Unfortunate consequences of disrupting an industry..

Alexis Bizalion
Jul 22, 2017 · 4 min read

When I first got to San Francisco I was excited by the opportunity to change the world using new technologies; however, it seems I was quite naive. Despite knowing some people would resist the changes, and acceptance rates would vary, I had this gut feeling that our industry, in itself, would welcome innovation and feel challenged to come up with even better ideas.

Bikeep is a smart and secure bike rack with a build-in lock that locks both the frame and one of the wheels using your existing access card or app (Transportation cards, Building access cards, Student ID cards…).

Our goal is to upgrade the bike rack and bike lock industries. We hope that cyclists will use their bikes to commute, shop and move, as long as they have the assurance their bikes won’t be stolen. Therefore, increasing bike safety and amount of bike parking in the streets, increases the number of bike riders in cities (with all the benefits for society incurred).

Last month, we installed our first pilot at a train station in San Francisco (Mission District), and after a few days of operation we noticed someone parking a bike frame into our racks. Just the frame, no wheels!

A few hours later, some of our prospects received the picture below…

Clearly, the locking arm was not cut and anyone who is familiar with our bike rack system can easily conclude that the wheelless bike frame was originally parked this way.

Evidently, for a high-security bike rack without any records of stolen bikes, having a bike with “apparently” two wheels stolen quickly turned into an internal crisis.

Someone had deliberately parked the skeleton of a bike in our racks to discredit our efforts to bring bike safety to urban areas.

And we have a footage of the individual in action:

Our system locks both the frame and a wheel, so in order to steal both wheels, you would have to cut through the industrial steel locking arm which is equipped with a sensor and would automatically send a message to the closest security services as well as trigger an alarm in the train station. Clearly, the locking arm was not cut and anyone who is familiar with our bike rack system can easily conclude that the wheelless bike frame was originally parked this way.

Unfortunately, that is not the conclusion of 99.9% of persons witnessing the scene as they walk by. And sadly, now the photo was out there.

Proving again and again, that misinformation even if denied and explained, hurts your brand and reputation.

What’s the takeaway?

Personally, I believe our product has a lot of potential, and that thought is confirmed by the fact that possibly, someone else in the industry is willing to take the time to orchestrate a scene to damage Bikeep’s reputation.

Naively, I hoped our technology would trigger innovation in the industry as a whole and our competitor will start producing better bike parking solutions, safer, more user-friendly, more integrated and aesthetically pleasing. Instead, it seems that our competition is trying to shut us down in a dishonorable manner.

For that I would like to thank whoever did this:

Thank you for showing your true self. I find it deeply reassuring that the only tools available to you are low-blows and defamation.

Thank you for the boost of energy. I woke up even more motivated to show the world our technology and improve the industry’s standard.

Thank you for the free communication to your clients, there is no better present you could have given me than showing yourself against progress and initiatives to our prospects.

For you reading this, remember that any businesses trying to change an industry will, most probably, be faced with people that resist and slow you down.

Finally, there are two possible ways to react to an industry newcomer:

  1. You can embrace the challenge and get better subsequently
  2. You stick to the old ways and resist the tide for as long as you can.

I don’t know, how things will turn out for us at Bikeep and would not generalize based on our experience anyway, but with hard work, an open ear for feedback and goodwill, lots can be achieved and I am betting on it.

If you like what you read, be sure to 💚 it below — as a beginner writer, it would means the world.

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