We’re all familiar with electric scooter companies, deploying city-by-city by companies like Bird. This week’s startup has a different approach to micro-mobility.
⚾ The Elevator Pitch:
As the hype of scooter ride-sharing fades, the business model reveals tough problems: They operated in a legal gray area, are tossed around sidewalk spaces, and have hard-to-swallow unit economics. This week’s start-up is thinking of this scooter model differently.
Mount provides scooters as an ‘amenity’ to targeted properties - including small businesses, resorts, schools, Airbnbs, and more. First, property owners can set up a fleet, complete with property branding, insurance policy, and ready-to-read scooters shipped in. Next, guests can access scooters through Mount’s iOS or Android app. Finally, guests start riding and property owners can customize their scooter maintenance schedule with Mount.
Revenue generated from the fleet is sent to the owner of the property monthly — aka, great source of supplemental income!
👇 The Drop Down
Site: https://mountlocks.com/#
School: Northeastern University
Founded: 2019
Stage: Pre-seed
Tech trend: Micromobility
Traction: Hit a 100-scooter milestone on waitlist, launched fleets in Phoenix and Scottsdale at 5 Airbnb properties, launching micro fleets in Miami in March
Team - A fine mix of business, software, and hardware expertise
Madison Rifkin - Co-Founder & CEO
Matt Langham - Co-Founder & Lead Electric Engineer Advisor (notably, ex-Head Mechanic @ JUMP bikes)
🔍 Our analysis
- 🧠 A more intuitive use case
One reason why we love Mount is that the scooter business case works a lot better for private properties than the traditional city space. At a high-end private resort, for example, you’re not dealing with regulatory issues. Tracking, accountability, and maintenance of scooters are easier. Guests are ‘vetted’ (they are property customers, after all). Compare this to cities, where theft, recharging, damage, and regulation make scooters a headache. - 🧡 A superior customer experience
Have you ever been to a resort or amusement park? You’re probably spending more time walking than at the attractions themselves. In property businesses, where customer experience is everything, Mount provides the superpower of micromobility. Property owners agree: The solution is already being used at places like Cohabit Avon to help customers get from the attraction’s A to B quickly. - 📈 A word on market size
One area where Mount may fall to traditional rideshare companies is sheer marketsize. When Bird planted themselves in the city of Santa Monica, they made their scooters immediately accessible to the city population of 50k+. In contrast, Mount’s scooters, and their corresponding usage, is limited to the properties that sign with them. We’re interested to see how Mount can grow its business to keep pace with its city-established counterparts.
🎤 Founder’s co
🤝 Get involved with Mount
- Read about Madison in Colorado Inno’s Under 25
- Keep updated through their Instagram
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