Mikael Kjellman, an outdoor adventure sports enthusiast, designed the PodRide vehicle in Sweden with the basic idea of creating a weather protected and more comfortable bicycle.
The 70-kg (154-lb) vehicle features four wheels for added stability and a waterproof fabric body mounted on an aluminum frame. It allows drivers to sit at the same height as you would in a conventional small car. Kjellman has been driving it to-and-from work for a year, and found it to be “a very practical and comfortable little vehicle.”\
PodRide has a 250-watt crankshaft engine, augmenting the rider’s pedaling power. Its electric motor allows you to adjust the level of assist, to travel further, easier. One charge of the onboard battery pack should be good for a motor-assisted range of about 60 km (37 miles). It has a top engine speed of around 25 km/h (15.5 mph).
PodRide is road-legal in Sweden and most other countries. It’s narrow enough to fit on regular bike paths, and is classified as an e-bike in Sweden – that means no special licenses or insurance are required in order to use it.
The vehicle comes with ventilation, headlights and an indicator for safer cycling. It features a full LED lighting system, airsprung suspension, 14-speed hub transmission, interior defogging fan, a manually operated windshield wiper, and a rear cargo compartment.
Mikael said: “We drive on both rear wheels and with many gears; it can even take on steep hills and rough terrain.”
“And to get better ventilation in the summer you can open up the lower part of the front window and both the side windows.”
“I use this small electric heater to defrost the windows when parked outside in the winter.”
PodRide will go on sale later this year, with an exact price yet to be confirmed. Check their official website for latest updates.
Startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Actions
Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.
Design principles
Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".
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