S4E3 - Dave Weiner
This week’s More Than Work guest is Dave Weiner, the CEO of Priority Bicycles. Dave talks about taking a break from IT when he was the CEO of a global company, to figure out what he wanted to do next. He had a new son, business ideas, and a desire to spend his time differently so he could have more balance and be present for his family.
Dave started out working in the cycling industry after attending the University of California, Santa Barbara and it is the cycling industry that he decided to jump back into. He is innovating in the space with low maintenance bicycles including a line of low maintenance e-bikes.
We chat about the importance of pursuing your passions and doing work you’re proud of as well as the difference between delivering software and a tangible good. If you don’t think software development is related to bike production, you’ll learn why Dave thinks they are.
Note from Rabiah (host):
I met date at least 14 years ago when I was working in warehouse management. We worked with a ton of vendors at the time and as a woman in IT I wasn’t always treated with the utmost respect. Dave was a different kind of leader and different kind of business partner. I can’t remember specifics of our interactions but his kindness stuck with me. I ended up following him on LinkedIn and when I started this podcast he was one person I was set on talking to so this chat was particularly important to me. I like that he acknowledges that he isn’t working less but is doing what he loves. That’s important. As he says, some people are just going to work a lot. I’m one of those but when I’m doing it for something that has meaning it feels different. Get out there for a bike ride everyone!
Check out this chat with an entrepreneur for a practical point of view on setting priorities and building a business.
Rabiah and Dave talk bikes and more from London and NYC respectively.
Transcript
Rabiah (Host): [00:04:13] Hello, everyone. Welcome back this week. We're on episode three of season four now. So this week I have a guest named Dave Wiener, who I met a long time ago in an old work-life. I used to work in warehousing and warehouse management and met him then. And he started his own company and I always just thought it was so cool.
And I really love his company that he started. So I wanted to talk to him and it took a while for us to set this up just because of the pandemic and because of demands that he had, but we got a chance to talk and I really like what he says at the end, just about people pursuing things. But I was thinking about how I can improve the podcast a little bit, how I can improve the intro.
And I think one thing I should do is say what I am hoping people take from it, maybe from each episode and why I consider the person more than work because there is a theme here, but sometimes I don't think it's always clear. [00:05:13] So with Dave, I do think it's pretty apparent cause even mentions more than work.
And just what he's saying, I still want to just say that what I saw him do and what he talks about is starting a business about something that he's passionate about or for something he's passionate about. And he's still going to work hard. He still going to put the hours in that he puts in but he's doing it for something he's passionate about.
And then he's also created a different way of doing that with different way of putting in the hours. And I talked to a lot of people who, especially those with kids, have to find a way to work full-time and to be a full-time parent and be present everywhere and I think that's really challenging and he talks about how he sets up boundaries in a great way.
So I think what I want people to get from this is what he talks about, and I won't take his words away from him. He has them later in the podcast. But just about again, just empowering yourself to pursue something that you want or pursue [00:06:13] something you want to do or that you care about. In his case it's bicycles.
I don't know how many people who love bicycles listen to this podcast. I certainly do. I talk about cycling sometimes, and I'm not an avid cyclist like some, but even today I had to run an errand and I just. I could either take the tube or I could ride my bike. And so I ended up riding for about an hour around London, just getting out of the house and getting things done.
It's just, it was really nice. It was a lot of fun. So maybe for this week too, I hope everyone just gets outside if it's doable, where you live. The weather is definitely turning in London. It's pretty chilly now, but we've got sun here and there and a little bit of rain but sun today. So just, I wanna encourage everyone to get outside and walk or ride your bike or do something and just spend a little time away from your desk or away from whatever is kind of chaining you to something during the day.
That's all I want to say for this one. So enjoy the episode. Let me know what you think again. I [00:07:13] appreciate if you can like subscribe, review, share, et cetera. Thank you so much.
Welcome to More Than Work, the podcast reminding you that your self worth is defined by more than your job title. I'm Rabiah, an IT Project Manager, Comedian, nonprofit volunteer, and sometimes activist. Every week, I'll chat with a guest about pursuing passions outside of work or creating meaningful opportunities inside the workplace.
As you listen, I hope you'll be inspired to do the same. Here we go.
Welcome back this week, everyone. So this guest is really special because he's one of the first people I thought of when I was creating the podcast. Cause he just fits exactly what this podcast is about. So, I'm really [00:08:13] excited to talk to him right now. And his name is Dave Wiener.
He's the CEO of Priority Bicycles.How are you doing, Dave?
Dave Weiner: Great, Rabiah. Thanks for having me. And that's so thoughtful that I was someone who thought of I'm honored.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, no, I mean, you really are. First of all, I I cycle, I'm not an avid cyclist. I do wear Lycra. So I'm like at that level, but
Dave Weiner: I don't do that. So yeah, you might be more hardcore than I am
Rabiah (Host): but yeah. So why don't you, first of all where are you currently?
Dave Weiner: Sure. I'm currently in our office and showroom in New York City. So we're downtown in the Tribeca area. And I'm hanging out in a conference room.
