August 6, 2024 • 49 mins
I'd like to share the inspiring story of LockStop, a startup founded by Clayton Woodruff and Mike Burton, who are both alumni of the executive MBA program at the Walton College. Their venture stands as a testament to the power of innovative thinking in solving everyday problems — in this case, enhancing urban mobility by simplifying bike security.
The Problem and the Innovative Solution
Imagine riding your bike to a location without worrying about the security of your bicycle or the hassle of carrying a heavy lock. This vision is what drove Clayton and Mike to create LockStop, a company that integrates locking mechanisms directly into existing urban infrastructure, such as bike racks. This system not only eliminates the need for cyclists to carry locks but also provides enhanced security features through a connected app that alerts users to any tampering.
Their prototype, which is simple yet robust, retrofits to existing bike racks and operates via a QR code scanned by the user’s smartphone. This integration of digital technology into physical security represents a leap forward in making cycling a more appealing option for urban transportation.
Entrepreneurial Journey and Development
The inception of LockStop was during their MBA program, where the duo took a class called New Venture Development. This educational environment provided the fertile ground for their idea to germinate. Mike's personal experience of having his bike stolen as a child, combined with a moment of realization at a farmer’s market where he had forgotten his bike lock, seeded the initial concept.
Their journey from idea to prototype involved multiple iterations — from a rudimentary model built from an electric box to sophisticated designs aided by 3D printing and collaboration with a prototype lab. This iterative development process was crucial, as each stage incorporated feedback from various stakeholders, including potential users and city officials.
Community and Environmental Impact
LockStop isn’t just about preventing bike theft; it’s also about promoting a healthier, more environmentally friendly urban lifestyle. By reducing the barriers to cycling, such as theft and the inconvenience of locks, Clayton and Mike envision a future where more urban trips are made by bike, thus reducing carbon emissions and traffic congestion while promoting physical health.
Their system could serve as a model for cities looking to increase cycling rates among residents, as it promises to make biking a more secure and convenient mode of transportation. The potential for collecting data on cycling routes and habits could also aid urban planners in creating more bike-friendly infrastructures.
Challenges and Future Directions
Despite the clear benefits, introducing a new system like LockStop comes with challenges, particularly around adoption and integration into existing urban infrastructures. Convincing municipalities and other stakeholders to adopt this new system involves demonstrating not only its effectiveness but also its ease of installation and maintenance.
Looking ahead, the potential for scaling up LockStop is vast. The technology could be integrated into smart city projects and could attract interest from larger security or outdoor equipment companies looking for innovative urban solutions.
Conclusion
LockStop exemplifies how a simple yet powerful idea can evolve into a potential market disruptor, influencing urban mobility patterns and contributing to the creation of healthier cities. It also highlights the importance of practical education and entrepreneurial spirit in bringing such ideas to fruition.
For anyone passionate about innovation, urban planning, or cycling, LockStop's journey from a class project to a promising startup underscores the limitless possibilities that can emerge from addressing everyday challenges with innovativ
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Matt Waller (00:10):
Welcome to the Matt Waller podcast, where we
look at success at theintersection of technology,
logistics, supply chain, retailand CPG, also known as the
retail value chain.
I want to clarify that thispodcast is distinct from my
responsibilities as a professorin the Sam M Walton College of
Business.
Nonetheless, it aligns with myaspiration to provide practical
(00:31):
insights to professionals andbusiness by showcasing companies
and people that can enhanceyour ability to manage, lead and
strategize and marketeffectively in the retail value
chain.
Before we dive into today'sexciting episode, I'd like to
thank our sponsor, new RoadCapital Partners.
New Road invests in proventechnologies, services and
(00:53):
products that serve unmet needsin the marketplace.
They look for companies insupply chain and logistics, as
well as consumer-orientedcompanies.
For more information, go tonewroadcpcom.
I would also like to disclosethat I am a strategic advisor to
New Road.
I'd also like to recognizepodcastvideoscom for the
(01:18):
services they provide for thesepodcasts.
I'm very pleased with theirservices and now, without
further ado, let's get into theexciting episode.
I have with me today ClaytonWoodruff and Mike Burton, two
co-founders of LockStop, whichsolves an amazing problem.
Wouldn't it be great if youcould ride your bike and not
(01:44):
have to carry a lock with you ifthe lock were just available on
the bike rack?
And imagine, from a city'sperspective or a park's
perspective, that it doesn'ttake a lot of expensive
infrastructure changes to dothat?
