#12 Taco Carlier @VanMoof - How this designer disrupted the bike industry with a bike subscription
Taco Carlier is a co-founder and CEO of VanMoof, an Amsterdam-based company that designs and manufactures awesome commuter bikes.
Taco is an industrial designer who turned his love for bikes, design, and business into a successful company, which is disrupting the bike industry. The company has recently launched the VanMoof+, a subscription service for bikes, disrupting its own business model.
In the episode we talked:
how VanMoof prepared its business for a launch of a subscription service,
how the company introduced an innovative Bike Hunter service that helps their customers when their bikes are stolen,
and what are the advantages and disadvantages of a closed design system (VanMoof design all bike parts in-house).
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
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Show notes:
2:20 How did Taco get the idea for starting VanMoof?
5:05 The current state of the bike industry
10:10 What makes the bike industry hard to disrupt?
12:10 The biggest tipping point in the VanMoof story
15:00 How and why VanMoof introduced VanMoof+ subscription service for bikes?
16:50 How does a subscription service make business sense for VanMoof?
19:40 How did VanMoof come up with the price for their subscription prices?
23:50 How is VanMoof solving the bike theft problem?
31:20 What are the advantages and disadvantages of a closed system?
33:45 The biggest challenges of a subscription service
35:10 How is VanMoof gathering and synthesizing customer feedback?
36:20 What happens to bikes when a subscriber returns them?
39:20 VanMoof 5-year goals
40:20 Where is Taco's love for business and entrepreneurship coming from?