Episode #139 - Theo Golditchuk, Founder of Buycycle

Theo Golditchuk, co-founder of Buycycle, explores what it really means to build something from the ground up. Theo shares his journey from growing up in Berlin, Germany, to launching a company in Munich that’s redefining the secondhand bike market. They dive deep into entrepreneurship, leadership, and the emotional highs and lows of starting a company. Theo reflects on risk, identity, the shift from founder to leader, and how staying curious and committed shapes long-term fulfillment. Whether you're a startup founder, athlete, or someone chasing purpose, this conversation is a masterclass in conviction, vulnerability, and building a life you actually want to wake up to.
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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
How's it going everybody? And welcome back to another
edition of the Stupid Questions podcast.
Today on the pod going to be talking with Theo Goldachuck.
He is the founder of Bicycle. You may or may not have seen
them in the past. They are a awesome online
secondhand marketplace for bicycles and parts and a number
of other things. They're growing pretty quick.

(00:23):
Obviously. I've gotten to work with them
and partner with them on a few things.
And I thought, Oh well, it'd be awesome to have Theo on the
podcast. So if you are interested in
checking a bicycle, I'll check out the show notes.
But without further ado, just want to say thank you so much to
Theo and here he is. A phone box and kind of so I
thought it's the best environment to have like
hopefully a quiet atmosphere. Yeah, for sure.

(00:45):
Is it like modular system? Like you just buy some walls and
like set it up? Exactly.
I mean, I can, I don't want to be too loud here, but you know,
there's our offers and you just set up like a small thing here
because in the end, people having calls all the time.
So that's the biggest bottleneckin every office.
So yeah, bought a bunch of thesecabins and I have to say very

(01:08):
expensive for a small room, but anyway, we have it now.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. How?
I guess I should ask first. Where are you at?
Where are you from? Yeah, I am like from Germany,
grew up in Berlin, moved to Munich, the southern part of
Germany, in front of the Alps, beautiful mountains.
So really kind of, yeah, beautiful place to live.

(01:32):
Our office is also Munich, the headquarter, so sitting in the
office right now. Yeah, sweet man, Awesome.
Well, I guess first thing first,thank you so much for taking the
time to jump on. Really looking forward to this.
Business is something I've been involved with now since before
college and entrepreneurship is something still.

(01:52):
I would say that I found out what it actually was relatively
early in my just adulting careerand love it.
Just the different types of people that are involved in
entrepreneurship always brings alot of interesting stories and
whatnot. So thank you so much for taking
the time and looking forward to jumping in with you.
Yeah. Thanks a lot for inviting me,

(02:13):
likewise looking forward. So let me ask you this first
question. It's a little bit of a third
person one and an introspective one, but who is Theo?
Who is Theo? That's a deep one for the start.
So maybe, probably we all got shaped a lot by our like
background, childhood, how we grew up.

(02:33):
So maybe let me start there. Hope I'm not getting too much
into into details. Take as much time as you want
the more detailed. Like, I mean, look who I am is
like I grew up in in in front like next to Berlin, Berlin,
capital of Germany, obviously huge city.
Most of the people knows becauseit's a nice party life.
So the moment you turn 16 and you're legally allowed to drink

(02:56):
beer in Germany and having more,more fun.
But I would say like a pretty normal childhood and pretty
normal, you know, growing up, parents loving family, three
older brothers. So I'm the youngest one probably
also shaping by always try to push a little bit and and on the
one side, you always have to push against the Big Brothers.

(03:18):
On the other side, you can always do what they did, even if
you were younger. So I would say it's like both
sides and and then, yeah, did like my school there and decided
I want to move somewhere else. Most of the people staying in
Berlin because it's a big city, you can do a lot.
Ended up in Munich because I like kind of the the the whole
city and studied here, I would say.

(03:40):
And probably that's the point where I got like, yeah, more and
more involved with the mountains.
When you grew up in Berlin, it'slike flat again.
I was like 1718, finished my school.
It was more like the party life.Joined Munich.
I'm always saying I'm the only guy who went from Berlin to
Munich and not the other way around in Germany.

(04:02):
Ended up here and then I found out a way smaller city, but an
interesting one because you havelike so much opportunity, so
much beautiful nature in front of that.
And that's what I used and that's what I came slowly into
mountain biking, running, more tray running, hiking, ended up
doing my first triathlon and like in a small lake next to

(04:26):
next to the Alps. So kind of really got into this
outdoor space. And that's led me to like the
whole journey of bicycle. I can go in details more, more
later, but I would say that's like kind of my, my, my high
level background story. And I guess I was always
searching for, you know, I was always like curious to do
something else. I didn't want to just do what

(04:46):
everybody else is doing. And probably also something
which led to the bicycle journeythat I found my own way.
I wanted to do things differently.
I wanted to be different than everybody in Munich because
Munich back then now it's a little bit different, but
everybody was wearing a white shirt and I'm more like the guy
who was a little bit more casual, I would say.
So trying to find something different and finding the own

(05:08):
way. And I'm still searching for it,
still on the way. But yeah, I would say in a
nutshell to you. That's a little bit of who you
are. So would you say how early in
life did you start to recognize in yourself the desire to do
things that were entrepreneurial?
I mean, you're always saying, like most of the successful

(05:31):
entrepreneurs didn't turn overnight entrepreneurs that did
it, like from the childhood on, I would say what?
For me, it was a little bit different.
So I always had jobs, I always worked.
I always tried to, you know, getsome money, made some money
where like, you know, gardener in my school days, you know,

(05:54):
when for my like working in restaurants, bars and so on.
So that what I did all the time put together some PCs for big
companies about like kind of funny jobs also.
And so this is like something I did early on and I always try to
see like other opportunities. Like I remember back then my

(06:14):
grandpa had like kind of this like, you know, stamp samples
and I tried to trade it for him because he didn't want to do it
anymore and wanted to make some money off that.
So like small things there. And but it really kicked off I
would say with buy cycle really,because before I always had this
desire of I should do something.But maybe I was like, too, I

(06:37):
wouldn't say too afraid, but I was like going to a normal job.
You know, I was a consultant like a couple of years ago and I
thought, like, I make my career here and I like it so much.
And I worked all the time and I worked all the time for
employees. And I want to continue that
path. But then I figured out like,
shit, if I only have a doubt, I wouldn't have a do it.