Rabiah (Host): Nice. So like I said, you're the CEO of Priority Bicycles. We met when you were in IT through a mutual friend, but don't, don't remember exactly how so we can't do our origin story. But that's how I met you. And we at least connected on LinkedIn back then. How did you go, from IT to starting your own company focused around [00:09:13] bicycles.
Dave Weiner: I think it's a pretty natural story. I grew up in bike shop, riding bikes a little bit competitively, a lot recreationally. I grew up in a small town where you rode a bike everywhere. And I got very into bikes and mechanics of bikes. Mountain bikes, BMX bikes. Anything that that could move,
I wanted to work on it and I wanted to ride it. Through high school, I worked at a chain of bike shops going into college. Software company it's software for bike shops back in the nineties. So we, our software was on floppy disks to date myself there. And all I ever wanted do is work in the bike industry.
So I got a job for a major bike manufacturer, and I did a lot of their buying. And I also did their it since I came from a bit of a software background and I really saw my career playing out in the bike industry. But as I got more into IT with the bike manufacturer, I realized there was a niche there that I was really good at, and that maybe could make a better career for me.
[00:10:13] And starting to think, you know, you're in your early twenties, how am I ever going to afford a house and a, you know, a car that's not 20 years old, it constantly needs repairs? And and so I decided that maybe I should go down this IT path. And, and I did. You know, fast forward, 10 years later, it was CEO of international software company
doing business all over the world around the ERP space. So business management, enterprise resource management, financial management, warehouse management for a lot of major retailers, wholesalers, some manufacturers. You know, hundreds of customers all over the place. And I liked that work. I liked it a lot.
I liked going into businesses, figuring out how we can make them more efficient using technology. And in many ways it was like a bike. You could just. Figure out what the problem was and how to put the right pieces in place to solve the problem. And I really enjoyed that. A point in time came, I had a young son who is one and I was traveling, like I say, eight days a week and I wasn't home.
[00:11:13] And I realized there was more to life than work. And you know, I needed a break from it all. I needed a clean break and I needed to take a step back from software, which I was good at and enjoyed, but it was just too time consuming and I needed to do something that I was really, really passionate about.
And remember thinking now's the time. If I don't do it now, I'm never going to be able to do it. So I did, I left what I was doing, put in my resignation, spent a couple months winding down and meanwhile, I kept writing business plans for businesses.that I thought were fun. And the one I kept coming back to is this idea of a low maintenance bicycles. And a low maintenance bicycles are a term that seven years ago, we started Priority didn't exist.
If you Google the low maintenance bicycle, nothing would come up. And I had this concept that there were been a lot of innovations and bicycles, but they're all upmarket. And a lot of the innovations hadn't happened in that sub $1,000 range. And how could we use some of the better technology that makes bikes more [00:12:13] reliable, but bring it down market so that everybody can have a bike that didn't always need a tune up,
it didn't need to go to a store every day? And also by doing that, could we sell the bike consumer direct, so shipped directly to home that it was super easy to assemble because there were a lot of parts that didn't need tuning and get people in affordable, great looking super reliable bikes.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Dave Weiner: And, so, that's how it started.
I wasn't sure if it, I thought it was a great idea, but I wasn't willing to bet my career on it. So, and, and my you know, get a second mortgage on my home, so we did a Kickstarter to figure out, Hey, does this idea of low maintenance bikes resonate with other people? And the Kickstarter was overwhelmingly successful and that started the company.
The Kickstarter ended in August seven years ago. So we're coming up on seven year anniversary and the rest is history, right,Yeahso,
We certainly found that low maintenance bikes resonated with people. We now have 12 different models that span everything from kids' [00:13:13] bikes to electric bikes, to gravel bikes.
We're really trying to go into areas that have low maintenance in mind. So we're staying really true to our core. You know, w you won't see a bike of ours in the Tour de France. You won't see a bike for ours on a race because low maintenance bikes, they do tend to be a little bit heavier, right? But the person that's riding our bikes doesn't mind if it's a half pound heavier. What they really care about is every morning when they wake up to commute to work,
that is ready to go. Or if they live near the beach that hasn't rusted through. Or if they ride at four times a year with their family, just that when they go to ride it, it doesn't need anything. And so we really are focusing on that;, making sure our bikes are the most reliable they can be. And also making sure that our customer support is the absolute best in class so that we have a great relationship with our customers.
And and that's that's the story.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah . So there's a few places I want to go, but one is, you left your job as CEO of a software company and didn't really [00:14:13] have the next thing for sure. You just had ideas. Did you have discomfort in doing that or did you know it was the right decision to leave? And then cause sometimes people are just burnt out for whatever reason and not everyone's a CEO, so it, or has the means to leave and just have, you know, and, but what, what did that feel like for you just to leave and not have a plan you just kind of did, you know it would workout or you, you knew you might just have to go to work at some
Dave Weiner: yeah. I mean, I, you know, I sat down and sketched out with my wife and we realized that if I didn't work for a year, We'd probably be all right, much more than that as going to job. Now, luckily I was in a really good place in my career and I could get a job doing what I used to do. I just wanted to take a year to figure this out and, and it wasn't the bike idea per se.
It was, Hey, I've got these three ideas, but I need a year. I need to step back from this. I need to find a better work-life balance. I need to find something that has a little more meaning [00:15:13] to me. I love software and I love it more now than probably ever, but I was also really tired of dealing with intangibles.