Well, you're going to hear areally innovative idea today
(02:05):
that, you know, it's amazing tome.
They just came up with thisidea a couple of years ago.
They've already got a prototypeand they're getting ready to
roll it out and they've got IPprotection on it as well.
It's really interesting.
When you hear about some ofthese ideas, you always think
why didn't someone already thinkof this?
(02:25):
I mean, this has been neededfor decades.
But again, this concept ofriding your bike and not having
to worry about having to evenhave a lock with you I would
love that personally.
And they came up with the ideaand the prototype on how to do
that.
You're going to get to hearthat today.
So if you are a biker, a cityofficial, someone with parks and
(02:53):
rec or a university, I thinkyou'll be interested in
listening to this today.
If you're an investor, I thinkyou'll be interested in this.
If you're interested in how tomake your community healthier, I
think you'll be interested inthis.
If you're interested in how tomake your community healthier.
I think you'll be interested inthis.
So if you're an entrepreneur, Ithink you should listen to this
as well, because you'll learnabout how they have developed
(03:16):
this and what they've done.
Clayton and Mike met in theexecutive MBA program in the Sam
M Walton College of Businessand they took a class called New
Venture Development, where theyhad the opportunity to create a
new company, a new product, newservice, and this is what they
(03:37):
created.
But so Mike had lots ofexperience in the US Marine
Corps over a decade ofexperience.
He also had experience atWalmart as a merchant and at
Sam's Club, and he got lots ofexperience in product management
, which is very helpful for anentrepreneur.
(03:59):
But again, a couple of yearsago they met in the MBA program.
But again a couple of years agothey met in the MBA program and
they met had an incredibleexperience, especially in trail
(04:36):
design.
He worked for a company calledProgressive Trail Design.
He was vice president ofoperations and customer
experience and had been involvedin account management and
project management.
But you can imagine, havingthat experience would be really
(04:58):
relevant to this kind of aproduct.
And on top of that, he's hadother experiences with apparel
companies and technologycompanies, and so you know both
of them together have differentexperiences but very
complementary to what they'retrying to accomplish.
I think you're really going toenjoy this Well.
Clayton and Mike, thank you somuch for taking time to visit
(05:20):
with me today.
Yeah, we appreciate theopportunity to be here Well.
I'm really interested in whatinspired you to create a public
bike locking network and how didyour personal experiences shape
this idea?
Matt Burton (05:38):
You know, matt, it's funny Clayton and I were
just talking about it and Ithink I've effectively
subconsciously been developingthis idea for the past 31 years.
So anyone that's seen me pitchknows that I had my first bike
stolen when I was six years old,this sweet little candy apple
red, you know, 20-inch, huffychrome pegs.
I had it effectively for maybe12 hours, locked it up to the
(06:00):
water meter with this cable lockat night.
Next morning I came back andthe bike was gone.
Where were you living?
So I grew up in Maysville,kentucky.
My family.
So I grew up in this small twobedroom apartment with my mom,
my grandmother and three of mycousins.
So you know we didn't get a lotof new stuff.
So that bike really meant a lotto me.
And so fast forward, you know,25 years walking through
(06:23):
Bentonville's farmer's marketwith my family.
We get to the farmer's market.
We realized really quickly wehad forgotten our bike locks.
And moving to Bentonville fromCalifornia, you obviously bring
a lot with you from California.
There we lock up everything.
I joke that we even lock up,you know, our dogs.
And so we got there.
My wife, you know, hadforgotten the bike locks and so
(06:47):
I stood there the whole timewhile my wife and my kids are
kind of walking around themarket and standing there.
I'm just thinking why is it2021 and I'm still carrying this
heavy bike lock around?
Why isn't there some way Icould just lock my bike?
I'll pay for it.
I just want to pull my bike up,lock it, walk away, and so
that's really where the ideastarted.
That's great.
Dr. Matt Waller (07:07):
So can you tell me a little bit about how the
system works and what makes itdifferent from traditional bike
locks?
Clayton Woodruff (07:14):
yeah.
So I mean a big problem in theindustry is that you know,
either nobody carries a bikelock or they carry one.
That's just like a little cablelock, and we actually had a fun
little challenge last year atthe heartland challenge, where
we did a competition to see whocould steal a bike the fastest.
And we actually took a cablelock, like a really thick cable
lock, locked it up to a bike weactually had the Secretary of
(07:35):
Commerce was there, secretaryMcDonald, and the fastest time
to take a pair of bowl cuttersand clip it and run was seven
seconds.
Are you kidding?