(07:00):
So I was the time to really, really moving forward and taking
that step. So I would say it took a pretty
long time for me until I really did this step.
Finally, I always try to, you know, again, having some smaller
hustles, but really like saying now I commit everything into my

(07:21):
own business was kind of not an easy step for me, but I'm super
happy to do that. I did it like a couple of years
ago. Yeah.
Was it scary the 1st when you made that decision to like go
full steam ahead towards something that you had to build
from the ground up? I mean, look, when you're in the
moment, I think you feel like itis scary.

(07:42):
Not really scary is the wrong word.
But you're like, oh, I made a decent amount of money now
because I have a real job and I have all the nice things around
that. And you know, everybody from
your family is telling you, great, you have a nice job and
so on. So you feel like I have some
things already achieved, but I think it's a false feeling.

(08:04):
And then it's like, should I really take everything off and
leave it behind and do somethingdifferent?
And in that moment, it was a difficult decision for me, to be
honest. You know, I kind of feel like,
should I really do that? And then I started to make like
a break at work. And then I was like, after one
month, I'm like, of course I have to do it.
And then so for me, it was like step by step.

(08:24):
So we started by cycle. After two months, I decided, OK,
I take a break at work for one month because I was like, kind
of should I really quit? And then after one week where I
was in the break, I was like, OK, now I have to go out.
And the moment I quit, I was like, why did I even thought
about it one second? It's so clear, it's so easy.

(08:46):
It's the right decision because it's stupid to not do it.
It's more risk from my point of view to not take this
entrepreneurial way than or to do the entrepreneurial way than
to not do it. And why so?
Because you learn so much more, everybody will see that you kind

(09:07):
of even on your CV, it would look better.
You know, it doesn't matter if it's a success or not, but
every, every, every learning, every experience you soak in
will make you so much better in your career, whatever it will be
as an entrepreneur or maybe at one point not, but it's so clear
the moment, at least for me, it was so clear the moment I, I, I

(09:29):
quit my job that looking back now I have to laugh because I
would not, it was stupid to eventhink about it twice.
But yeah, sometimes I think yourperspective is changing the
moment you go to a next step. And I think that's what I
experienced here. So was a not super easy
decision. But in the end I had a full
conviction on bicycle and everything we are doing and the

(09:51):
idea and I thought I have to do it with all the doubts.
The moment you do it, you feel like, at least for me, I felt
like a relief and a complete clearance of of course that was
the right thing to do and not doing it would be the way bigger
risk than doing it. Yeah.
And something interesting there,you talked about perspective

(10:12):
shifts and you know, having a job versus not having the the
real time job. Then as you settled in, you
realize like, oh, the it's a bigger risk for me to not pursue
this. So my question is now we're
coming up on four years that youhave been disconnected from, you
know, the normal job and now you're running this company.
So what are some of the lessons or some of the perspective

(10:35):
shifts that you have had as an individual since you started to
where you sit now? Where where should we start?
Because for me, I would say I'm a, I'm in some sense a
completely different person. And four years ago in some sense
not obviously. I, I hope that I kept my
personality and I didn't change because like external factors

(10:57):
and of course you are learning so much.
So like I mentioned back then, Iwas like kind of saying, OK,
probably more like on the end ofsaying I I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm,
yeah, maybe more conservative and taking risks.
And I do like more typical corporate career way.

(11:20):
And the moment what we discussed, I shifted a change
for me completely. And now I'm like, OK, I, I can
never be like go back to like a normal corporate company
environment. I have to build something else.
And while you're building that, you learn so many things.
You know, you learn that basically risk is just in your

(11:41):
mind. Of course, they're like, if you
go out to the nature on the mountains and you're standing in
front of a Cliff, there's a realrisk of dying if you go down
there. But let's take that out.
I think a lot of the risk is in your mind.
That's what they experienced. I told you, you know, should I
do this step? What happens?
The reality is like I'm, you know, in the beginning of my

(12:02):
30s, luckily healthy, well educated, I don't have to have
material risk. We are like in Germany, which
probably has like the safest society security network ever.
So there is no risk. And I think this perspective
helps you to go faster, to move faster than you start to own a
company. And obviously for me as a

(12:23):
founder and beginning, you're a founder.
And honestly, I think being a founder is pretty, it's natural,
very organic, very normal. You know, you're just like doing
what you do, you build things, you do everything as much as you
can. I have two Co founders.
They build what as fast as they could and we putting together a
product and we're working on it on the daily basis and we try to

(12:44):
execute as fast and as good as possible by ourselves.
And then as bicycle grew and, and, and grew like to like 100
people, which is still a small company, but it's starting to
change to say now you have to build more systems that can
build things. Obviously we're still highly
involved, but you have to let gosome parts.

(13:04):
You have to learn different parts.
You have to be a leader. Now a leader is sometimes not
very natural in my point of view.
You have to tell people, you know, give them feedback, tell
them that could be better. And I always like this.
I, I read a book Berkeley recently where it was like, how,
how would you think about if we go for a beer and with a friend,
you know, he's telling you a joke and the saying like in the

(13:26):
end of the joke, you know, you tell your friend, Hey, the joke
was good, but it could be better.
Please go back, try it, learn a little bit more and try tomorrow
again. That friend will will never go
on a beer with you again becauseyou would say like, you know,
you're like an asshole probably or something like that.
But doing the being a leader, being an CEO being, that's what

(13:50):
you have to do. You have to correct the people
and try to make them better. And obviously don't stop making
yourself better because we have to learn.
I mean, I never built a company before before.
I never built the online marketplace before.
I never built something in the bike space before.
That's everything which I have to learn along the way.

(14:10):
And obviously probably you feel like super driven to learn
faster than the company because you will always be head of your
company and not like pulled by your company because then I'm
quite frankly the wrong person and our board should replace me.
So I think like this mindset of complete openness, I try very

(14:32):
hard sometimes, but try to be asopen as you can, learn as fast
as possible, learn, end up beinga leader, not only a founder,
being a founder again, I think it's very natural being a leader
sometimes not and doing that. And I would say the last four
years was like the beginning of this development.
Obviously still again, small company, minute one, second one

(14:57):
very early. We have to do a million things
to be a really successful company, but that's what I
started to learn more and more, learning more and more.
And I would say that mindset of getting as much information as
possible in to improve myself isprobably I developed way more
over the last four years out of necessity probably exactly.

