19Sep
If you’ve been to downtown Kansas City, Missouri recently, you’ve surely encountered someone scooting along on an electric scooter. If you’re not a downtown regular, you might not have paid it much thought. But it’s pretty hard to ignore now: these electric scooters are everywhere.
These scooters, created by startups Bird and now Lime, might just be the next revolution in transportation. Even if they’re not, they are a great example of smart startups with a cohesive business plan, marketing approach and business model.
Bird and Lime scooters are electric, dockless scooters that are used similarly to bicycles. Prior to widespread smartphone adoption and wireless internet, it was impossible for such a business to work. However, Bird and Lime leveraged their business model to feature those two technological advancements.
To use one of these electric scooters just download the proper smartphone app, attach some kind of payment to the app, and hold your smartphone to the scooter to unlock it. Like other public transport options, there is a flat fee to use the device and additional costs the longer you use it. Once you’re done, use your phone to lock the scooter and finalize payment.
The electric scooters max out at about 15 MPH and go between 15-20 miles on a single charge. Bird and Lime pay “chargers” to take the scooters home to charge at the end of the day and bring them back to their nesting spots early the following morning. GPS tracking allows app users to precisely locate the scooters for use.
Bird’s scooters were first to market in Kansas City, when on July 11 Bird dropped 100 scooters around the city without fanfare. It was not the first market Bird had entered, though. Bird, Lime, and Spin, another similar company, had raised a combined $225 million in venture capital funding. The scooters can be found in dozens of cities across the United States, from places as disparate as Nashville, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Detroit, and Virginia Beach. Scooters can also be found abroad in Paris, Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Zurich.
Electric scooters fill a transportation niche in the United States that was previously empty. The Kansas City Area Transportation Authority and Transportation Infrastructure Committee called them “the wave of the future.” They noted that electric scooters help connect the ‘last-mile transportation,’ or the last bit of distance between a public transit stop to a workplace or home.
These scooters are also instantly recognizable, and their benefits are clear and obvious. They are both significantly faster than walking and yet provide similar levels of convenience. It doesn’t require upfront capital or complicated machine operating ability, and the low cost allows individuals at different income levels to participate.
Certain cities have viewed the scooters with a critical and skeptical eye, and some, like San Francisco and Denver, outright banned them or imposed limits on their use. And scooters are banned in some areas of cities that are welcoming of them, like the Plaza area in Kansas City. But Kansas City has embraced them, and inked a six-month deal with Bird that allows up to 500 scooters in the city. Lime scooters made their debut earlier this month, and they will also be dropping up to 500 scooters in the next few weeks.
Bird and Lime are the kind of successes that any business owner would love to emulate. But while their quick success is indeed unusual, any business owner can learn lessons from them. First, it’s important to have a smart, clear and explainable product or service that can be grasped by your target audience as quickly and accurately as possible. Second, don’t be afraid to take product risks, because even though it’s 2018 there are still many great new products and services to discover. Third, seriously consider how technology can change your business or market, because chances are it probably can.
US Insourcing, LLC is a business consulting and marketing agency located in Kansas City, Missouri. We focus on helping entrepreneurs to large businesses achieve their goals. Contact us now to jumpstart your business.
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