No, the slowest time wasactually 45 seconds, which is
probably to take a pair of bowlcutters and clip it and run was
seven seconds.
Are you kidding?
No, the slowest time wasactually 45 seconds, which is
probably even more staggering.
Needless to say, most peopledon't carry locks that are very
(07:56):
stable or solid.
So you know we kind of joke aswell that we've created the
lightest and most convenientbike lock in the world.
Now, reality is that thingweighs about 25 pounds, but it
actually stays, did you?
show everybody.
Yeah, yeah.
So the whole point of it isthat it actually stays on the
bike rack, so you're not havingto carry this around.
Dr. Matt Waller (08:12):
So that's why this is a public road.
Clayton Woodruff (08:15):
Exactly, and it retrofits to existing bike
infrastructure.
So we're not trying to re-emitthe wheel and try to do a lot of
construction, we're just saying, hey, bike racks are there.
They're everywhere, actually,and almost all cities have a
mandate to where, if you make abusiness or anything, you have
to have bike parking, so we canturn almost anything into into a
bike lock at this point, sotell me about this piece of
(08:37):
equipment.
Dr. Matt Waller (08:37):
Yeah, absolutely so it's.
Clayton Woodruff (08:39):
It's pretty simple.
I mean honestly.
You just you're able to justlike walk up, it turns on QR
code, kind of similar to how youwould do Macro Mobility
Rideshare you just scan, itactivates the lock.
Just lock it up and then you'reon your way.
It's all fully app enabled.
There's no keyholes.
There's really no way to breakinto it, you know, aside from
like a pair of pliers and ablowtorch kind of thing.
(09:01):
But we also have notificationsystems we've built into it.
This is the other beauty of it,beyond just your personal bike
lock, Because it's at an actualbike rack and it's
battery-powered ordirect-powered.
It allows us to build inbasically a tripwire system.
So if somebody tried to grindthrough it or anything, it would
set off an alarm at the rackand send you a notification.
(09:24):
Wow, and so you don't get thatlevel of security with the
personal bike lock so now thatyou're right, that's a big
difference.
Dr. Matt Waller (09:31):
But would cutting through this thing here,
that's yeah.
Would that be harder than justa cable?
Clayton Woodruff (09:38):
absolutely so.
This is tempered steel, so thatthen you know if you have
enough time you're going to beable to get through it right.
You can grind through justabout anything if you have
enough time.
But the problem is that mostpeople just carry little cable
locks which you can clip withhardly anything.
It doesn't take much.
You cannot clip these withcable locks or with bolt cutters
at all.
So the only way you couldeffectively get through this is
(10:00):
with a grinder, and that's wherehaving a notification system
built into it.
And then we're even exploringactually being able to directly
connect with police departments.
So it would.
It would immediately send thepolice department notification.
So just like you know yoursecurity system at home, you can
.
It sends a notification ifanybody tries to, you know, open
the door or break in in any way.
(10:21):
We'll have the same sort ofsecurity.
Dr. Matt Waller (10:23):
Well, you know these just taking a lot.
You were talking aboutforgetting to bring your lots
with your family.
It's a hassle.
I don't like carrying around alot personally, and I do forget
them.
Now we're lucky because we livein Bentonville, where it's
(10:44):
pretty safe.
I've got a Allied gravel bike,abel, which is fairly expensive.
It's not the most expensive butit's expensive and I actually
don't lock it.
If this were available, Icertainly would do it.
If this were available, Icertainly would do it, but I
just I don't want to carryaround lock Now in some cities I
(11:08):
take it to.
I will absolutely, butNorthwest Arkansas, especially
Bentonville and Rogers, aresuper safe.
But so tell me, how do you seelockstop contributing to the
creation of a healthier city?
Matt Burton (11:29):
in general.
Yeah, you know, one interestingstatistic that's out there
right now is 40% of the tripsthat we take are within two
miles of their destination.
You know.
So imagine if we were toreplace one of those trips each
week, so effectively taking 52bike trips a week or bike trips
a year, that's effectively likeplanting a tree and allowing it
(11:50):
to grow for 10 years.
That's the carbon offset there.
Now you take into consideration, you have over 50 million
riders in the United Statesalone Like think about how large
that forest is and so morepeople on bikes, less people in
cars, less congestion, lesscarbon and happier people,
healthier people.
You know, it's been proven outthere.
(12:10):
The more that you ride yourbike well, the stronger your
cardiovascular system is.
It decreases the risk of heartdisease.
Mental health is another bigproponent here.