So, if you do a $4 million software project for somebody, there's always something they're unhappy with. And, and it's intangible. When you sell someone a $500 bike. If there's a tear in the seat, you can send them a new seat. You don't lose sleep over it. And by the way, if someone really has a problem with their $500 bike, they should return it.
When two years and $4 million into a software project, and somebody is not happy, there's just a lot to unpack there. There's a lot of people on the client side on your side. So I really wanted to deal with something tangible. I really want to do a thing that was very straight forward.
Either you love bike or you return it. Right. And so I realized I had about a year to figure out if we had something and if not, I did have the comfort and the I'll say I had the luxury and the privilege of knowing. Okay. I can always go back to doing software. No one's going to, I'm not going to get a CEO role, but I could certainly go [00:16:13] go to any number of the roles that I had in any number of my former competitors, I think would have loved to have me.
And so I think that was a luxury I had that I knew I could take the time. And I also was just staring at my kid and saying, I don't want to be gone every day. The money's good. But the stress and the time is not. You know, I, I wouldn't say the last seven years have been any less stressful, so that's something else to talk about.
I wouldn't say it's been any less stressful,
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Dave Weiner: but I'd say I'm happier doing it and that's really. So has my work-life balance been better? If you ask me, oh, a hundred percent. If you ask my wife, she'd probably tell you I'm wrong and that it's equally as bad. I've been happier doing it. So I don't know though. Certain people just work a lot
and I think I'm one of people, but
I'm happier doing this type of work and that's really important for how I sleep at night.
Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): I had talked to one lady who talked about work-life blend. She just said her work's part of her life, but it's not, you know, and [00:17:13] I feel like, yeah, with you, this kind of product, I mean, And something you're passionate about anyway, it's fine.
But it is, there's something probably satisfying about shipping a good. Because I'm in software now. And, you know, I was just in UAT, and for those who don't know, it's user acceptance testing, it's the very end of the line before you're going to go live. And we got new requirements. There was like, oh, this isn't working
right. It's just do this. And I'm like, no, it's not because you said, you know, four months ago, it wasn't supposed to do that. And you're just...
Dave Weiner: and that argument over, what's a new requirement, what's out of scope and what's in scope is there's not a software project where that doesn't happen, where they say it was in scope. You say, it's not in scope. And you know, maybe it's something that somebody can fix this weekend, but maybe it's three months of development, you know, and, and who's gonna pay for it?
And stressful. And that gets really hard. And you know, and depending on budgets, it's just, there's a lot, again, a lot to deal with there that goes, but that happens every project. And I think I was really ready to be done with that and [00:18:13] send out a product that's, here's what it is. And if don't like it, by the way, that's totally cool.
No problem. Send it back.
Rabiah (Host): I like that. I like the idea that it's just something you can send back. So I want to talk about what a low maintenance bicycle is. And I'll just tell you, I know I don't have one because I was starting to run out of gears. I could switch to because slowly just the chain kept slipping out of each one and then I had to take it in and get it fixed.
And cause I was almost crashing and stuff around London. And it took me so long just to get myself to get into the bike shop. So to me, the idea of something that I, as a person who doesn't have much experience with vice could basically take care of myself as good. But what, what features make it low maintenance?
Dave Weiner: So in the core of it, and there's different levels of low-maintenance by schools, right? But in the core of it, we use a belt instead of a chain and a belt is great because it doesn't rust. It doesn't require a loop. And it lasts three times longer than a chain. So the chain is the number one problem on a bike.
Now, when you think of a chain [00:19:13] bike, it has on the back, it has a derailer that moves up and down a set of gears. When you think about what goes wrong, it's, it's the chain. And then it's the de-railer. So when you have a belt drive, you can't have a derailer or you can't have a cassette and you're forced -
and it's good forced - to have what's called internal gears. So the gears are inside the hub. And gears that are inside the hub. They're more expensive, but if you can get past that, they're fully enclosed. And so there is no tuning and they are resistant to the weather and enclosed from the elements. So if you go through big puddles, if you hit the mud, the gears aren't being impacted by that, the way, if you get a bunch of mud and you're changing derail or you're, you're in bad shape.
So when you have a low maintenance bike, you have a belt drive and then you have gears that are internal. Typically have less gears in terms of number, but the actual range of gearing is about the same. And that's also something that's really important because we sell three speed [00:20:13] bikes that have the gear range of a 10 speed.
And most people don't know how to use 10 gears, but three is really simple. Keep it in year two, all day long, one is for uphill. Three is for going fast. So you don't need all the speeds. You don't need all the gears. And in fact, having a three speed that's fully enclosed, it's just a really simple operation for people and it lasts forever.
Then you get into the braking and trying to make sure that you have the right style of brakes that can go as long as possible without maintenance. Brakes do always require maintenance, but if you can use a foot or coaster brake, those go, most people, know, five to 10,000 miles without needing maintenance. Uh, disc brakes can go, you know, about half that. Rim brakes go a lot less.
