Benno Baenziger's guest appearances

Benno Baenziger

Ride On! by Micromobility Industries

Bleav in Skateboarding with Jim Gray

Jim Gray

Acme Skateboards

Jack Smith

Andy Anderson

Joe Sib

Steve Caballero

Jim Fitzpatrick

Ron Allen

Beau Brown

Chet Thomas

Torey Pudwill

Laura Richards

Ray Flores

Jesse Parker

Michael Brooke

OwlTail

Benno Bikes

This week we're excited to bring you an interview from Oliver's recent tour of Southern California ahead of our Micromobility World online event. Oliver flew up from NZ to be with James, Julia and the team to produce the event but while he was there also took the chance to visit a whole heap of companies working in micromobility, either as vehicle makers or peripherally. He learnt a huge amount - especially from those who have been in the industry for a while.  Benno Baenziger is an OG of the bike space, founding Electra Bikes back in 1993 as a recent immigrant to California from Germany and growing it through the 90s and 2000s till he sold it to a private equity group in 2008. He stuck around but eventually left to start Benno bikes in 2015 with a focus on what electric can bring to the bike industry.  There’s a few things that you should know about Benno. Firstly, the company has less than 10 employees. He has really understood the bike industry and what makes for great bikes so focusses on the very specific points that he has as a designer to make great bikes and leaves the rest to others, a very different strategy to other companies in this space like Vanmoof or Cowboy who have chosen to eschew the old bike industry and try and do it themselves.  Secondly, he’s profitable with no outside funding beyond what capital he put in himself. Like the conversation with Josh Hon from Tern, Oliver learns so much about how the world works with experiences like this. It is an honour to bring you material like this and we hope that we get to do more of the tours - it’s always better to do these interviews in person!   Finally, Micromobility World went great. It was one of our largest events to dates and We had a lot of really excellent content come out of it, the relevant ones of which we will drop as podcasts soon.   And here's Benno!  Specifically they tackle: - His background founding Electra Bikes and then moving on  - Why, despite him saying that he’d not do another bike business, Benno Bikes exists  - What is ‘etility’ and what does it offer to the customer  - Why he’s chosen to go a more traditional route for componentry and servicing  - How he has managed to self fund the company to date  - The importance of design and quality in a brand   Catch us on Twitter. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Catch us on Twitter @MicromobilityCo. Horace and Oliver are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our Micromobility Newsletter is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. And for those who want more, we offer Micromobility Pro membership that includes exclusive content and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team. We’re also on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This week we're excited to bring you an interview from Oliver's recent tour of Southern California ahead of our Micromobility World online event. Oliver flew up from NZ to be with James, Julia and the team to produce the event but while he was there also took the chance to visit a whole heap of companies working in micromobility, either as vehicle makers or peripherally. He learnt a huge amount - especially from those who have been in the industry for a while.  Benno Baenziger is an OG of the bike space, founding Electra Bikes back in 1993 as a recent immigrant to California from Germany and growing it through the 90s and 2000s till he sold it to a private equity group in 2008. He stuck around but eventually left to start Benno bikes in 2015 with a focus on what electric can bring to the bike industry.  There’s a few things that you should know about Benno. Firstly, the company has less than 10 employees. He has really understood the bike industry and what makes for great bikes so focusses on the very specific points that he has as a designer to make great bikes and leaves the rest to others, a very different strategy to other companies in this space like Vanmoof or Cowboy who have chosen to eschew the old bike industry and try and do it themselves.  Secondly, he’s profitable with no outside funding beyond what capital he put in himself. Like the conversation with Josh Hon from Tern, Oliver learns so much about how the world works with experiences like this. It is an honour to bring you material like this and we hope that we get to do more of the tours - it’s always better to do these interviews in person!  Finally, Micromobility World went great. It was one of our largest events to dates and We had a lot of really excellent content come out of it, the relevant ones of which we will drop as podcasts soon.  And here's Benno! Specifically they tackle: - His background founding Electra Bikes and then moving on  - Why, despite him saying that he’d not do another bike business, Benno Bikes exists  - What is ‘etility’ and what does it offer to the customer  - Why he’s chosen to go a more traditional route for componentry and servicing  - How he has managed to self fund the company to date  - The importance of design and quality in a brand Catch us on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MicromobilityCo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. <a href="http://www.twitter.com/asymco" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Horace</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/oliverbruce" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Oliver </a>are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Catch us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MicromobilityCo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@MicromobilityCo</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/asymco" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Horace</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/oliverbruce" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Oliver</a> are also active on their personal accounts and would love to hear from you. Our <a href="https://micromobility.substack.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Micromobility Newsletter</a> is completely free, and you can subscribe to have it in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday morning. And for those who want more, we offer <a href="https://micromobility.io/pro" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Micromobility Pro membership</a> that includes exclusive content and conference discounts, as well as live calls with Horace and team. We’re also on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/micromobility/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/micromobility/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

167: ‘Etility’ - what electric bikes offer with Benno Baenziger, the founder of Benno Bikes

I chat with my friend Benno Baenziger, owner of Benno Bikes. He is a passionate designer, and obsessed with making better products and making his products the best thay can be. He is a skater who grew up in West Berlin, Co-founded, built and sold Electra Bicycles. We talk about his early days skateboarding in West Berlin living in the Swiss Embassy in West Germany, looking over the wall into East Germany before the wall came down etc...We cover lots of interesting subjects from what he saw that was happening in the US that inspired them to skate, snowboard etc....,  to cops helping them move their ramp. We discuss the beginnings of Electra Bicycles which was a major player in the bike market, which Benno eventually sold. We also discuss his new bike company Benno Bikes, which makes what I call the Rolls Royce of Electric bikes featuring his trademarked Etility which he describes as where agility meets utility. Benno is a talented and creative man, proud to call him a friend, and hopefully you will enjoy learning about another skater who has used the creativity and passion it takes to be a skater and put it to use to dominate in another industry entirely. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I chat with my friend Benno Baenziger, owner of Benno Bikes. He is a passionate designer, and obsessed with making better products and making his products the best thay can be. He is a skater who grew up in West Berlin, Co-founded, built and sold Electra Bicycles. We talk about his early days skateboarding in West Berlin living in the Swiss Embassy in West Germany, looking over the wall into East Germany before the wall came down etc...We cover lots of interesting subjects from what he saw that was happening in the US that inspired them to skate, snowboard etc...., to cops helping them move their ramp. We discuss the beginnings of Electra Bicycles which was a major player in the bike market, which Benno eventually sold. We also discuss his new bike company Benno Bikes, which makes what I call the Rolls Royce of Electric bikes featuring his trademarked Etility which he describes as where agility meets utility. Benno is a talented and creative man, proud to call him a friend, and hopefully you will enjoy learning about another skater who has used the creativity and passion it takes to be a skater and put it to use to dominate in another industry entirely. See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.

Episode 012 Benno Baenziger, Skater, Owner of Benno Bikes