People that are riding theirbike.
It's been proven that they'rehappier, they're healthier, they
release more endorphins intheir bloodstream.
So, realistically, we'reoffsetting the carbon, but we're
(12:31):
putting happier people back outinto the community.
Dr. Matt Waller (12:34):
I've noticed when I ride my bike home after
work and I'm maybe who knowswhere I am at the time and I've
changed.
We lived in Fayetteville for 28years and moved up to Rogers two
years ago but you know, itmight take me, let's say, 45
(12:56):
minutes to ride home, dependingon where I was coming from, and
sometimes it would be pretty hotweather, sometimes it was cold
weather, sometimes it was great,and sometimes it would be
pretty hot weather, sometimescold weather, snow is great.
But in any case, I noticed thatand I have four kids and they're
all out now, but back when theywere home I noticed that after
(13:18):
riding my bike home after work Iwas more present with them.
In other words, it was like abreak, because one problem I
always have is coming home andI'm thinking about I should have
said this, I should have donethis, I didn't get enough done.
That's kind of stuff that'salways going through my mind.
But when I would ride my bikeand it was nice because on the
(13:42):
greenway I was mainly riding onthe Raz, on the Greenway I was
mainly riding on the ReserveBack Greenway, you know you've
got trees and grass and fieldsand streams and it's just so
refreshing.
Clayton Woodruff (13:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Burton (13:57):
You know I was a Marine for a long time so 12
years I was in the Marine Corpsand one of the things I would do
before I come home is I wouldtake my boots off at the door,
and so that allowed me theopportunity to kind of leave my
day behind.
And that's effectively the waythat we see bike riding.
It's the way to leave yourboots at the door.
You know you've had a long day,maybe it's stressful.
You know it's given you theopportunity to unlace your boots
(14:19):
, take them off on the way home,so by the time you're meeting
with your family or friends, youknow they're getting the best
version of.
You know Matt Waller, mikeBurton and Clayton Woodruff.
So just gives you thatopportunity, and that's what we
want to extend to everyone, youknow, by kind of lowering this
barrier of entry for riding.
Dr. Matt Waller (14:35):
Well, you know, I love this idea of you know
you've taken a problem andturned it upside down, right,
because now, with your approach,you don't have to take your
luck with you.
To me, from a user perspective,that's huge, right.
I mean, if I knew a certaincity or location had an ability
(15:04):
to do this, certain city orlocation had an ability to do
this, I would be more inclinedto do things there on my bike
than if I had to take my bike,my lock, with me, which it's
interesting because this kind ofis a way a city could get a
competitive advantage in termsof outdoor activity.
But when I look at yoursolution okay, conceptually, I
(15:27):
like this.
Right, you don't have to takeyour luck with you.
That's cool.
Okay, now I'm looking at thisit looks complicated.
So I'm curious could you talk alittle bit about the challenges
you faced in developing theprototype?
Clayton Woodruff (15:43):
Yes, there has been many challenges.
This thing started.
Mike actually found a photo theother day and sent it to me, of
multiple versions of ourprototypes, which literally
started off with an electricalbox from Home Depot that he
built with his 8-year-old sonovernight during a mentorship
weekend at New VentureDevelopment, the U of A.
(16:04):
So that was the prototypenumber one, and then we went to
a 3D printed prototype that wasclear that we literally painted
in a bathroom at a hotel at apitch competition in Canada the
day we pitched.
And I know you know SarahGoforth, she was a fun story
(16:25):
there she was kind ofencouraging us not to do it for
the pitch, not to use it becausewe were literally building it
that day.
And she's like if it goes wrong, it doesn't work and we're like
we're doing it, we weredetermined to do it and we did
it and it worked Absolutely.
Do not look inside of it.
It was a bunch of stuff shovedin there we had for our
(16:46):
notification system and thealarm we literally had a little
like mobile alarm thing and hehad it behind his back.
So when we showcased it, thewizard of all the alarm it goes
off, sarah's mouth goes to thefloor.
Uh, that's reinterpreted.
I think we ended up winningthat competition, uh, so,
anyways, and that.
And then we had another 3Dprinted version.
(17:06):
But, honestly, the beauty of itfor us is that we got connected
with the U of A and they werejust starting out Beta
Bentonville, which is theprototype lab up here in
Bentonville, and we were numberone on the list.
So we worked heavily with themover the last year and it's been
just completely integral to usactually going from, you know,
an electric box to what you seehere.