(15:21):
And I mean, being a founder is also, I can only speak for
myself, but it's puts you in andI was like, you're very happy
with sitting in front of your laptop with the team days in,
days out. And you don't need to do like
fancy vacations or something like that because you feel just

(15:42):
happy by building. And I think that's something I
never experienced to this degreein my life before, which is an
amazing experience to be honest.Yeah.
Would you say that that's like the sense of fulfillment?
It is to a certain degree, you know, I think, I don't know,

(16:03):
maybe this perspective will change in 10 years, I say.
And now I need also more balanceon like on the private side.
I, I, I want to build like the moment, you know, I, I don't
have like kids, for example, maybe that would change and my
perspective on things will change and I'm pretty sure I
will develop myself. And when I'm looking back of

(16:23):
what I said one year ago, I'm kind of of, I didn't know,
sorry, I didn't know shit back then.
Now I feel like I know more. But probably next year I will
look back and say, OK, I was like, probably pretty, pretty,
pretty, pretty. Yeah, I'm not sure back then.
So I think things will change, perspective will change.

(16:44):
But at the moment it's like verymuch fulfilling feeling of
building, enjoying what you do. I have the lack of not only
building a company which is a lot of fun with great people,
which is amazing, but also on a product which I'm passionate
about, biking, sports, and whereyou see a purpose.

(17:06):
Having more people on a bike andmore people on second hand bikes
I think is a very good thing. So this is like a combination
which I'm feel like very, very much.
Yeah, grateful for for having that.
As a leader and you're making decisions and picking strategies
and trying things to further thecompany, do you think that from

(17:30):
that perspective, do you spend more time in your head or in
your heart as a position of a leader?
That's a good question. As as time goes by and as old as
I get, I think more and more with the heart you start for me,

(17:53):
it was like I started, probably you start founding a company by
your heart. There's nothing, at least for
me, it wasn't that we had like abusiness case where we said, oh,
that's market XYZ. There's a special opportunity
which we can only do now. So we have to move very fast.
And I picked the founding team with these three people because

(18:14):
that's exactly what we need to do that.
I think a lot of great companiesare built that way.
For us it was different. It was more like we had a
personal problem. We were looking for second hand
bikes. We had a very shitty experience
on all the local class. You've had marketplaces and we
said we should change something.And we more started it out of a
passion project. So in the beginning was pure
heart. Then the longer you go, you get

(18:37):
like investors on board and you think like, oh, now I have to be
like a more sophisticated company.
Now I have to make sure that we are super number stricken and
obviously you have to, if you can make a decision based on
numbers and KPIs, of course I doit because, well, you know, why
should, why should I not do it? I would be stupid to not do it.
But some big decisions, the mostcrucial decisions are coming

(19:01):
back to your heart. And I think especially in the
beginning, I try to find ways tohave more important decisions
backed up by numbers and be sophisticated about it because
bigger companies are sophisticated about that.
But the reality is like it comesback to your heart again.
And I think I'm starting realizing that more and more to

(19:23):
say you have to conviction, you have to heart the heart got it
got you started back then. And now you have to make some
decisions based on that. Of course, take all the
information you can get in, but in the end, the most important
ones are hard decisions, the small daily decisions.
A lot of them are numbers driven, but that's not the hard

(19:43):
ones. The hard ones are one, the ones
where you where you need your heart.
So I would say both, but probably in Crucible moments
it's like they they're the heart.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I think really when it comes down to it, the the ability to
have endurance in business is more about the belief like the
heart aspect of it because you can.
Believe in the company or believe in yourself or your team

(20:06):
when the numbers don't make sense.
And I'm sure you've probably hadmoments where or maybe you
haven't. But I guess I should just ask,
have you had moments where you thought, oh, maybe the lights
aren't going to stay on for another month?
Like our runway is running out? Have you ever been to that place
where you had to really lean on belief and and passion rather
than the logic of oh boy, we mayhave to shut this down?

(20:29):
Yeah. I mean, of course we had that
and I'm sure we will still have a lot of defining moments
upcoming. But hey, I mean, we remember
like 1 1/2 years ago where we had like a runway of we were
counting the runway in days, notweeks anymore.
And because you kind of know, you know, it's like it's, it's,

(20:49):
it's, it's, it's coming, gettingcloser to an end.
And what I figured out back then, if you have the right
people, at least for me, it was like, I can only speak for
myself, but we had like my greatCo founders, the great early
team back then. And I felt energized.
I felt like, Oh my God, that's exciting.

(21:09):
You know, we have to find solution and we have to find the
solution now. So I feel like in this moment
where you're like doing things out of optimism because you
don't even think about it too much.
And I felt in this moment back then like exactly like that.
And I was like super energized and super excited And we get
everything fixed and we're happyabout it and it made us better.

(21:34):
And you often or not often, but probably often have sometimes
where you doubt sometimes. So you feel like we can we
really make that happen or not. But I feel like coming back to
the point of having that, which is normal, but having a team

(21:56):
around you which shows you what I'm going in the morning to the
office and you see like, of course we can make that happen.
We have the people here. Everybody has enough conviction.
We just push through it and we will find a way.
I think sometimes when you have like moments of doubts, for me
at least, always helps to have like people around and just

(22:18):
looking at them, looking how we are, what we already, what kind
of problems we solved and what kind of capabilities we have in
the room, I feel like, OK, perfect.
We will find a way. I'm 100% sure.
So let's just go for it. And I think that's this kind of,
yeah, defining moments that are upcoming.
And obviously it's always easy to talk like then, like I want

(22:40):
to have years. We had this defining moment and
then we figured it out. And the next one, which will
come in the process. It's don't get me wrong, you
know, it's like sometimes exciting, but it's also painful.
How would you feel like this kind of deep in a pain and you
don't know how how to how to getout of it?
Probably, you know, I, I like todo sports and then I feel like a

(23:02):
little bit better, but and it's deep pain.
But I think that's what also makes it so nice when you
overcome this problem because I mean, no, no, no joy without
suffering. I'm not sure if this is true,
but probably at least when I look back in my life, there's
like something true in that. Yeah, it definitely gives you
more of appreciation for the good times when you've

