you've taken a big step towards building your own Happy City :)
Thanks!
I'm actually going for a Happy Country now :)
10 years from now, I'm hoping everyone in the U.S. will be familiar with cargo bikes.
We're just a part of the movement.
Awesome story. Love the movement. Clown Cars are rampant and our city planning / mindset needs an overhaul! Looking forward to experiencing some wonderful new things all over the globe!
thanks for sharing!
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Very nice looking bikes.
We're just getting the ball rolling on Kid #1, but a cargo bike is in the plans once we have 2! I'll bookmark your site!
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It's cool to see your ads in my gmail, but when I clicked (sorry!) the add came back with 4 product listings 2 of which are identical. I should have taken a screenshot for you to see, but just wanted to let you know that there is some type of bug in the ad.
Trying to get my wife on board (pun intended!). 1st Baby due in November, so we'll probably have more serious discussion spring 2019. Thanks!
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I clicked on your site yesterday, took a look at the pics and closed the page. Your ads (I know it's not your fault) have been hounding me for the past 36 hours. I absolutely hate ads and this leads me to dislike your page/product as if YOU are the one posting the ads on my opened window pages.
Just letting you know.
That’s kind of how advertising on the internet works...
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Neat concept! I've never seen one of these before and it seems like an easy purchase for a young family.
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looked at your page and it looks neat! Hope the business is doing well? I am thinking of an e-bike one day.