(17:28):
And while it does lookcomplicated and internally there
are some complicated factors toit, uh, the fact is is that we
actually designed it relativelysimple.
Everything in here is out ofthe box, so there's not a lot of
very customized, you knowcomplicated things.
That keeps the cost down.
Keeps the cost down.
If anything breaks, it's easyto order.
Um, we even I don't I can'ttake the back plate off, but if
(17:51):
we took the back plate off,you'd be able to see what we
call our nintendo cassette,because the whole internals of
this thing is literally in thiscassette that you can just slide
in and slide out.
So if we have to do any repairs, you don't have to like take it
apart and unhook all theselittle things.
You just slide this cassetteout, you know, blow on it like
the Nintendo and slide it backin and then, in terms of just
(18:12):
usage, you know we've had I'vehad my 19 year old son.
I had him use it, you know,unsolicited, just like hey, go
use the app, do it, and he waslike, oh yeah, that's pretty
simple.
I've had.
You know, I had, I think my momused it the other day.
So it's very similar.
If you've done any of thescooter shares, the app layout,
ui is very similar.
So it's something that peopleare used to.
That was obviously veryintentional.
(18:34):
You know it's like and we haveour little scan lock live.
You know it's a three-stepprocess.
So while it looks complicated,it's actually relatively simple.
Matt Burton (18:56):
So could you speak to a little bit about how the
entrepreneurial ecosystem inNorthwest Arkansas has supported
your journey?
So I mean, without being there,none of this would have been
possible.
Clayton and I worked, you know,together over the last couple
of years.
So without one of us, you know,the idea wouldn't have come to
fruition.
And so, starting in new venturedevelopment, that's really
where we got some steam there.
(19:17):
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, new venture development.
You know, working with SarahGoforth, David Henton down there
, I think their confidence inour vision is really what gave
us confidence in our own vision.
You know we went into thisrealistically as grad students,
thinking, hey, we need to have abusiness in order Because you
were both in the MBA program.
Dr. Matt Waller (19:38):
We were yes, and you took this new venture
development as a course in the.
We were just trying to get an Areally, yeah, really yeah, yeah
, that's how it started off.
Matt Burton (19:47):
It's like, okay, we need to have a business so that
we can go through new venturedevelopment.
He and I both, um, you know,did our graduate courses down
there, and then we added ontheir certificate of
entrepreneurship, which, youknow, allowed us to participate
in the new venture development,partnering up with, you know,
the team down there at theoffice of entrepreneurship, and
so, you know, working with usall the way from understanding
(20:08):
how to develop the business plan, understanding, you know, who
our customer base would be, youknow what our go-to-market
strategies would be.
And so we spent, you know, alot of time on the front end
really doing the research inorder to build this really solid
foundation.
And, you know, then we had theopportunity to circulate this
idea on the pitch circuit.
So we were accepted into somepitch competitions, the first of
(20:31):
which was at Ivy BusinessCollege in Ontario, canada, and
so we take this idea that we haddeveloped you know, we had
written a business plan behindit.
Well, now we have theopportunity to share our vision
with people outside of just newventure development not just
outside of new venturedevelopment, but outside of the
country.
And so we go to Ivy BusinessSchool.
We pitch the competition thereand then we end up winning the
(20:53):
entire competition.
And I think that's really whenClayton and I kind of looked at
one another and thought, okay,this may be real.
And so he and I really startedinvesting a lot of our time
there, and so we continue toiterate on what our plan would
be, started investing a lot ofour time there, and so we
continue to iterate on what ourplan would be, you know, again
prototyping different devicesthere.
(21:14):
And then we got accepted intoanother business competition in
Manitoba, canada, for the StuClark New Venture Development, I
think is what it's called.
And so we went there and again,we were really successful in
the elevator pitch and wereceived a lot of positive
feedback from the judges.
So then we just continued todevelop this idea and refine it
and we put it in front of asmany people as we possibly could
.
And you know you're going tothese pitch competitions, so you
(21:34):
have this really robust networkof judges and mentors that are
providing you.
You know all of the feedbackthat they possibly can.
They're punching holes in yourstory, your business plan, your
go-to-market strategy.
So each one of those holes thatwe identified we just kind of
filled with data and then, youknow, went back to the drawing
board how do we make this betterand better and better?
(21:57):
And then we came back and wecompeted in the Heartland
Challenge and you know, we had agreat experience there,
especially in the startup studioor the startup I can't recall
what it was, but it was astartup competition there, where
that's where we did the biketheft competition.
And, you know, then wecirculated the idea there and we
just continued to develop it.
