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Sanjay here from Boosted S12. Garry and Alexis and team were one of our first investors and have been some of the best people we've worked with. I am so excited for them and for all the new founders who will get to work with them.
Agreed. But we've discovered from users of the board that in hilly or hot areas, having exercised on their way to work and arriving sweaty is a non-starter.
Exactly right. It's hard to arbitrarily pick the "gentle" braking point, and unexpected braking is not great.
Thanks! The problem with more compact designs is decreased wheelbase, which affects stability at speed. We've prototyped some, though.
Nope, just rode my 1st-gen board over to see him, dropped off a remote, and rode home.
Founder here.
Actually, we see people using it because they prefer it to a bike in certain situations. It's compatible with most public transit and ridesharing, and there's little to no risk of theft. Compared to a normal skateboard or bike, you also don't risk being sweaty when you arrive at work. Bikes also require more regular maintenance, which isn't expensive but can be time-consuming.
We've seen it enthusiastically adopted in many cities outside SF and NY.
Yup! He actually just asked where he could get one, and I was close enough that I dropped one off with him.
Hi - one of the founders here. I'd never skateboarded or longboarded before working on this project. I found I used a Boosted board very differently than I would use a longboard - for me it's replaced many car trips and many Uber/Lyft rides. This made up for the price quite quickly.
Awesome. This fixes one of my least favorite things about Kickstarter both as a project creator and backer.
The top model has the best performance, but the quality of all models is equally high. There's a floor to how cheaply this technology can be built today without compromising quality and long-term reliability.
A very rare use-case (living at the top of a hill, pulling it off the charger and immediately riding downhill and braking) would result in overcharging and damaging the battery. Riders who have this use-case run the board briefly before heading downhill. In practice this extra step has not been a problem.
Many boards have run over 1000 miles, and we have yet to replace wheels due to wear. Maintenance involves replacing bearings, and eventually wheels, but no grease port.
One of the founders here. If anyone would like to try one, please email us at community@boostedboards.com!
These scooters are designed for a different use case - toys for kids. The power, reliability, and design reflect that.
If you longboard, you would LOVE the Boosted board.
The power and top speed upgrade exceeds the original specifications, and we have quadrupled the warranty coverage. This would be similar to your car getting more acceleration, more braking, a higher top speed, and a longer warranty, all remotely and for free.
Firmware update capability should be the norm, and to our knowledge we are the first and only board that can do this.
The power multiple between a Boosted board and others' technology is the same as between a Tesla Model S and a Nissan Leaf. Both cars can go at highway speeds. The extra power of a Boosted board is important for practical reasons, like hill-climbing and braking, and for fun.
This law was written in the 70s for gas-powered skateboards. We and others are working to change this, possibly as soon as the upcoming legislative session.
Interesting idea. I think you won't be able to dissipate enough heat this way, but I'm not sure.
There are some excellent cells out there developed for KERS. One example:
Cool idea! I'm not sure about the conductivity or thermal properties of structural carbon fiber, but it may end up being a good option.
I would find a friend, since it's not a timeline we have much control over right now, and getting the board earlier means more time to ride.
European certifications are still in process for us to officially ship, but there are some boards in Europe either brought or re-shipped by customers.
The motors spin freely when unpowered. It will skate like a normal board, but with a bit more drag.
We usually ride at the same speed as others in the bike lane. It works well around bikes and doesn't need any additional infrastructure. It was originally designed for a campus but we learned early on that users in dense cities love it in part because it's faster than any other mode of transport they've tried.
Some things about them are great. I linked to some reliability reviews, which are not so great, above.
If you would like to try a Boosted board, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the differences between the two.
Their boards are quite fun. The specs they achieve are due in part to some of the compromises I discussed above. For example, these are some independent long-term reviews (that are of course from a self-selecting sample of Evolve riders).
It's needed less frequently. Since the board is powered, you won't notice a bit of extra drag from dirty bearings.
One of my cofounders worked on this before we started Boosted.
Yes, but the added weight of something as large as a 1kW resistor compromises the portability of the board. We're looking into how to do this without adding weight.
Founder here. Happy to answer questions.
One of the most interesting things we've learned about recently is the temptation to cut corners using cheaper parts or processes or relaxed quality control procedures. It's easy to get quoted prices much lower than what we currently pay, but the long-term cost of choosing those parts (greater failure rates, manufacturing problems, and warranty costs, not to mention unhappy customers) is hard to quantify at decision time.
This is where experienced supply chain and hardware engineers are especially valuable. They understand the implications of these decisions and know the right way to account for them. For example, major manufacturers set aside "warranty accruals" as liabilities in their financials to cover the average future cost of servicing a unit that ships today.
I suspect this is a problem facing many hardware startups, Kickstarted or not. It feels non-intuitive to build hardware carefully and at such high initial costs, especially in the "move fast" culture of software development. And it's especially dangerous if a company goes "in the red" without realizing it by shipping many units that may fail or incur high warranty costs that exceed the margin on the product, but at a later date.