So it's just trying to look at our models and say, "Hey, how can we put the most components on it that need the least amount of work?" When you think about bearings, making sure we put better quality bearings on so they don't, they don't wear out. On the frame and all the fixing bolts trying to use [00:21:13] aluminum and stainless steel
so they don't rust. So just using better quality components helps make the bike more low maintenance. And, you know, there's no such thing as a no maintenance bike. There's no such thing as a bike that never needs a tune-up, but our bikes can go a whole lot longer without needing a tune-up and without anything going out of tune.
And so, that's important. And just making sure that, you know, whether you're commuting every day to work or an hour really into the bike packing scene. So people that are taking their bikes on a long adventures, multi-day off-road adventures, making sure that they all have the reliability that they need.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
And then you guys did electric too.
Dave Weiner: Yeah.
Rabiah (Host): I have friends in the states who were trying to get e-bikes and I don't know how popular they are here, but I know over there they are, but they're on back order . Did you experience that kind of thing with your e-bikes where it's just ?
Dave Weiner: Yeah. I mean, everything's, everything's on back order. Everything's sold out right now. Is definitely, there's a lot more demand than [00:22:13] there is supply. That said e-bikes are the fastest growing category in cycling. You ride an e-bike for the first time you will smile. You'll start to realize that you could go places on a bike that you've never thought of going.
It's really lovely to get to work or to get to your appointment or go to meet your friend without sweating and get there faster. In a city like New York where I live it's just wild because it's so much faster than a car and so much a subway. Then you show up and you're refreshed and you feel good.
You can decide how much you want to peddle and how much you want the assistant to the bike to pedal. So it's a, e-bikes are fantastic. We have a really good line right now. We're expanding that line by a couple of models hopefully early next year. And it's a huge growth segment for everybody in the cycling industry.
And I think that's across the world.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. I, well, I imagine. And so what differentiates your e-bike?
Dave Weiner: Low maintenance.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Dave Weiner: So it's low maintenance which is what all of our bikes have. If you look at most [00:23:13] e-bikes especially a lot of the sub $2,000, e-bikes they spend all their money on the propulsion system. So the motor and the battery, and then they use like the lowest end, Walmart quality components.
And so you're taking the cheapest bike money can buy putting a motor on it. So 80% of your costs is going into the motor and you took components that weren't reliable on a pedal bike, and now put them on, put a motor on it. And so you still have e-bikes that just have a lot of problems because they use really poor quality componentry. And
a bike with a motor on it, where it was a lot quicker than a bike without one. So our e-bikes use more automotive style components. So we use CVTs our continuously variable transmissions on a lot of our e-bikes. We use belt drives, again which is the same cars and motorcycles use belt drives. We try and use automotive quality components because when you have a motor on a bicycle,
in many ways, [00:24:13] it rides like a bike, but the demands on the componentry are a lot harder and a lot rougher than a pedal bike. So our e-bikes all use automotive grade and certainly e-bike ready componentry that is designed for the high output high torque and high mileage.
Rabiah (Host): Currently, are you on an eBike when you go to work and stuff or ?
Dave Weiner: I am. Almost every day on a cargo bike, because I ride one to three kids somewhere every morning. So, yeah, I'm, I'm constantly, I'm on an electric cargo bike
Rabiah (Host): oh, cool. So that's gotta be fun for them too.
Dave Weiner: Oh, they love it. They love it. It said definitely the best way to get around the city.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. So with having your own business, I mean, just looking at how that has changed your life though. And I mean, cause you're still, you were a CEO of a software company, now you're CEO of this company, and you've talked a little bit about it, but just [00:25:13] like being happier with what you're working with. Have you found things changed with how you're handling, like your corporate culture and how you're handling employees and how you're working with people differently now than you were when you were in software.
Did that change? What they're being your own business that you created?
Dave Weiner: Yeah. You know, corporate culture and employee cultures are really important thing. And when you start a small company and we're getting certainly bigger now by the day it's important to keep that culture the way you want it to w the way they want it to be. For me, what's really important is having a flexible place that people want to come to work. When you're in software you're really
tied down by the demands of your customers. So if a customer calls you at six o'clock and they're having a problem, you're not getting out of your desk. Whereas with bikes, we have customer support and we have a customer support team. And they do need to be on a, some portion of that team needs to be online every day, but there's some flexibility in scheduling and realizing that people do have [00:26:13] families and realizing that people do need to get home in a certain time.
And so, you know, for me, I try and leave every single day at five o'clock and from five to 8, 8 30, I'm on with my family and I'm not looking at my phone. And then when8:30 rolls around and the kids started to go to bed, I'm back working and I'm getting through the pile and I'm not working less hours, but I do have more control over my day because there's nothing that can't wait a few hours in my day today.
Whereas again, if you've got someone's financial system at six o'clock or their warehouse system, it's gone down, it's red alarms going off and nobody's getting out of their desk.So, I think that our whole team has a lot of flexibility to work from home, to come in late to leave early. What's important here is you're getting your job done.
And also we have enough people that we can cover for it. It's not like there's one person who knows this part of the code. And if that person is unreachable, we can't fix your problem. You've been there. I see it in your face.
Rabiah (Host): Oh [00:27:13] God. I mean, well, yeah, it's the whole linchpin thing. And especially at a certain companies, there is the one guy who knows how it all works. And so they can
Oh one or one
or one gal.