We had the opportunity to pitchat the Governor's Cup and
received a lot of feedback.
(22:18):
And then we put it in front ofthousands of bike riders at Bike
Fest.
You know, here in BentonvilleAgain, that entrepreneurial
network where we have, you know,kenny Belay, with Bike Fest
bringing this great experienceto Bentonville thousands of
riders from all over the country, and they had the opportunity
to lay eyes on it.
So what we did is we listened.
We listened to what our mentorswere saying, we listened to
(22:41):
what the professionals weresaying and, most importantly, we
listened to what the riderswere saying and we took back
each one of those little bits ofinformation and continued to
develop the product that's goingto give that experience.
You know that, that they reallyneed and what they want how
many competitions have youcompeted?
five.
I think our last competitionwas in bangkok, thailand.
(23:02):
You're kidding?
Yeah, so we competed at theassassin school of business, of
Business.
Did you physically go?
We?
Clayton Woodruff (23:07):
physically went.
We flew 35 hours.
Matt Burton (23:10):
It was quite a trip .
Yeah, it was terrible.
It was a terrible trip there.
No one wants to spend that muchtime on a plane, but again,
clayton and I spent all thattime on the plane working
through our pitch and trying tofigure out additional ways to
make this a value add to anyonethat's going to use it.
Dr. Matt Waller (23:28):
You're talking about listening to people, and
you've been doing that a lot.
For what?
Two years now?
Yeah, two years.
You have personal experiencesand biases, but how valuable has
it been really listening to allthese different people?
Clayton Woodruff (23:49):
Yeah, I mean, I came from the bike world, so
I've actually worked in the bikeindustry for over eight years
and so for me, you know, when wemet and we started talking
about this, you know I was like,oh okay, I could see this.
I've been, you know, I'veridden my bike all over the
world and and I've just seen thesame exact problem over and
over again.
Uh, and you kind of mentionedBentonville, where we're
fortunate here.
So actually, when we first met,I was like I'm not sure people
(24:11):
are going to care around here,because you go outside of the
hub bike lounge you'll see$100,000 in bikes not locked.
But we started setting up$100,000 bikes, $100,000 in
bikes.
Oh right, you're out, that's.
You're an owl, that's probably$9,000.
You have 10, 20 of those.
No, not $100,000.
(24:32):
I'll wait to see what that onelooks like, but anyway.
So we obviously started talkingto people.
Customer discovery is probablythe key part of any new venture
and that's one of the thingsthat was drilled into us through
GORB, as well as New VentureDevelopment and, honestly, even
in Bentonville we found thateven all those people that don't
lock their bikes, they'reworried about it and they're not
(24:54):
, you know, locking their bikes,running inside, hanging out
forever without going out andchecking on it.
And we had a good idea as, likea marketing ploy was like you
know, what you should do is youshould give somebody $3,000 and
have them go set it outside andthen go inside for an hour and
see if they're comfortable,which is essentially the same
thing.
And 3000 is even low for someof those bikes.
(25:15):
So really, back to the mainpoint here is that you know, we
just listened to what people hadto say.
You know what their thresholdwas in terms of even, you know,
paying for something like this.
You know what their concernswere with riding and really, as
you even said, a lot of it justcomes down to that peace of mind
as well, as people that arelike you know what I won't stop
(25:36):
at places because I don't havemy lock.
And if you're riding fromdowntown Bentonville you're
riding on bike trails and allthat.
You're not going to carry alock.
So really you are kind ofmissing out on a lot of cities
or, in particular, missing outon a lot of revenue
opportunities.
Dr. Matt Waller (25:52):
Can you tell me more about the upcoming beta
test and official launch inAugust?
Clayton Woodruff (25:58):
Yeah, so we're launching on August 3rd we're
going to do a launch party atthe Hub we're going to set up in
Bentonville.
So we're, like I said, we're inproduction right now of 75
units.
We'll have 20 by then and thenwe're going to roll the rest out
throughout August.
So we're about to do kind of analpha test so just limited
users here in the next week orso, and that's where we'll
(26:20):
really test out our app kind ofwork out the kinks and the bugs,
and then with our beta tests wereally want to get you know
it'll be available publicly.
We'll have the app availablepublicly.
We just want to get as manypeople connecting to it, giving
us feedback.
You know, understanding it isstill beta.
We're still working throughsome of the kinks on the app,
but with us being local and ableto manage any of the issues
(26:41):
personally, that will help a lot.
But the big point of it is just, you know, it's a novel idea.
