“You’re an MBA, I’ll let you run my company, you just send me a check every month,” said Mr. Rider, founder and owner of Rider Cycles.
I was strolling thru the Wendy’s parking lot and found a few tricked out bikes on top of a parked SUV. The first bike was a muscled out, hardtail, carbon framed mountain bike tricked out with ’09 XTR components, FSA carbon cranks and tubeless wheels. The counterpart was a sexy all-carbon road bike with SRAM Red and Zipp wheels. The $20,000 on top of the car made me stop for a few minutes and hang-up my phone conversation so I could investigate further.
After a few moments, a tall thin man walked around asking if he could help me. A little bit of bike-geek talk ensued, then racing camaraderie and introductions followed. I asked him where he purchased his bikes as Rider bikes were not main stream and definitely a niche part of the industry. “I had them made,” he said and further detailed the company he just started a year ago near Memphis.
In town for triathlon training for U23 Elites and youth professionals, he mentioned he would be in town in a couple weeks. I suggested we should go check out the trails in Nashville next time he was in town. He noted that he had the perfect carbon 29er Demo bike he could loan me as he wrote his contact information on the back of a piece of paper. “Do you think you can help me grow my business?”
Though my mindset and approach to starting or running a business has definitely changed since I came to Owen, I find it amusing how having an MBA empowers us with this sort of “street cred.”
Key takeaways from this: Ride a bike, it will take you places.
Read the full article: Ride a bike, it will take you places.
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