Launches, Attacks & Flats.
How #LiveYours and #BeKarmic added up to my #BestWeekEver.
Today wraps up an amazing week of startups, cycling, friends and family. I’m still recovering from the whirlwind of launching our Kickstarter campaign, going on two epic bike rides, making new friends, and spending quality time with the ones I care about the most (Happy Mother’s Day Honey!).
I’m a huge cycling fan, and if I had to pinpoint the moment when I converted to the religion of two-wheels, it would have to be 1986. Slaying the Badger is the story of a brash young American going against the legendary and respected French master in the world’s biggest race. Greg LeMond was a blonde California Kid with a French name and funky ‘sports’ sunglasses. His Factory Pilot Eyeshades were made by a company started in a garage, whose name came from combining of two Californian cities; Oakland and Berkeley.
After being relentlessly attacked by his own teammate (damn Badger don’t care!), LeMond launches his defense on the climbs and becomes the first (and only!) American to win the Tour de France. It was an epic battle, which many consider to be the Greatest Tour of All Time.
I wanted to be Greg LeMond before I was even a teenager.
Two weeks ago I heard about an impromptu ride organized by MashSF and some dude only known as “Blick”. Looking up the ride card on Instagram, I instantly recognized the rider’s relaxed, powerful position. And those glasses. Greg LeMond was going to lead the ride! I had been waiting my whole life for this. I was going to go, even though we still had a ton of work to do pre-launch.
The ride was truly epic, about 200 people showed up and we cruised down Market Street to Embarcadero. Crossing over the foggy Golden Gate Bridge, and up the cold climbs of Marin County. Everyone had a blast and everyone seemed to be there for the right reason. We all just love riding our bikes.
I was following my friend Suzette when the group split, some taking the dirt descent, some sticking to the tarmac. We were flowing down the trail when we spotted some folks stopped on the side. We instinctively slowed down to see if we could help, doing our best to #BeKarmic.
The golden rule of cycling is you always ask if someone needs help with a flat tire.
Turns out it was our friend Chas, fixing Greg’s flat tire! After Suzette photo-bombed Greg and Katerina, we got back on our bikes and started flying. I was tucked in behind Greg, and doing my best to stay on his wheel. A few turns later and I hit the wall, literally. The loose dirt and my rusty descending skills introduced my shoulder and wrist to Mr. Cliff Rockwall. It was totally worth it!
I just rode with the Greatest American Cyclist!
We end up working all Saturday, Sunday and Monday (again) to make up for lost time and get every detail of our Kickstarter campaign just right. We launched it on Tuesday morning and were immediately a featured product in the New & Noteworthy section. Later that day, we’d get an email saying the Karmic Koben was a Kickstarter Staff Pick. I couldn’t have been happier!
We started calling all our friends and family, and they graciously backed us for stickers, t-shirts and even a few bikes! Then the real craziness began after Gizmodo wrote an article titled “What’s Wrong with Electric Bicycles” and explaining what’s right with Karmic. The campaign kept going up and up. New Backer Alerts kept popping on my phone, and my inbox was blowing up. We were up to 33% funded on Day 2, 56% by Day 3 and 80% on Day 5. Today we hit our goal! Our campaign was fully funded in just one week!!! The slope of our funding chart rivals any Hors catégorie climb pro cyclists face.
The day after launch, I get a mysterious email from “Oakley Social Media” asking if I wanted to go on another ride, but with no details and no name attached to the message, just a sign off from “Team #LiveYours”. I asked for more info and was told it’d be a casual ride in Sacramento the day before the Tour of California started. I was already getting slammed with questions about the Kickstarter from all over the world. And to make matters worse, it was Mother’s Day weekend, my wife had all these plans for the family and here I was, contemplating another joy ride and another few days away from home. I was going to politely decline when an Oakley employee jumped on the thread and said there would be an appearance from Mark Cavendish and a bit of Oakley schwag thrown in. I’m a sucker for Oakley glasses, having owned a dozen pairs in my cycling ‘career’. Somehow my loving and supportive wife said I could go. I was given yet another once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet a pro cyclist, and maybe even get some signature shades.
I kept working Friday to stay on top of our campaign, answering questions, posting FAQs and trying to be helpful and responsive to all our backers and potential backers. We finally head up to Sacramento and get to the hotel at 11pm. A quick check-in with Nick from Oakley and it’s off to bed. But I can’t sleep. I’m a ball of nerves and wake up at 5am. There are more messages waiting for us, and I fire up the old MB Air to keep our campaign on track. The numbers are looking good, but the question and comments from the Kickstarter community around the world shows me we’ve got the start of something big here. A few hours later, it’s call-time for the ride, and we head over to where the Pros are staying.
