Shock as $140m bike-share startup CEO goes AWOL ahead of impending collapse

https://www.techinasia.com/bluegogo-bluegonegone

by schakraberty • 9 years ago

29 19 9 years ago

valuearb• 9 years ago

It’s hard to imagine why they found this shocking. Many startups with questionable business models end up bankrupt, no matter how well funded.

revelation2• 9 years ago

As I see it, these guys took US$60 million from VCs and used it to donate 350000 perfectly robust bicycles to some parts of the world most in need of modern transportation (SF).

They are goddamn heroes. If you gave the same money to the SFCTA they would probably build a mile of highway facsimile.

tstyle• 9 years ago

(Bluegogo) holds tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits from its approximate 15 million users, which many now fear cannot be refunded.

These guys took millions from users in the form of deposits.

tinus_hn• 9 years ago

So as a user you should take one bike and hold it as leverage. If they don’t return the deposit you sell the bike.

londons_explore2• 9 years ago

The bikes really are pretty bad. They have Bluetooth locks, so if the company goes bankrupt I doubt anyone will be able to take on the fleet.

revelation2• 9 years ago

They are much better for commuting use than any Walmart mountain bike ever was.

And the bluetooth lock without the company monitoring it.. that's just another wheel lock. They are not very secure at all.

jurassic• 9 years ago

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bike share bike actually being ridden. I have seen rows of bike share bikes sitting parked taking up useful space that could have been allocated more usefully as public parking for people riding bikes they own.

I assume there must be some aspect to this business I’m not understanding if they are able to talk cities into giving them valuable street space and investors into backing them to the tune of $50M+. I’m not seeing what value they add by centralizing ownership of what is already a very inexpensive and democratic mode of transportation. What is the play here?

sidlls• 9 years ago

Depends on where you live and the target market. I found the bike share (Bay Area Bike Share, since sold out to Ford) convenient but the bikes too clunky and heavy. I see dozens of them daily on my commute, in and out of SF. They get plenty of use here.

pmoriarty• 9 years ago

"I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bike share bike actually being ridden."

One person's noticing or not noticing bikes being ridden is a poor way to judge the effectiveness of a city-wide program.

I know I've seen plenty of bike-share racks mostly empty of bikes. I could assume from that that these bikes are currently being used. But that's a poor way of judging too, because I don't know if they were ever full, or how many bikes were stolen or lost, etc.

The real way to judge is from data collected by the agency in charge of the bike share program itself (assuming they keep such data and that the data can be trusted), or to have some independent third party keep track of all the bikes and their use.

megy• 9 years ago

I have no idea where you are, but I have seen many bikes ridden all the time in London, Paris, New York, Melbourne, Lyon. Maybe you should get out of your car more?

crazygringo• 9 years ago

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bike share bike actually being ridden.

Then come to NYC and spend 60 seconds standing on a corner of an avenue in Manhattan. You'll see tons. Bikes are everywhere, and by my eyes about half are Citibikes.

mrlase• 9 years ago

Citibike in NYC is wildly successful.

dandr01d• 9 years ago

In Seattle I’ve seen all 3 types of ridesharing bikes (LimeBike, Spin, Ofo) being used fairly frequently - especially when it’s nice outside.

tossaway1• 9 years ago

"staff this week told salary payments will be delayed until February 10, 2018"

For real?? What sane person would continue working for them at this point? Might as well say February 10, 2028...

tyingq• 9 years ago

I guess I would come in and solely work on finding my next job until I either landed it or got fired.

Then there would be the off chance I'd get paid later for the search.

shusson• 9 years ago

In Sydney you're required to wear a helmet, and there are not many people willing share helmets...

synicalx• 9 years ago

At least the helmets don't have people's junk and a sweat on them all the time. Whole thing is pretty gross when you think about it.

thisisit• 9 years ago

Why is it "shocking"? That is never explained in the article.

From the looks of it their two revenue models were advertising and flat user fees.

So the fees would have been super low to get as many customers on the platform and the ad dollars were not exactly rolling in.

londons_explore2• 9 years ago

Their revenue was deposits made by users to use the service.

If every user has to pay $60 refundable security deposit to get started, and you can attract a million users to try your service a couple of times, you can quickly pay for a few thousand bikes.

The vast majority of users will then forget to reclaim their deposit.

OBike for example reminds users who try to refund their deposit that if they want to sign up again there will be a fee to pay. That discourages users from claiming the refund because they think "huh - I might want to use this again in the future, and if I do, I don't want to pay a fee".

Shock as $140m bike-share startup CEO goes AWOL ahead of impending collapse

Related Stories