Yeah. I, in all the places I've been there, hasn't been that one yet. I'd like to be at a place like that, but, but there's been, you know, and there's one person who knows.
What's everything about this code that they that's spaghetti at this point. Like no even sort through It and they can also act however they want because of that.
Dave Weiner: The ability to that attitude because they know that that spaghetti's, there's, it's, it's their mess and they can find it. No one else can. And that gives them the right to have and not the right. It gives them the. Desire to sometimes, not always have an attitude. That's hard, that's troubling, you know, but that is very much the software world.
So I think, you know, for our culture we keep it very light. It's not unusual to see beers happening in the afternoon. We have a ping pong table. We go for bike rides. We have a [00:28:13] lunch in the office every single day. So we get a
food, delivery every week and everyone makes sandwiches and salads and we just try and keep it like a fun place to hang out.
And know, some people hang out, some people go home. Some people go home early. Some people come in late, everybody gets their job done. And also I've always been of the mindset that the only way we're going to have really happy customers is if we have a really happy employees. And so we got to figure out how to make sure our employees are really happy.
And that means giving them all that flexibility to make sure that work is part of their life, not a hindrance. And a part of their life they enjoy because right now work does go home with you. I don't know anyone that work doesn't go home with. So you better enjoy it. You better work with people you like and have some flexibility there.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I agree.
I think it was especially, I mean, in the last year, some days, the only people I interacted with were coworkers online, but still it was just coworkers or in the year and [00:29:13] a half. With the pandemic and stuff with you and having this business, and it's still, I mean, relatively new, I'd say compared to a lot of businesses.
How did that go for you? I mean, was there any like lesson you learned that maybe is changing the way you're doing things going forward or did you just kind of pivot now you're pivoting back to
Dave Weiner: We were designed from the ground up all of our systems that anyone can work from anywhere. So we always had the systems in place that nobody needed to be in the office. When the pandemic hit people in New York, scattered, we scattered New York before we did anywhere else in the U S. And we were fine.
We were up and running. We did leverage Microsoft teams a lot more than ever, and are still using Microsoft teams more than ever to collaborate. And that's been a huge win for us as it's kind of taking some of the programs that we had, but weren't fully utilizing and now we're fully utilizing. We are now fully back to the office.
It wasn't a mandate. People [00:30:13] just started coming back cause they wanted to get back to their apartments. And once they get back to their apartments, they wanted to get back to the office. Our office is super fun. We have a really good time in our office. So, so we're fully back. People can leave, you know, people can work from home.
I think, you know, as productive as we were remote, we are more productive in the office and we all see it. There's no way around that. At the beginning of the pandemic business dropped off a cliff. It was really slow. People weren't spending people, weren't leaving their homes.
As people realized bikes were a good form of social distancing, business picked up. And then business got great in the bike industry. There's not a company in the bike industry that's not doing well right now. It's unfortunate that it took a pandemic for people to ride bikes more. And it's unfortunate that, you know, this is good for our business.
I would certainly give all that business for world health. But it's good for the world that [00:31:13] the world is riding bikes more. I think that's really a positive outcome. And I hope that that trend of using bikes as a way to get where you're going and other way to have a leisure activity, I hope that continues to grow.
It's it's so fun too. I mean, for me. I ride around the same park most days when I go out, but I have friends who, even in London, they'll just we'll meet and have a beers and then at 10 at night, they're riding home because they feel safe doing that. It's pretty cool. Just how people you're just so mobile.
You're not getting in the tube. You're not interacting with people. It's kind of a nice activity in a way just to do solo or with other people, but it's something you can do and have fun on your own. I mean,
No a while I would never promote riding a bike after having a few beers. It was certainly a very popular thing to do. And this is certainly a lot better than the other alternatives out there. So.
Rabiah (Host): I won't. Yeah,
because I'm not, I'm already clumsy, but I think if people know what their limits are and [00:32:13] you know, but it's just, it's, cool just to see so many people on bicycles and here there's a ton, I mean, just being in a city, that's just how it is. And I rode my bike in New York city and that was always a risk, but it was, it was fun.
Dave Weiner: it's it's gotten a lot better. There are a lot more bike lanes. The city has changed the speed limit to 25 miles an hour. Not that everybody does that, but you know, cars are slowed down and there's more bike lanes. And so that helps. Traffic is worse because of it. But that's also another reason why when you see how bad traffic is, you realize, gosh, I'll just ride my bike.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Yeah, for sure. When you look at your business and then deciding to expand to different models and stuff. And like, I know you did kids bikes and that wasn't the first thing you did. Are there any challenges with that for you or is it, and I'm thinking about the fact that you were building things for other people before now you're building them more for your business.
Have you learned anything about doing that and, and challenges?
Dave Weiner: You know, I've learned a [00:33:13] lot about. I always knew a lot about subcontractors. And I always knew what happened with subcontractors. You know, we have about 30 subcontractors and you know, whether your subcontractors making a handlebar or whether you're subbing out a piece of code, it's the same thing.
You got to give them a deadline. Hopefully you give them a deadline that's buffered. You gotta follow up to that deadline cause they won't follow you up. You know, I think they, you know, in many ways, all the tricks of being a project manager in software are not that different than building a bike. You, you, you take a project, you divide it into pieces.