(23:24):
experienced hard times to 100%. So let me ask you this question.
I think it's a ubiquitous experience for most founders to
go home in the evening and, you know, you're putting your head
on the pillow and then you have just your mind continuing to
race and you've got things you're thinking about.
And sometimes you even come up with business solutions or

(23:44):
strategies kind of halfway asleep when you go home in the
evening. As of lately, what has been the
thing that is taking up the mostmental bandwidth for you?
I mean, there's this, I think interview from Jensen Hong from
NVIDIA, like the NVIDIA founder.And I can relate to that because

(24:04):
I was listening to it and I, I felt like it makes sense.
He was like, I wake up, I work, I go to work, I work, I go home,
I work, I sleep, I work. So I'm always working.
And the reality is like probablythat's true to a certain degree.
It's like I go home and of course I'm still thinking about

(24:27):
work. I'm I'm, I'm, I'm reading a book
and they have like a good passage in the evening.
I'm like, oh God, yeah, it makessense because I can adopt
something to the just because, you know, you have just thought
popping up, I can adopt that. And then I have like this note
thing on my, on my phone where Ihave like, I don't know how many
words now because I'm always typing in the ideas and, and,

(24:48):
and that coming up, you go for arun, you have new ideas and
you're sitting on a table with your family and your ideas.
I think that's probably a good thing because he was constantly
thinking about it. And what I really believe is
like, we built something, we want to build something new and
great. And to do that, you have to

(25:08):
think about it more. You have to put more effort.
And I don't think just being mediocre will help you to build
something great. So you have to be different and
think about it more and wanted more than everybody else.
So I think that's a positive thing.
On the other side, obviously I try to find a balance because
sitting on a family table, everybody's talking to me and
I'm just thinking about my stuffwill probably lead that I'm not

(25:30):
really in the moment and that's what I try to avoid.
So I try to pull myself out of that from time to time.
I'm, I would say I'm not good atit yet, but I try to be better,
pull myself out, be in the moment with the people I love
around me. But of course, having probably

(25:54):
98% of my focus on what I love, what I built.
And at one point, maybe this percentage will change, but like
being in the moment there, beingin the moment there and and then
having this kind of yeah, presence, which is I think the
most important part. And obviously, yeah.

(26:15):
Coming back to your question, it's hard sometimes to defrate
most of the ideas coming not at work, they're coming like when
you do something and just popping up.
But I guess like that's also part of the reality and also the
the the good part. Yeah, so who are the people
around you that you love right now?
I mean, I have like I know if I'm in a partnership with my

(26:36):
girlfriend and obviously she's the one my family, my brothers,
that's the people. I would even say, you know, my
Co founders love is probably between between like male
friendships. Not a word that we're using that
often. But you know, it's like great
guys. We knew each other for like tens

(26:57):
15 years. Build a company.
It's not always easy, you know, of course not, because if you
think about it, it's like you start a company and, and running
a business together is very different from being friends,
very different. And that means that in the
beginning everything is maybe like kind of this dreamy world.
Oh, we build something together,we spend time together.

(27:18):
That's great. But if the first conflicts are
coming, you have to honestly talk about it, give each other
feedback, talk about strength, talk about weaknesses.
And I think that's something we learned to have this honest
conversations and it made our French that was even deeper and
even better because we are now able to talk about uncomfortable

(27:41):
stuff as well. And not only like, hey, you are
my good friend, let's go for a beer, but also like, OK, give it
to me. What can I improve?
You know what, we didn't work sowell last month.
How can we, how can we get better?
What are my weaknesses? Give me this honest feedback.
And I think that's something which we are learning over time.

(28:02):
But while doing that, I think our relationship is even
stronger. And that's like the core thing
about having Co founders that you know, the moment you
overcome this step and you can make that happen, then it's even
more fulfilling to work with them every day.
Yeah, what are some of the aspects or character traits of

(28:25):
your Co founders that you are most thankful for to have in in
this time? Yeah.
I mean, it is, I think the ability to being very, I would
say pragmatic, you know, sometimes we're thinking about
ideas and what can we do? And I'm like, oh shit, we could

(28:47):
do this thing and sometimes talkwith them and they're like,
yeah, OK, let's just do it. I found a way, you know, and
just like kind of bringing a nice idea the moment they are
convinced that's a good idea andbringing it to life very fast.
I think that's like one of the big strength and they're having

(29:08):
being and I think that's something which is great to see
like being always positive and of course things are going good,
things are going bad. You have good days, you have bad
days. But being always positive, being
always like never starting to get into negative emotions and
saying that could happen XYZ. Now being positive about it,

(29:32):
finding a solution, looking forward, having this optimistic
view to the future, finding solutions, being again, very
good and making the solutions, bringing them to life.
I think that's like kind of skill sets they have, but also
just being like you have fun doing around with, honest to

(29:53):
you, never shy of having a conversation, super hardworking.
I think that's something where you feel like you're just like
in a good environment and good people to be with.
Yeah, yeah, Surrounding yourselfwith those types of people too,
it's motivating internally because like, oh, I want to.
I want to make sure I contributeas much, if not more.

(30:15):
It's always a good feeling to know that you can match the
level of output as the people you're working with.
You have to have back and forth.And I think it's like we're
we're for sports team, you know,probably why are these like kind
of high level athletes working together in groups with other
high level athletes and some of the best ones, you know, working

(30:35):
together. Why is that?
I think clearly because you see each other everyday in training
and you're like, OK, I have to get better.
And having that on a daily basis.
The same in business, having great people around you, your Co
founders or great people in yourteam.
And you're like, you should be alittle bit intimidated and

(30:55):
saying, oh, I really have to step up.
I think the moment you don't have that anymore, you should
bring new people in or more people in order, some people
with different skill sets in. And you really feel like I have
to step up my own game to keep up because it's a very positive

(31:15):
thing to see that on a daily basis.
I fully agree. Yeah.
How would you, how would you give advice to someone who,
because I think I think that's uncommon.
Most people whenever they see someone, you know, that would
challenge them to like, oh, I need to step up, that's
uncomfortable. And at that point, they, they're
not the most important person inthe room.
I think that's an important founder trait for successful

(31:37):
people is to have that mindset that, oh, I need to be like the
least smart person in the room and I need to up my game.
Do you think that you can just choose to adopt that kind of
mindset? It's like probably a mix.
I think probably there's like some degree of personality which

(32:01):
is shaped in childhood, early days, early career days, which
gives you this openness or not. But honestly, I think or makes
it may be easier to be that openor not, but it's only to a
certain degree what I think. Everybody can have a choice.
And I always say it's like either when I come in the
morning, I'm like, either you are open today or you're not

(32:24):
open. I don't think there's a lot in
between. Either somebody's coming to me
with an idea and I'm saying, Oh my God, it's a great idea, or
it's not a great idea, but I'm very, very open about it and
have the discussion or I'm like,oh, why didn't I come up with
the idea? Shit, we should not do it, you
know, And the, the second part would be like, I'm close.

