Intersectionality & Bikes: My Oonee Moment
How a lifelong passion for cities, blackness and startups led me to #teamoonee
I grew up in an entrepreneurial family.
From an early age, I was blessed with the ability to witness and sometimes even participate in a range of new ideas, startups and ventures. It was in our DNA.
There was no cohesive framework to our schemes; we did a bit of everything. I helped my mother sell wholesale skateboard supplies , and my brother in serving lemonade and fish during the summer. I did everything from lugging heavy, greasy cooking equipment around town to partaking in traveling sales exhibits, which took me to different townships and states. The work was hard, and the hours were long, but I learned to be scrappy, creative and disciplined. These experiences taught me that passion driven persistence and creative problem solving could help me get through any obstacle I faced.
My parents cared deeply about blackness and social justice. During the tumultuous 60’s my father joined the Nation of Islam and became an ardent deciple of Malcolm X. Conversations about class, race and equity were customary in our home. Coming of age within this intellectual environment gave me a colorful perspective on blackness and how it intersected with wealth, poverty and power.
This understanding, coupled with my growing arsenal of start-up experiences, contributed to a seminal understanding: Entrepreneurship could play an important role in both the creation of wealth in the black community and bringing entire communities out of poverty.
East New York, where I spent a great deal of my childhood, was definitely a community that could have used both. Haunted by the legacy of racial violence in the 60’s and 70s, my community had become a poster-child for urban decay; an economic dead end for so many.
As grew older, I started to become increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of entrepreneurial representation from the black community, especially within rapidly emerging “tech” and “smart-cities” verticals. So many companies, so much wealth were flowing from these spaces, yet few of the innovators were black. Despite being over eleven percent of the total US population, black founders received just one percent of venture capital financing in 2015.
There were almost no business accelerators, incubators or programs for people of color. Sadly, there is also little seed funding available from local and state governments to stimulate growth within these under-represented communities.
During my college career, I made it a mission to partake and support black businesses wherever I could. I especially became interested in seeing more minority representation in the growing micro mobility field, which was becoming an increasingly “hot” sector for urban innovation and investment.
My journey with Oonee started with a chance encounter. My mother and I discovered Oonee, while on our way to lunch, and we were immediately taken aback with the concept. My mother, who worked close-by, quickly realized that secure cycle parking was an in demand amenity that would certainly pique the interest of her colleagues as the warmer weather months approached. For my part, I recognized the thoughtful, high quality design and the seamless nature of the entry & exit systems that were installed on the doors.
It was a no brainer.
While we were speaking, Shabazz Stuart, the Founder & CEO, just happened to be passing by on maintenance check. He was dressed in burgundy sweats and a grey hoodie, as if fully prepared to do some hands on work. Overhearing our conversation about the kiosk, he approached us and introduced himself. After explaining that he was here to perform maintenance check, he provided us with some background on the project and the realities of creating infrastructure solutions in urban areas.
I was instantly intrigued.
Not only was the product and vision superb, but the project was developed and led by a young black man from Brooklyn, exactly the type of example I had hoped to see more of as a kid growing up in East New York.
We spoke for another two hours. Shabazz shared insights about various aspects of his journey, including his path to raising money, working real-estate deals and managing an intensive product development process. We spoke about the intricacies of municipal regulations and the evolving mobility landscape.
I knew I had to find a way to get involved. In so many ways, Oonee brought together my values, interests and passions. As a college student, entering my final semester, working with Oonee could be the capstone of my educational career; a rare opportunity to partake in an innovative venture at the nexus of mobility, infrastructure, media and urban planning.
Initially, I was responsible for cleaning and maintaining the pod on a daily basis. Shabazz taught me everything; introducing new infrastructure to the streets of New York was sure to draw scrutiny, so we had to make sure the pod was perfectly clean and well maintained at all times. Not only did this mean that I had to sweep and wipe down the exterior, I also became accustomed to varnishing our bench and occasionally checking on the status of the pod’s batteries.
Cleaning the pod brought me back to the hard work and long hours that I invested in my families own entrepreneurial pursuits as an adolescent. We were scrappy and hands on. Oonee isn’t one of those billion dollar mobility ventures, we haven’t raised millions of dollars. But I’m inspired by the clarity of the vision and the resourcefulness of the Founder.
The Company was on the brink when I joined.
When I told Shabazz that I wanted to come onboard, he made it clear that Oonee only had a few months of cash left, and probably wouldn’t be able to pay me. In fact, the project had been pushed to the edge of financial disaster due to the Department of Transportation’s sudden and surprising refusal to allow sponsorship on the kiosk.
The pilot in Downtown had been built on a promise made by the City to allow for media & sponsorship on the exterior panels. But after the kiosk was fully pulled out, the City admitted that it had no clear rules or guidelines to determine what actually constituted a “sponsorship;” media (and revenue) would have to wait. The first sponsorship deal, which would bring in a much needed $40,000 in revenue completely collapsed in this climate and other offers dried up. The Company was effectively crippled.
I know from experience that few companies ever recover from this type of body blow. Without validating the business model, Oonee wouldn’t be able to raise additional capital from investors and couldn’t finance any new locations. This was the dreaded start-up death spiral.
But Shabazz remained committed. He not only believed in the business, but he also held a deep fidelity to the mission; in order for cycling, or micro mobility in general, to thrive in cities, there had to be infrastructure. He wasn’t prepared to give up.
I was intrigued and inspired, even more so because Shabazz came from a working class, black background in Brooklyn, just like me.
And so I proposed a deal, I would work part-time for Oonee during the Spring Semester and would receive back-pay if, and when, the company was able to achieve a new round of financing. In exchange, I asked for a front row view into the fight; I wanted to see how Shabazz would rescue this company. I wanted to be in all the meetings and on the phone calls; to get the insider’s perspective.
Over the next two months, I witnessed something special. Through persistence, grit and some trial and error, Shabazz was able to work with his investors to secure a bridge round of capital, while working to close a deal with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. I also watched him tenaciously fight to keep Water-Whitehall in place, working with the Alliance for Downtown New York, Laurie Cumbo and even the City Council Speaker to persuade DOT to allow sponsorship. I learned from him how to vacillate between a variety of stakeholders, while building community support for a project. I witnessed him pitch Oonee to potential new investors and brands, while exploring keeping true to the impact-based ethos of the original vision.
I knew this was the real deal.
Today, my role is expanding. I’ll be working full time on community relations and sponsorships. I’ll also continue to work on day-to-day operations and customer service.
I’m new to the world of cycling and advocacy, but I’ve come to believe that building infrastructure is the only way to sustain the micrombility revolution, and ultimately the best way to reduce our chronic dependence on cars.
Oonee is more than a business , it’s a movement, one that I’m thrilled to be a part of.
I’m here for the community, and here for Oonee. Drop me a line at Rashid@ooneepod.com to chat!