You give everyone dates your follow up on them. Inevitably someone lets you down and you got 30, 30 people that go into one project and one of them is late then in the mayor's all 30 B it's you know, I've learned a lot about Asian sourcing. We're seven years old. We've been with the same factory now for four years, who does most of our production.
I'm as happy with them today as I was four years ago. And so that speaks volumes to [00:34:13] the relationship we've built and the quality of their product that they help us with. But before that, we went through three manufacturers in three years. And that was really hard. It was really hard on me. It was hard on the business, you know, so it's good to figure out exactly what you want.
Good to figure out exactly what the QC steps are. It's good to figure out all the parties involved and make sure you're staying on top of mall. Certainly I've learned a lot of lessons about how to source from Asia, which like I said, has a lot of similarities without sourcing code, but it's yeah, totally different.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, well, and that's one thing too, just even getting shipments on time and stuff. And especially now it's been from what I heard more of a challenge to do so.
Dave Weiner: Totally. It's a disaster right now. And freight prices are through the roof. So freight's really expensive. It's taking a lot longer and we're just got to keep adjusting and modifying and rolling with the punches.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. So when [00:35:13] you look at just founding your own business and just thinking back seven years ago and deciding to do the Kickstarter , is there anything that you would change about what you did? Or any lessons that you've learned that you would propagate forward or any decisions you made that you were like, that was totally the
right decision,
I'm glad I had that instinct?
Dave Weiner: You know, today I can say, I wish I hired more people earlier. But also on the other hand, I'm somebody that's just, need to justify everything. We need to be profitable. You know, I've never been comfortable with a business that loses money. And so if that means I have to do every single thing myself and not pay myself for two years, which is a lot of what happened.
I had, you know, I wasn't by myself, but I wore a lot of hats. And didn't get paid and, you know, so there was time where we knew the business. I still wasn't taking home a paycheck and that was really stressful. But on the other hand, we saw the business [00:36:13] was successful and you could project out that, Hey, there's, there's an end to this.
I think there's a lot of little lessons learned, but if I look back and say, like I made one, there's no big mistakes. I think what I learned in software consulting too, and in working for all of these other retailers and wholesale is that you don't need the best craziest, most patented idea. What you need is a lot of really hard work and you need to be willing to never give up and to stay up at night as late as it is and figure it out. And didn't ever say, I can't do it to raise your hand. Say, I don't know how to do it. But I'm sure as hell gonna figure it out. And you know, that's my attitude on everything is I never know what I'm doing cause it's never been done before.
It was never done by me. And I'm not of the size that I can go hire a team of consultants to figure it out. So I've just got to stay up really late at night and make my best attempts and then not be scared to try stuff and fail. And have there [00:37:13] been a lot of little failures? Yeah. A ton. But. I think if you could try things quickly, you recognize they failed quickly and they're not really failures.
They're just trying to move through something quickly. And I I'm really proud of all the decisions we've made. I'm proud of all the products we've put out. You know, it's, it's overall been a real success and a lot of learning, but, but nothing I think we've done majorly wrong for sure.
Rabiah (Host): Well, one thing I think that just now resonated with me because I'm thinking of a couple of friends who are software developers. I mean, just at work and it's cool. Like, you know, we follow each other on social media and you see what people's hobbies are and you see what the other things they're passionate about.
And, and just you saying, like you've taken these lessons learned from software and applied them into other things, nicely. Some people doing that just in their, their personal lives. And cause one thing just for this podcast too, it's like, What I've seen people go through is they're really good at their job.
And they do a great job, but they don't ever see that [00:38:13] this can apply to other things. And so they'll like lose their job after 10 years or five years and just be devastated and think they have no skills now to go anywhere else with. But the truth is, if you can see it, then you can see, oh, these are the things I'm good at.
And this is how I can apply it here. And that's kind of what you.
Dave Weiner: I've always thought bikes and software and a lot in common. And I know that's totally crazy, but you take all these components to make one thing, and then that one thing does something wrong and you have to figure out which component it is. It's not so different in terms of how your brain thinks. You do need to know the ins and outs of both but the rational thinking of it all. It's very, very similar.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. So dear kids all, well, I don't know how old they are, but are any of them doing like cycling where they're really into it and want to race and stuff like that?
Dave Weiner: I have an eight and eight, six and two. They're all really into bikes. My eight and six year old love riding their bikes. We don't ride [00:39:13] competitively any way, shape or form. They just love riding their bikes and they love getting to school on their bikes. I love going to see their friends on bikes.
They also see bikes as a way of transportation, which I think is really cool. We rarely drive a car. We can go over a month without getting in a car. So everywhere we go is by bike. And I think that's pretty cool. They enjoy it. It's good for them.
I hope they can grow up, not needing cars. I think that'd be a great, a wonderful thing .
I'm sure that's not true. And I'm sure the cars will drive themselves by the time they're old enough, but, but uh, life's better when you're not stuck inside car.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Oh, for sure. Well, plus just the environmental impact at this point.
Dave Weiner: Absolutely.
Rabiah (Host): Like how many floods now, you know, in the last week or so, I mean,
Dave Weiner: And the environmental impact is huge. And then there's, you know, the mental impact for you when you're out riding your bike and your endorphins are pumping. It's really healthy for [00:40:13] your you physically and emotionally, when you are stuck in a car, getting cut off and in traffic is not good for you physically.