(32:44):
The other one is I'm open. And I think it's a decision
which you do situation by situation.
Sometimes you're open, sometimesyou're close.
And I try to make this decision as cautious as possible.
And, and then obviously you're coming to a realization.
If you try to be honest, it's like as a founder, it's the,
it's the fun part. You try to live in the future.

(33:07):
You try to see how the future look likes and how your company
is evolving into this future is a big part of this future.
And if you think about it and say, OK, I mean, obviously we
are here because we believe we can build the biggest
marketplace for second hand bikes and the leading
marketplace globally. So we are like a successful big

(33:29):
company operating globally and connecting millions of people.
What do we have to be for that? And the reality is like, I have
to improve so much otherwise I cannot do that, you know, and,
and, and, and, and if I look at the, I don't know like very
experienced CEO of like $100 billion company, they have like,

(33:52):
of course, they're way further with their skill sets.
And I, I would be. So if I believe that bicycle can
be come to that point and that'swhat I believe.
And if I believe that I want to be the leader of that company
still in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, however, and then I have

(34:14):
to, my realisation is I have to step up.
Otherwise it's impossible. I can just play defence and try
to preserve everything, but thenthe company will not be
successful. And then it's anyway doesn't
matter or I will not be the right person for this company
anymore. So I think this realisation of

(34:34):
try to live in the future, try to see where the company is and
try to see what you have to be to, to, to, to still be in that
point where you want to be is like, OK, I have to be open and
I have to learn as much as possible and I have to get the
best people on board as possible.
Otherwise it will never work out.
And I think that's coming back to your question, long answer,
but it's an active decision thatyour personality can support

(35:00):
maybe a little bit more or less,but it's an active decision you
do everyday. And that's how I think about it.
It's like, come in the morning, do this active decision, be
open, learn, do it and continue.And hopefully I do like I know
you know, I can be make the right decisions on more days
than less days and be open. Yeah.

(35:21):
So you're saying, you know, the vision for a bicycle is to be
the world's leading global secondhand online marketplace
for bikes and parts and things like that and your and your
eyes. When will you have succeeded as
a company at, at reaching that vision?
Or is it, Is it possible to evenreach any type of a pinnacle
where you feel like, oh, we've made it?

(35:43):
No, I honestly, I think the way is the joy, you know, it's like
the fun part is the way to doingthat.
I, I don't think I will ever have this feeling.
We, we made it and, and, and, and we are like now on a point
where that's where we wanted to be.
You can always improve, you know, and that's what I see.
Like sometimes we are small company, but when somebody

(36:05):
starts, it's like, oh, you're already a big company.
How does it feel? And I'm like no tiny company and
it doesn't feel at all like we'dachieved.
Of course we achieved something.We have a great team.
We have some more and more customers using as it's a good
feeling, don't get me wrong. But it has like so much more.
We have to do so much more. We can do so much things that we

(36:27):
are not doing well, so much things that are breaking.
So let's continue doing that. And I think the moment I will
not have this feeling anymore, probably that's the moment where
also I wouldn't be the right person anymore.
So yeah, I want to be on the way.
I want to be on the way as long as I'm the right person to do
that, as long as I enjoy it. I want to connect more and more

(36:51):
people and do that, you know, our ideas, like from my point of
view, the different next hopefully 50 years and and, and,
and, and having fun doing that, surrounding myself with great,
talented people with great personalities and coming closer

(37:12):
to the vision. I, I hope we never reach it, but
coming closer because you never want to reach your target.
You want to always, you know, put it in front of you and
extend it, extend it, extend it.There's always another mountain.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
So at the end of each day, like day by day, when you close your

(37:34):
laptop for the day and you're going home, I know you're still
working kind of upstairs, but what helps you or what makes you
feel like or has given you the confidence to say like I was
successful today as a leader? Yeah, it's a good question
because probably sometimes it's hard to say that because there's
like this famous Andy Grove bookwhere where he's like, OK, as a

(37:56):
as a he talks about leadership and how to be a leadership.
And you're like, I think the quote is going in this direction
like, hey, if you, you are neverfinished, you know, if you you
go home when you are tired, but you are never finished.
I feel that's true because thereare always things that you can
coming back to the earlier questions that you can improve.

(38:20):
But what I try to do is like breaking down different targets,
saying, OK, what is really the one thing I want to get done
today? What are the two things I want
to get done this week? What are the most important
points? Because it's easy to drown in a
flood of emails, small stuff, small problems arising and then

(38:40):
you kind of doing the whole week.
It's very, for me, it's very easy to be the whole week and a
lot of discussions, small thingshappening, but the most
important things for the business I didn't get done
because I was like kind of thrown and all the other stuff.
So pulling myself out and sayingthat's what I have to get done,
defining it clearly and then going home and saying, OK, I

(39:04):
made it, we get it done, this problem is solved, on to the
next one. That gives you this feeling of
like being at home, having a good moment.
But honestly most of the times it's more like this any growths
quote where like I'm tired but Istill have to do more.

(39:24):
But that's that's what I will take her tomorrow.
Yeah. So you talked about wanting to
do this, you know, hopefully for50 years.
Obviously a little exaggerative,who knows if you'll actually do
it that long, but you're definitely settled in to this
perspective of a long term growth, long term leadership in
this company. Like this is your baby.

(39:45):
If for some reason something happened tomorrow where the
business just completely had to shut down, how do you think that
that would affect your own self worth?
Yeah, I think it would affect atthe moment a lot how I see
myself, because in the beginningyou are kind of.
It's an early adventure, but at one point your personality is

(40:07):
obviously a lot. You are the one of the Co
founders of Biocycle and that's like big part of my personality,
biggest part of my life. And so I would probably say it
would affect also how is how I feel myself, how I see myself
about it. It would probably need, I would

(40:30):
need to face where I detach myself again from this journey
and say I'm Theo the person and not the Co founder of bicycle
and I'm going on to like a new adventure or whatever.
So I not really thought about ita lot to be honest, because I
think if you don't have a Plan B, your plan A has to work.