So we're kind of having to showpeople something new and
something that they haven't donebefore, and so we kind of have
to retrain a little bit Like,hey, you know, now you have a
lock that you can use or youdon't need to worry about
carrying a lock, because we'rehere to you know, cover you.
Dr. Matt Waller (27:00):
So one thing that occurs to me is that the
intellectual property or IP,here is really important.
How do you protect your IP?
Clayton Woodruff (27:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So early on we knew we wantedto protect this.
In all the pitch competitionsit comes up a lot what's your IP
, how are you protecting it?
So we immediately submitted fora provisional patent.
That was last year.
We've since submitted for anon-provisional patent.
So our patent is around themounting bracket system.
So we have a unique mountingbracket that retrofits to
(27:29):
existing bike racks, which is ahuge part of our value prop.
It also includes, kind of ournotification system and the
inner workings of the lockitself.
So really we will be protected.
Dr. Matt Waller (27:44):
You know once we're fully patented, we'll be
protected from any other newentrants.
Well, and you're protected nowto some degree, right, because
you have a patent and a pen date.
Absolutely Well, that's great,congratulations, thank you.
The other thing that occurredto me as you were talking and
I'm so glad you have that IPprotection the other thing that
occurred to me is how do yousell this?
(28:05):
You know, selling bike lotstoday is different than what
you're going to have to do tosell bike lots.
Matt Burton (28:13):
Yes, it's definitely challenging and you
know that's something thatClayton and I've, you know,
whiteboarded over and overbecause it's a novel idea.
There's nothing to patternmatch against.
You know, when I was a buyer atWalmart, it was really easy to
understand how you're going toprice an item.
You find a like item, youundersell you know that item and
you have instant demand.
Well, anytime that you'redealing with a novel idea, we
(28:34):
have to really whiteboard outwhat our customer is willing to
pay.
And again, it's listening tothe customers and we have a few
different customers here.
You know, our end goal here iswe want people to see lockstop
as a utility.
So the pipe dream is that we gointo municipality and they
subsidize, you know, thisservice for the riders because
you subsidize the security andyou have more people on your
(28:56):
bikes.
And if you have more people onyour bikes you have less people
on your vehicles and then youhave those healthier, greener
cities.
But we understand, you knownovel ideas are hard to adopt
early stage.
So, clayton and I, what we'vedecided is we're going to hold
the upfront inventory.
So we've invested ourselves inthis, you know, in our vision
and in our idea to manufacturethe first 75 devices so that we
(29:18):
can put those out in thecommunity, allow the riders to
interact with them, and thenwe're very confident that those
riders, their voice, is going tobe heard from the community,
especially when what we can dois the data that we're able to
collect with this device.
Now we're able to map out the,the rider routes, where are our
riders actually riding through acity?
(29:39):
And that data is reallyimportant to city planning
because city planning, we haveideas about how our riders ride
through our communities.
But those are ideas.
And so now we can take thatdata and we can overlay it with
our current infrastructure, orthe lack thereof, and develop
that infrastructure aligned torider behaviors.
So initially we're, you knowwe're handling all of the
(30:00):
upfront costs with manufacturingand you know the monthly
payments that are required, youknow, to keep these devices
connected to the internet.
But what we really see happeningis, as more riders interact
with this device, well, thatmodel flips.
Now the cities and thebusinesses come to us and say,
(30:20):
hey, how can we bring lock-stopto our communities so that our
riders are riding like they doin Bentonville, bike lock free?
And so initially it'll be aservice charge, so unfortunately
we'll have to charge the ridersup front at first.
So it's a dollar to activateand five cents a minute for so,
for less than $4 an hour, you'reable to go secure your bike
(30:44):
while you're in having a coffeeor a beer or you're going to
church or whatever it may be.
But, yes, eventually're able togo secure your bike while
you're in having a coffee or abeer or you're going to church
or whatever it may be.
But, yes, eventually we expectto partner with a lot of these
municipalities or corporationsthat want to underwrite the
ability for our communities tohave this type of experience and
this type of security.
Dr. Matt Waller (31:02):
Clayton, let me ask you a little bit about
competition.
This is a great idea.
I had never heard of it until Iheard of it from you two, and I
liked it right away when Iheard it.
It's one of the reasons why Iinvited you on my podcast.
I mean, this is a great examplehow personal experience,
(31:32):
combined with listening to lotsof people, helps you identify
opportunities in the marketplace.
And there's, you know.
Again.
It's another example, too, ofhow there's no end to innovative
ideas.
