In this episode, Oliver and Horace discuss a recent trip that Horace made around Continental Europe and reflect on the changing dynamics of shared micromobility business models. Specifically:

• The core product, regulatory and operational challenges that are constraining shared memo companies

• The differences between being anti-car and pro-micromobility

• The parallels in this market to the mistakes made by the Chinese bikeshare operators, and more historically, the clean tech boom of the late ‘00s.

• Why Bird launching the Cruiser was predictable, what the likely next steps will be in terms of product design and how this tracks the early years of the phone industry

• An update on Horace’s blogpost ‘The Three Eras of Micromobility’

• The three categories of operators we’ve seen emerge: Independent Mega’s (Bird, Lime), Corporate Parent backed (Jump, Motivate) and Independent Minors (Voi, Tier, Bolt, Circ, etc etc.) and how the capital constraints of each impact their ability to innovate.

• How micromobility is not going to be a winner-take-all market

The article on the Three Eras of Micromobility: https://micromobility.io/blog/2019/4/29/the-three-eras-of-micromobility