(40:51):
And that's how I think about it with Bicycle.
But obviously I think it would have a big effect.
It would take some time for me to make this transition and to
make that happen. And obviously also I think it
would be better to have more detachment early on to be like

(41:12):
maybe not too much soaked in from time to time or so good to
pull, pull yourself out and makemore strategic decision, focus
on other things. But at the moment, the reality
is like I'm totally combined with the company at least
emotional from my side and it would be very, very hard to just
pull out. What would help, And that's what

(41:35):
I think about a lot, especially in harder times, is if you have
like an environment of people which defining as Tio the guy
and not like the Co front of bicycles.
So when I go to my friends on the weekend and we have like, I
don't know, dinner together and I'm telling them about second
hand bikes, they're like after one second, please, you know,

(41:57):
shut up, which is a very good thing because if they would only
ask me all the time, Hey, how's it going?
Oh really? What was the latest funding
round? Blah, blah, blah, all this
stuff. It would be probably not.
It's a good thing. So I know, you know, we're
followed out by a cycle. I go to the dinner and they want

(42:20):
to talk about different topics and that.
So this is very healthy. I feel this is something I'm
very grateful about. But still emotionally, my
personality is very connected atthe moment with the company and
and and and. I'm not sure if it's a good or
bad thing, probably both. Yeah, I know.

(42:40):
I think it's a little bit of mixture both others and assets
because I had started a a company when I was in college
called Sway. We made it inside of camping
hammocks and I became quickly known or on campus, as you know,
during my college years as the guy who is, oh, you're the
founder of Sway or you're, you know, doing this hammock thing.
And very quickly I felt like that those interactions painted

(43:02):
me into a corner, into a term oflike who I was.
And it was the first time that Ihad done something where people
really showed an outward expression of interest.
So very quickly, I like that became a huge part of my
identity. And then Fast forward down the
road, you know, when COVID came and I decided to kind of to put
that chapter behind me, me, it was very difficult because I had

(43:22):
to realize, like you said, detach myself or what things
were inherent personality traitsand character traits.
And then what things were inherently business traits.
And I realized like, oh, well, alot of the values that I set for
this company, I can't carry thison to whatever I do, But that
was a hard lesson to learn. And like similarly, you know, in
the industry that we find ourselves in with endurance
athletes, so many of those athletes are so heavily

(43:46):
identified in what they do is who they are.
And it makes it very difficult for them to detach post
retirement to figure out what who am I the, you know, Lucy
Charles who, who is Lucy Charleswithout a swimming bike and run?
Who is Michael Phelps without swimming, whatever.
So those journeys are like very fascinating to me.
Yeah, I agree. I think it's like, probably

(44:08):
that's one of the reasons why you think, like after the
retirement, you hear the storiesabout like, people having really
difficulty about it because probably it's a good, good,
yeah. Similar thing to see between
athletes and founders in the business.
It's like, in the end, the same,you know, your identity becoming
part of what you're doing every day.

(44:29):
How long does it take for you tofeel really detached from the
business? It was really, when I, I, for a
long time actually, I had been internally feeling this feeling
of like, I want to do something different.
I, I like this. But you know, for me, success
for me when I was doing that business was, oh, I went to

(44:49):
China, I set up manufacturing. Like that was for whatever
reason in my mind, like I'd madeit.
And I kind of got kind of bored with everything else.
And so for a while I wanted to detach, but I felt like I
couldn't. So but then when I actually
voiced that to my wife, it was in like a Walmart parking lot.
It was actually really difficultbecause I told her like, hey, I

(45:10):
think I'm going to close this down.
And she started crying because for many years, you know, I had
been preaching from the mountaintops, this is going to
be the best and biggest thing ever, right?
And she didn't believe me reallyin the beginning.
And then she had grown to believe in that idea and that
business more than I did. So when I voiced that, it was
able to start detaching at that point.

(45:30):
But then I realized the power ofvision casting just from like
that personal relationship with my wife, because I realized if I
do that with, you know, you know, if I have true passion and
care about something and I do that to other people, they can
really buy into that vision and it becomes a piece of who they
are and you know, what they invest their time in.
And you know, there's a lot to be said there.
So to answer your question specifically, it took a probably

(45:52):
several months, I think. And like you said, you can only
truly experience or appreciate joy if you've gone through the
pain. And I think the pain of learning
that detachment was able to bring back around the joy of,
oh, like I can create something new.
I can, I do have the power to build something, yeah.
Makes a lot of sense, yeah. So let me ask you this question.

(46:15):
What gets you in the zone? Like how do you get in the zone?
That helps you, I guess, to use a buzzword like get in the flow
state or whatever it is to like make you feel like, OK, I'm
really, I'm, I'm locked in now. I'm I'm getting this day going.
Yeah, I would say like probably three things. 1 is like always
having physical activity. I always do sports in the

(46:35):
morning because it gets you kindof okay.
Now I feel ready to be on my laptop for the next however how
many hours it will take. But I think it's like setting
yourself up and then having whatis always good is like having
clear targets or having challenging moments, you know,
and some pressure. So clear targets.

(46:57):
Let's see where you try to make yourself a little bit pressure.
Today we talked about targets. What is a successful day today?
I do that. So we you really push on that
you create maximum urgencies, energy around it.
I think that's part of the job as a founder is like you inject
energy into your team, you create urgency and you try to

(47:19):
level up, be more demanding, tryto get better quality out of the
whole organization. So this is something which I try
to do with myself setting clear targets and we did try to push
it and have urgency on that or obviously having this, like I
mentioned the situation where a runway was counted in days, not
weeks anymore. And I felt like, OK, we have to

(47:42):
find a solution out. There's no way we have not.
What was Singer second? We can not do that now.
I feel like that's moments whereI'm like just in the flow, you
know? It's just, again, sometimes
painful, but most of the times it was fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's really good.
So how would you define personalsuccess as an individual over

(48:04):
the years? I'm sure that that has changed
its definition, but how would you define that that success
changed over time? I mean, it's very, it's very for
me, I'm not so much thinking about, OK, how would I define my
personal success? A lot, to be honest.
And what I would say is like, ofcourse, everybody tried to have

(48:25):
like a happy life and, and, and find like happiness in her or
his life. And for me it's the same like
finding a life which I'm lookingin the mirror in the morning and
saying more often I'm looking forward to the day than saying
oh shit, I'm looking forward to.Myself.