As we drive up to the DoubleTree, I spot the mystery man from last week. Steve Blick was my new best friend, and he just wanted to introduce me to a few of his riding buddies. They had called us in the car and said they weren’t waiting for anyone, roll out was 9:45 sharp. I didn’t see anyone else, so I was worried we were late and holding up the group. As we rode around to the back of the hotel, we see all the pro team buses, cars, trucks, mechanics, staff, and riders. The massive effort and coordination of hundreds of people to make an event like the Tour of California happen reminds me of my own startup experiences. We like to idolize the mythical Founders, but it’s really everyone else that makes a company what it is. Similarly as we roll up to the Etixx - Quick-Step team bus, I see Cav being interviewed by GCN, and about 20–30 people all busily working. He’s the star of the show, but there wouldn’t be a show without his bigger team. And none of them would have a job if it wasn’t for the cycling fans that would be lining the streets later that day.
I start to catch on to the ruse when the photographer comes up and starts taking pics of me. There is no group ride. It’s just me. I’m the only one riding with the team. I couldn’t believe it, this was more than I could have ever dreamed of! I started bouncing up and down. It felt like pre-race jitters from my college racing days in the East Coast Collegiate Cycling League. Some of the team managers must have noticed, and they made an effort to chat with me and calm me down. They asked about the Karmic Koben I had brought, and I was happy to show it to them. I have an S-Works Tarmac that would have been more appropriate, but I haven’t ridden it in two years, it needed new tubular tires and the carbon handlebars were still untaped and bare. Race machines always need work. I was told this was an easy paced ride.
The ride was utterly ridiculous and nearly unbelievable. I took some pics to send to my friends — though they still couldn’t believe it. Steve told me to lead out the group and ride shoulder to shoulder with Mark. I’m totally comfortable riding in a pack and double-pacelines are a piece of cake. Well, unless you’re next to the Tour de France’s best sprinter of all time. I didn’t want to be the guy who took down Cav because I couldn’t hold my line. After a few photo-ops and a little prank on the photographer (sorry Derek!), Cav said I could hang on the back with Blick. In a split second, the team pulls away and there’s a gap of 10 yards. Steve is a former pro racer and Hall of Famer, but today he’s my shepherd. He told me to go at my own pace and he’d take care of me if we got dropped. Of course I wasn’t going to go easy, I wanted to hang with them! And I had a little battery pack to help the ride.
I hit plus, plus on the control pad and we quickly catch back to the group. They’ve picked up the pace from 20 to 25mph. I’m spinning pretty good, but I can tell these guys are still in an easy pace, coffee-ride mode. They start jostling around, pulling wheelies and generally riding like a bunch of kids. Cav hops off the bike path and finds a little sliver of dirt and disappears off to our side. We can make out his profile between some trees and then he jumps back into the group. Now it’s on. The rest of his boys start taking new lines and creating small moments of joy on their training ride. We watch the pros do their work from afar, and it looks painful and tortuous, but that’s their job. They’re paid to win races. Outside of the race course, they’re just like you and me. These guys love to ride their bikes.
We go out about 30 minutes and hit the turnaround point. I think some of the team are genuinely surprised I was still there. They’ve been super cool about letting some stranger — on an electric bike no less — join their ride. We start heading back along the trail, and even pass a few of the other pro teams, now going out on their training rides. As we get back to the long straight section of the trail, another pro-looking rider comes up alongside me. Steve is now in the middle of the group, chatting up the riders and making them feel welcomed in sunny California. Everyone’s relaxed and spinning easy. I look over to my left and ask this new rider to the group if he’s going to go. He looks at me like I’m crazy. And of course, I am.
I bump the Koben up to Level 5 boost, and then I go for it. ATTACK! I go full gas (full electrons?), heads down and put everything I’ve got into the pedals. I rocket past the whole team and hear a few surprised “WTF’s!?” from them. The turn of speed catches the group unaware, and I beg and pray that they don’t respond. Of course it’s silly to attack on a casual cruise, but how many times will you get a chance to do that?! With the day’s motto being #LiveYours, I had to go for it! It was all in good fun, and I think the guys got a kick out of getting passed by an old guy on an ebike (that’s me). I sat up, they caught up and we found this great little coffee shop away from the crowds. I got the Blue Bottle New Orleans Iced Coffee, served to me by Cavendish himself. In fact, he’s the guy fetching the drinks for all his boys sitting outside…
Mark is a super-talented rider, with a once in a lifetime level of talent. But he also works extremely hard, memorizes every turn, and relishes every detail of his Venge. He told me the paint was matched to his Mclaren, and suddenly we had another thing in common. The other thing I notice is the camaraderie between Mark and his team. I haven’t been following cycling as closely these past few years (starting up a new company requires single-minded obsession) but I see Mark Renshaw, and Julian Alaphillipe and Matteo Trentin. They are sipping espressos, sharing stories, and pulling wheelies on the Koben. They’re his boys, they protect him in the peloton, chase down the breakaway, and guide him to the last kilometer. Then his leadout man Renshaw blows through a wall of riders before Cav nails the door shut and grabs the yellow jersey. They work for him, and he delivers them the win. Everyone thinks he does it to boost his ego and add to his list of palmarès. But I think he’s simply repaying his team for all the hard work they do for him. He’s just that sort of nice boy from the Isle of Man.
Cycling is an individual sport that requires a team to win. It’s an amazing leader, backed by an even more amazing and dedicated team. It’s what every startup Founder dreams of. We do it because we love it. And it wouldn’t be possible without the fans.