It's not good for you mentally. And it's certainly not good for the environment.
Rabiah (Host): That, that was one thing I learned in the last year and half, cause I was really using a bike for a different purpose. Before I would use it when I was in New York, I'd use it to ride to work when I would do it. Not really use it for fun, but it was to go somewhere. But the lockdown time was the first time I really used the bike, just purely for exercise and for nothing else.
And purely to see, just to get out of a place that I was stuck in. You know, whatever, a 12 by 12 room for otherwise, right? And it, the mental impact, the mental health impact was huge. And I, it was like, I'd never, I'd heard that forever, but I never, it was like 41 years old when I finally made that connection.
Like, oh Yeah.
Dave Weiner: W when I drive, I'm still stuck on my phone and there's texts and emails and all sorts of stuff coming up at popping up. And when I'm on my bike and the road, it's [00:41:13] great. It's a fabulous thing.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. cause you can't be, you'll see people sometimes texting and I'm like, what are you doing? Like, please?
Dave Weiner: Please put that down.
Rabiah (Host): Just one more thing along the lines of starting on thing and building your own business,
do you have any other ideas where you're like, Oh, yeah, I can do this again in another space or you're in your place where you're the most passionate at this point?
Dave Weiner: Oh, I have business ideas all the time. It's just part of my head. But I love what I'm doing and I have no desire to do anything else. I love the team I work with. I love the products we're making proud of the company. So, yeah, and this is my identity. It it's really fun. You know, my kids go to school and my dad makes bikes.
Like, it's very, as opposed as opposed to like ERP software, you know, what is that right? I think it's very It's very quantifiable. It's very part of the community. You know, we have a little league team right now. There's just like lots of fun stuff like bikes or [00:42:13] apple pie, you know? I mean, there, I love doing this, so yes, I have a lot of other ideas, lots of other things I'd love to try, but Priority still has a really big runway.
I think we're still a tiny, tiny, tiny player in the market. And I think we have a lot of room to grow and I'm excited to do that.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, well, and the bikes are like, really, I mean, well, I'll post the link to your website, but there are great looking bikes and
Yeah. I think they're really cool. And next time I need to bike when I'm back in the states.
Dave Weiner: You know who to call...
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, exactly. Well, . Exactly. The name Priority Bikes too.
How did you come up with that? I think it's really hard to name a company. I mean, naming a podcast was hard.
Dave Weiner: It was never the intention to be called Priority Bicycles. So when the business plan was written, I wrote it saying like, this is my priority was to get, to get this company going. And that's what I've written on the top of the business plan.
When it came time named the company, we did me and Connor, my [00:43:13] co-founder did brainstorming, brainstorming, brainstorm. We even had a couple of friends brainstorm. We had this whole list of names and the problem with "[Name] Bicycles" is that there's what 6,000 bike shops in the U S plus God knows how everywhere else in the world.
And so when you have all those bike shops, whether it's Dave's Bikes or Cool Bikes or Urban Bikes or whatever, that name is taken. So if you want X bicycles.com that X is taken and it wound up going back to what was on the front of the business plan, which is like, this is my priority. It is, we took the name priority and Priority Bicycles was not taken. I never loved it as a name in the beginning. But it was like the only option. So we stuck with it at least it had meaning. I still don't love how, like it rolls off my tongue for some reason. But yeah, so that was it. It was, it was my priority to do this and Priority Bicycles, here we are.[00:44:13]
Rabiah (Host): No. That's great. Cause I, yeah. I mean just, you know, just yeah, naming and podcasts, trying to name my website. And I'm with my website. I'm not that happy, but it was just finding something, even with the name Rabiah, like, people just owned it. And I said, you, you own it just to make me angry, I'm sure.
there's no real website there, you know? Yeah. Like some Dave got ahead of you right. And made his bikes.
Dave Weiner: Exactly. So I, I, not that I wanted to name it after me, but I, I just, it stuck finally. And at least it had, it had heart to it. There's a lot of heart in priority. There's part in everything we do. And there's certainly heart in the So,
Rabiah (Host): Oh, cool. Awesome. Is there anything else you want to cover?
no you know, what I mean, I think it's been good. I think it's really important for people if they have the desire to explore another business, desire to try something entrepreneurial, to find a way to do it [00:45:13] with low stakes. Kickstarter was a wonderful way for me to take an idea and float it by a whole lot of people and see if it could stick. I think Kickstarter and Indiegogo, aren't what they used to be. So I think it's a harder time to do social crowdfunding, but I think there are a lot of ways with with just e-commerce right now that has democratized how you can bring ideas to market. And I think it's important that people find that balance in their life, that they do something that they're really, really proud of.
Dave Weiner: I'm certainly a much happier person, a much happier father, much happier husband, doing priority bicycles. And so I'm really glad that we were able to make this happen. I'm super thankful for all the people that backed our company early. And I encourage anybody with the inkling to just try and find a way to do it, to try and find that year that you need to try and get something off the ground.