(48:46):
So I think like having that would always already be a good
start. Keep making offensive, bold
decisions. You know, now we did it with the
company, but even at one point in private life, I want to like
maybe make a step more, you know, whatever will change.

(49:07):
I think we we should really try to be always proactive, have
like we have this kind of this framework, which is like
obviously used by a million people is like, OK, when you're
looking back in 50 years, I would be my 80s.
What are the things that are important?
Probably the decision I not make, I would regret more.

(49:30):
So be decisive, do that and try to have a happy life.
Try to make the people around mehappy and not unhappy.
And yeah, I think like what I need for a happy life, that can
change, I think. But it's really about finding
something fulfilling. And I feel at the moment I have

(49:52):
it and I hope I can keep it a lot longer and and, and and and
and doing that a lot longer and having still this feeling of
fulfillment. So yeah, shaping my life in this
direction would be a big personal success for me.
Yeah, I think if anybody can find that that's that's true.
There were happiness and successlies is waking up each morning

(50:12):
and thinking like, oh, I want todo this like I'm excited to go
to work today. My work isn't life my or my life
isn't work. My work is my life in a way that
it's it's positive. Fully and also like on the
personal side, you know, I'm excited to in the evening I meet
like, I don't know, an old friend or something.
I create this environment of work, but also of things like in

(50:34):
a private life, which makes me exciting.
And I forgot who said it, but it's like, again, coming back to
the point when you have like, I don't know, five days in a row
when you say I'm not looking forward to this day, then maybe
it's time to change something. And being honest enough to
yourself of changing stuff, I think that's the hardest, but.

(50:54):
Yeah, yeah, 100% yeah. I think that's an important
thing too, that I wanted to dropthat I forgot earlier when you
were talking about your friends,you know, you said you'd talk
about bicycle and they're like, please, like just let's not talk
about bicycle, let's talk about something else.
I think that's a sign of a true friendship is because even my
closest friends and my best friends, they really aren't
involved in the type of the things that I am in terms of

(51:16):
like triathlon or podcasting or whatever.
But being able to have a deep, meaningful conversation in a
personal conversation around anylife subject, I think is the
sign of a true friend. If you have people that are just
coming to talk to you about the one thing that you're doing
well, chances are they like whatyou're doing more than they like
you like. That's a good distinction.

(51:37):
I fully agree and I think that'slike a very healthy balance.
Also, if you push it very hard on the one side and obviously
you have to, we talked about it earlier, you know, you have to
bring exceptional effort, exceptional performance to build
something exceptional, which would be like kind of a long
lasting company, which is connecting again, millions of

(52:00):
people. So to do that, you have to put
this in and you have to have an imbalanced life.
I think if you have a balanced life, you cannot achieve that
impossible, but still having enough balance of having like an
friends or family which you know, they don't care what you

(52:21):
do on a day. I think it's the same.
I don't have kids, but what I hear like from other farmers,
it's the same experience with kids.
You know, you, you have a very bad day and everybody's angry at
you. You're both screaming at you,
blah, blah, blah. You come home, you, you see your
kids or your wife or your familyand, and, and, and, and, and it
is kind of balance you again, I think I have the same on a

(52:43):
smaller scale, obviously with friends or you have a good day,
you know, you like it. The closest big funding round
and everybody's telling you, Oh my God, you're the hottest start
I have. And how did you do that?
It's so great and you're coming home and you're like, oh, maybe
I'm really great. You know, stop believing that.
And you come home and then you're like, the kids are like
don't want to talk about it. They want to show you like kind

(53:04):
of a small picture of painting or your friends are telling you
don't talk with ballot bicycle. You know, that you saw the last
football match, whatever. And so I feel like this is a
very healthy thing to have. And I hope you know, keeping
that will also keep yourself in balance.
Yeah, there's definitely seasonsto the founders life because in

(53:26):
the beginning, like you're talking about, it's, you know,
to achieve impossible things, you have to give an impossible
amount of time and effort. And then, you know, when you
find traction, then you start moving to it sounds like a
little bit more of the position that you find yourself in where
it's like, OK, now I'm focusing more on process strategy,
working with people. How do I help the people that
I'm working with feel motivated and and excited about going

(53:49):
forward? And then I've seen other
founders who go to take on the chairman role where it's like
now they're spending a lot of time with their family and
they're not as involved with theday-to-day decisions.
And then, yeah, so I think it's definitely a seasonal thing.
It's OK to go through a season of extreme unbalanced work life,
but you know, you have to make asacrifice.

(54:10):
And I think the place that you're in right now, you find
probably that it's the most appropriate time because you're
still, you know, you're in a relationship, but there's no
kids yet and whatnot. So maybe when we're a little bit
older, maybe when by the time we're 80, we'll have that
balanced lifestyle again. Maybe, but then, but I also
think like, honestly, it's like thinking about it and obviously,

(54:31):
you know, let's see what the future will bring.
And, and, and, and found having a family and everything is, I
think, something most of the people want and myself included.
But having an imbalanced life isalso fun, you know, because
you're doing something really deep for full commitment.

(54:52):
And that's something which I enjoy a lot, you know, and
that's what I probably also whenwe're talking about new people
joining and everything, it's like, you know, everybody has to
define have a healthy life. What are the elements to have a
healthy life? I cannot define for you.
Everybody has to define it for for themselves.

