Guest Blogger: Ansgar Strother

Ansgar Strother is a senior pursuing a degree in computer engineering at the University of Michigan. Creativity combined with his leadership abilities naturally led him to entrepreneurship and heading complex large projects starting from a young age. Highlighting this is his achievement of Eagle Scout by the 9th grade after leading the design, planning and construction of a $2,000 pond access area at Olson Park in Ann Arbor.

Ansgar's passion for leadership and creating led him to co-found A2B Bikeshare with Keith Porter. As a lifelong resident of Ann Arbor, he is excited to see the growing momentum for bike sharing in the city and in the state of Michigan and is proud to be part of that movement.




How to Share Bikes, and Why

A2B Bikeshare's origins are based on a very simple question: Why isn't bike sharing available to everyone? This is a question worth asking since bike sharing has been proven to create healthier communities, lower CO2 emissions, to better connect communities while solving the transportation requirement for the last mile to your destination, and it generally leads to more prosperous downtowns. With all of these great benefits, why isn't bike sharing in every city in America? The story of A2B Bikeshare's development is the story of answering that question.

In the fall of 2012, Ansgar Strother and Keith Porter enrolled in Entrepreneurship 411. This is a class that is taught by Richard Sheridan and James Goebel, co-founders of Menlo Innovations at the University of Michigan. The purpose of the class is to teach the entrepreneurial process of using customer discovery, the process of actually talking to customers, and using those conversations to pivot (change) the idea to solve a market need that a company can grow around. 

Midway through the semester, Keith and I had discovered that the idea we had been working on wasn't going to work and that we needed to pivot. So we began brainstorming for new ideas, to which I added bike sharing. I suggested we look into bike sharing because of my experiences growing up in Ann Arbor. Growing up here, I saw firsthand Ann Arbor's desire to be green and become more bike friendly, in short a perfect environment for bike sharing.

We hit the streets and talked to people across the community to narrow down our list. Through our conversations about bike sharing we realized that the vast majority of people wanted it, seeing that as making a community more desirable to live and work in. They loved the idea of having a green transportation option that was quick and gave an alternative to driving and then struggling to find parking.

After hearing all of this positive support for the idea, we decided that we would look into bike sharing for the rest of the semester. As we had additional conversations and started researching the market we quickly found out why bike sharing wasn't all across the country. It was because the proven systems on the market were too expensive! They cost $4-6,000 per bike with the stationed bike racks making up ~80% of that cost. These systems worked pretty well as bikes weren't stolen, and after a large grant the systems could become revenue-neutral. Even with this cost and the mediocre user experience, cities were still buying them.

That's when we made our first pivot. What was needed was a better solution, one that bike share operators could afford with a user experience riders would enjoy. The first idea we had was to get rid of the station completely and make the bike smart, lowering the cost of the system significantly. Now users would walk up to the bike itself, enter their payment information via the touch screen mounted on the handlebars of the bike and be on their way. While riding they would be able to make use of those same touch screens to get maps, guided tours and other great features.

Users loved the idea of a much-simplified rental process and the added functionality that would enrich the rental experience. Cities liked the idea of an affordable smart bike system but were concerned about security, and if there was no station, how the bikes could be securely locked to something. They were also very concerned about brand identity and visibility, if the bike share bikes were locked up to unattractive bikes next to them.

Not satisfied that lower costs could only be obtained with loss of security and brand identity, we dug deeper.  After many more conversations, we finally figured out the solution. The answer was not to get rid of the bike rack or have an expensive smart rack, like the other startups, but to create a smart bike – dumb rack system, taking the best of each model and creating an amazing user experience. A dumb rack could provide the security, brand identity, and structure operators needed at a price that they could afford, along with dropping the per-bike cost to $2,000 compared to $4-6,000.  The smart bike creates a great user experience, including:

• Better customer support
• Better operator experience
• Lower maintenance cost
• Lower bike redistribution cost
• Location-based advertising that engages riders in range of a business
• Guided tours that highlight local points of interest
• Maps to guide riders to their destinations

With this idea that we had now validated, A2B Bikeshare began turning this concept into a reality. Initial designs were created in the early fall of 2012 and prototype work began that winter. Currently A2B Bikeshare has a functioning prototype that is about to be leased to the Ann Arbor Google office for beta testing. During this time, A2B Bikeshare has grown from a team of two co-founders to a team of 14 and received 2nd place in the Clean Energy Venture Challenge. Moving into the future, A2B Bikeshare is planning for its first full test system launch in the fall of 2013 of ~30 bikes. After a successful test this coming fall, we are planning to begin selling systems to communities in 2014.

If you found A2B Bikeshare's story interesting and would like to learn more please check out A2B Bikeshare's website and like us on Facebook.