And I remember I was saying, Hey, if I've wasted a year, [00:46:13] then 20 years from now, I'll get to tell my kids that there was this cool year where I stopped doing software. And I tried to start a bike company and here are the four bikes we made and they're super cool. It's a bummer. It didn't do it, but I'm happy.
I tried. And that's also something too, you know, with kids, I always want to tell them that you can do anything. You can do anything. You may fail and that's okay, but you should try. And if you're really, really keep trying, keep trying, you'll be able to do it. And so being able to prove that to myself was really important and I'm grateful that the world has given me the opportunity.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah. Well, yeah, I think putting any limiting thoughts on a kid, just because it's usually just cause some, somehow we got those limiting thoughts for ourselves. Through life really. But like, I agree for kids, they should know that they really, because it's true.
Dave Weiner: You can be whoever you want to be. And you know, that's not just for kids, that's for adults. You be whoever you, we wake up every [00:47:13] day and decide who we're going to be today. And you know, sometimes we wake up on the wrong side. And decide we're going to be someone that maybe isn't who we actually want to be.
We're all, I'm certainly guilty of that. I had a moment like that yesterday, where I took step back, as I said, Is that who I want to be?
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Dave Weiner: you know, but we're all guilty of that. But I think that every day we get to wake up and decide who we want to be. And whether that's the attitude we take into life or what we say yes and no to what we say I can, I can't do.
And let's just keep that on the positive.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, I agree. Okay. So I have last five questions. We'll usually ask about advice or mantra, but you've given really great advice. So thank you. So the fun five. The first one, what's the oldest t-shirt you have and still wear?
Dave Weiner: from college and it's from a bar called The Study Hall.
Rabiah (Host): Nice name for a bar.
Dave Weiner: Yeah, I had friends who had credit cards from their parents and they would get slight the study hall.
Rabiah (Host): Brilliant.
Dave Weiner: went [00:48:13] the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Oh, okay. I went to UC San Diego.
Nice.
Rabiah (Host): Cool. All right. I should I'll probably be in Santa Barbara later this year if I get home.
Dave Weiner: by the study hall, but it's a, it's a young crowd, I think.
Rabiah (Host): yeah.
Dave Weiner: Now that you're not young. I just know that I would feel old there.
Rabiah (Host): I know I'm not young. I, I do stand up comedy and a lot of the comics are about 15 years younger than me and I feel like I'm not young for sure.
Dave Weiner: You go by the study hall and get a long island iced tea.
Rabiah (Host): That's that's the UCSB experience
Dave Weiner: Yeah, there you go.
Rabiah (Host): Nice. All right. So up until a certain point, and even in a lot of parts of the world, it still seems like Groundhog's Day every day right now. So if it was, what song would you have your alarm clock play to wake you up every morning?
Dave Weiner: Horrible with music. Bob Marley, don't worry about a thing. Three little birds, I think is the name of the song.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah, yeah, it is. yeah. Okay, cool.
All right. Coffee or tea or neither?
Dave Weiner: [00:49:13] Coffee black.
Rabiah (Host): All right. And can you think of a time like that you laughed so hard you cried and just couldn't stop or like something that gets you just to kind of crack up when you think of.
Dave Weiner: It's mainly all inappropriate. Uh I'm I'm just a sucker for lame inappropriate. Well, like, you know, like 12 year old jokes.
Rabiah (Host): Yeah.
Dave Weiner: I'm trying to think of something that makes me laugh. I laugh easily. I'm very just, if it makes a 12 year old kid laugh, it'll make me laugh.
Rabiah (Host): Then you see you. Good. I mean, that's, it's nice to just easily laugh though. I think, I think it's the people who don't laugh.
I don't understand, you know, like they might look younger maybe, cause they're not wrinkling, but.
Dave Weiner: I laugh at the same stuff I did when I was in high school, nothing's changed.
Rabiah (Host): All right.
Dave Weiner: Just more wrinkles.
Rabiah (Host): Exactly. All right. And the last one who inspires you right now?
Dave Weiner: One of my business partners John is a mentor and incredibly [00:50:13] inspirational to me. And I feel like every time I talked to him, I leave feeling like I gained an insight. So I'd say that talking to John is an amazing time that I feel lucky to get. And I think he's a really inspirational guy
Rabiah (Host): Cool. Super. Well, so if people want to find you, can you just share the website and I'll link it.
Dave Weiner: prioritybicycles.com.
Rabiah (Host): And people should just follow your YouTube and stuff too. I mean, you
guys post a lot of content that's really cool. So I admire that actually. All right. Well, Dave, thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
Dave Weiner: It's an honor being on. Thanks Rabiah
Rabiah (Host): Thanks again for listening this week, you can find out more about the guest in the show notes and at rabiahsaid.com (rabiahsaid.com). Joe Maffia created the music just for this podcast. Find him on Spotify. That's Joe M A F F I A. And Rob Metke is responsible for our visual design. You can find him online by searching for Rob M E T K E. [00:51:13] Thanks, Rob.
Let me know who you'd like to hear from or about your own experiences to finding yourself outside of work. Follow at more than work pod (@morethanworkpod), or send a message on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or visit our website more than work pod dot com (morethanworkpod.com). Give us a follow on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts and leave a review if you like. Thanks for listening to More Than Work and remember, while being kind to others, don't forget to be kind to yourself.