(55:13):
We want to embrace that. But also sometimes being fully
committed and all in is like a great feeling.
And I try to, you know, communicate this great feeling,
hopefully in a good way. Yeah, 100%.
Well, you've got a really interesting, I mean I've only
talked to you now for an hour, but I can tell that from the

(55:35):
conversation we have had, it would be really fun working with
you and the founders or the other Co founders and the things
you guys have going on. It seems like the culture is one
that is hard working but healthyin a way and just going after as
much as you can. I, it was cool the other day
getting to see, I was watching some highlights of maybe it was

(55:56):
one of the world Tour stage races.
And then the bicycle ad was up on the right hand corner with
TNT. So that was pretty sweet.
So my question is really quick, like with the, with the
advertising that you guys are doing, what are you finding the
most bang for your buck? Are you allowed to say?
Honestly, yeah, we're happy to talk about it.
It's like TV classical TVI mean,it's like, you know, I would say

(56:21):
younger generations, everybody'slike, yeah, nobody is watching
TV anymore. It's like you go to Netflix or
you go to YouTube or do whatever.
And we thought the same. So for the first three years we
didn't do any. We also didn't have the budget
to be out there, but we didn't do any TV and then we kicked it
off. And part of our TV is also this

(56:43):
kind of video sponsorships of highlights of some welter races.
And we kicked it off the first TV spot.
And it was not like a small increase of, oh, yeah, we see a
little bit over time. It was like, boom, you see the
direct impact. And we were like, oh, fuck, we

(57:03):
found something here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was honestly a very fun moment and something we still
pushing, you know, because for some reason it's still working
for us, even if it's all the medium.
And also it's cool to watch a race and see your TV spot.
Yeah, it's a good feeling for. Sure, yeah, Matthew Vander Pol,

(57:26):
Tata Bagacha and Bicycle on the same frame.
And then it comes in, you know, with slider in.
Yeah, it's like selling by bikes.
So is bicycle going to be the title sponsor for the Tour de
France on NBC this year? Not this year.
I mean, from a fan perspective, I would love to do it.
From an investment perspective, I'm not sure if this is really

(57:48):
the smartest move to do TV is raise.
The whole funding round just forthat ad.
Yeah. I just want that ad and you
know, like kind of I think and there are smarter ways and to do
that TV sports, maybe a very efficient, but like big tighter
sponsorships. Not not I'm not 100% sure if
this is really the smartest way to do it, but maybe at one point

(58:11):
we figure out that we have enough budgets and it makes
sense and then we go for it. And I will definitely
emotionally sitting in front of my TV and be happy about it.
Yeah, for sure. So in the closing questions
here, what is something that youare really excited about coming
up this year? It can be bicycle related, it
can be personal. What is just something that you

(58:32):
were really excited about? I mean, I would have to say
really excited about like not want to go too much into like
our own business, but we launched like kind of
components, accessories, bike paths, stuff around the bike and
we launched it last winter. And obviously winter time is
like kind of the low season for bikes.

(58:53):
And now we see like the first time, the first season where we
have that product and we see howthe development is.
And honestly, it gets like superexcited because we scratching
the surface. We found something which is
extending our existing product. And I would say, yeah, just
working on it, pushing it. It's super exciting finding our

(59:14):
way to achieve a new majority asa as a company, like saying
every year I'm looking back, I'mlike, huh, last year I was
really, I was not really like I changed my mind on a couple of
things. This year's the same and last
year was the same. The year before was the same.
I hope next year's the same. So that's the great thing about

(59:35):
building. That's the great thing about
improving as a company, as myself.
It's like you're looking back and you're like, huh, We are
really thinking about it differently and probably because
we thought about it more and we developed ourself and that's
like the best feeling ever. Good stuff.
So then for a final closing question, a bit of an advice,

(59:56):
one to offer to the listeners. If somebody's looking to better
themselves as an individual, to become just a better human
being, what is some advice that you would give to that person?
I mean, I'm not sure if I'm the right person.
We'll put a disclaimer across the bottom of the screen.
I'm being who is like being a good human being now, But

(01:00:19):
honestly, coming back to my point and what, what I can I
what I can I share from my experience is like you are, I
think it's always better to takea risky decision than to not
take it. I'm not talking again about like
some some crazy climbing stuff or whatever.
You know, everybody has to has to do it by himself.

(01:00:40):
But like the founding moment of bicycle, the clearance, the
clear thought I had, the moment I quit my job and and set all in
bicycle and the clear message ofmyself was like, Oh my God, why
did I even thought about it? Of course I'm doing that.
I think that's something which changed my perspective a lot and

(01:01:00):
which I would always tell everybody, do it, take that
decision, go the more riskier way and, and, and, and, and, and
to really try to find something.You get passionate about it.
You get like excited about it inthe morning.
If you don't have it, try to find it, try something out.
It's never too late and moving in this direction.

(01:01:25):
I think that's something which helped me a lot, which I would
never want to miss as an experience and that's why I
would I always when somebody's asking me, I always try to give
the people that kind of shattered experience do that and
probably, you know, you will notregret it.
You will be happier hopefully afterwards and find something

(01:01:48):
really meaningful for yourself. But you while finding that you
have to make take risk and you have to make also some harder
decisions. Maybe, you know, it's like
whatever, changing the location you live because you find out
that this is not the right placeyou want to be, not the right
activity you want to do. It's sometimes a hard decision,
but sometimes you have to do it.Awesome with Theo, you're a deep

(01:02:11):
thinker. Seem to be pretty cool leader,
got a neat company. Thank you so much for taking the
time, letting me pry into your life a bit and hear about what
you got going on. I really appreciated the time,
the conversation. And yeah, we'll make sure to
link everything bicycle in the show notes for people to check
out. Perfect.
Thanks a lot for the invitation.Was like great fun.
Appreciate it. Thank you.

(01:02:33):
Thank you so much to Theo for coming on the pod and sharing so
much about the company and what he has got going on from an
interpersonal level to a business level.
It was a good opportunity to hear his story and if you guys
know it already, if you don't know it already, I've definitely
said it many times, the businessstories, the founder stories,
entrepreneurship is something I find a lot of joy and passion
talking about South. Thank you, Theo for coming on.

(01:02:56):
If you want to check out the show notes, do so.
You can get connected with bicycle to list your bike on
their website. Check out the code, or excuse
me, check out the link in the show notes to list your stuff
and get 20% off that. Buyer protection, seller
protection, man, I'm all over the place today.
And also, if you want to get 20%off, you can use that code SQ30

(01:03:17):
as well. Yeah, if you guys are watching
on YouTube or listening there, if you could like comment,
subscribe, make sure to hit the notification bell.
If you are listening on Spotify or Apple podcast, if you could
review, comment, leave any of the feedback, it really helps to
continue to go to the podcast. So thank you so much for making
that happen. Again, thank you to Theo for
coming on and also check out theshow notes for the SQ

(01:03:38):
newsletter. All right, that's it.
See you guys in the next one.