Right, absolutely, yeah.
I mean, no one thought aboutthis last year, 10 years ago or
20 years ago, but it was neededthen too, so it's pretty neat.
But one other idea that came tome is that there may be
competition out there already.
(31:53):
Sure.
Clayton Woodruff (31:54):
So, yes, there is competition.
And you know we first kickedthis off when Mike first had
this idea.
It actually kind of startedwith him looking at it.
You know he was saying, hey,this doesn't exist, I'm just
going to be the person to bringit here from somewhere else.
And so there's a company out ofSan Francisco called Bike Keep.
Funny enough, there actually isa rack in Crystal Bridges.
(32:15):
But the problem is is it's afull infrastructure.
I mean it's a big bike rack andit has this big swing arm that
comes down and it costs about 25grand for five bikes.
And there's another company outof New York city called Uni
that actually has a you knowcrate.
I mean it's a big enclosedsystem.
So while it's kind of coolcause you can, you know you get
(32:38):
in, it's got like sliding doorsand you walk in it's probably
half a million dollars.
And so you're having to dothese big infrastructure changes
.
And in my job, when I worked inthe trails world, in the biking
world, I worked withmunicipalities.
And there's one thing Idiscovered with municipalities
they typically don't have bigbudgets and it's very hard to
get them to spend it.
So trying to come into a cityand say, hey, you already have
(33:02):
bike racks, but let me just ripthose up.
You can drop $30,000, putanother one in here Versus us,
where we're saying, at leastright now we're saying let us
just put them here.
You know, we don't have to takemoney to at the beginning,
we'll get our money from the,from the end customer.
I mean, we've already talked tothe city of Fayetteville and you
know they were like absolutelyyeah, just come on.
(33:23):
And they just have kind of aracist open arms to say you can
turn any bike rack into that.
So that's where we reallydifferentiate from the
competition out there is thatagain, we're not trying to do
this big infrastructure change.
We're saying we have bike racks, people don't carry their locks
(33:43):
.
Let's bridge the gap here.
Let's create something thatretrofits to all these different
types of racks that are outthere.
And you know, easy, it takesless than five minutes to
install this.
With the right tools and you'reon your way.
Dr. Matt Waller (33:56):
You know the other place that this.
So when I was dean of theWalton College, one of a part of
my vision was to make studentshealthier, not just more
academically knowledgeable, etcetera, et cetera, but to really
(34:17):
help them be healthy.
I mean, I'm pretty passionateabout that.
I was dean for eight years.
I maybe made some progress, Itried, but I would.
I maybe made some progress, Itried, but I would have liked to
(34:38):
have done more.
But one challenge we had.
So we actually had in theWalton College because, you know
, we've got access to theGreenway, we have the
Fayetteville Traverse, whichgives you access to almost all
of the living spaces in oraround Fayetteville, so you can
access it from your bike.
We started attracting people tothe U of A because of this and
(35:03):
especially in the businessschool because, as you all know,
you come out of the businessschool building, take a left, go
down to the corner.
You know, 50 yards from thebusiness school building there's
a world-class mountain bikingcourse right there.
So you know, not far fromFayetteville, you've got gravel,
you've got mountain biking,you've got road biking, you've
(35:27):
got biking on the greenways, youhave pump tracks, bmx, we've
got everything around here right.
So we started noticing thatthere were more and more
students coming to the businessschool, not just because it's a
great business school, but alsobecause of the biking aspect.
(35:51):
I thought this is so fascinating.
Who could have ever guessedthis would happen?
Especially, I got here 30 yearsago.
I mean, there was nothing.
I mean there was no trails thatI didn't know of.
Maybe there were, kessler.
Kessler was the only one.
It was.
Clayton Woodruff (36:04):
Kessler, which was illegal, I know.
Dr. Matt Waller (36:10):
I know, but now the infrastructure is so much
better than it was.
But one problem that we stillhad, because I thought I want to
build out this idea One problemwe had was the safety of the
bikes, because bikes get stolena lot and it's not just on
(36:31):
campus.
I mean, you know, one of mykids got their bike.
They were living in anapartment not too far from
campus, real close to campus,and someone stole their bike.
They must have cut the bikelock because it was locked.
But this happens so much youwouldn't believe it.
I mean, I'm sure you wouldbelieve it.
Yes, I do believe it.
Matt Burton (36:52):
There's 2 million bikes stolen across the US.
Oh is it?
Yes, maybe yeah.
Effectively every 30 seconds abike's stolen.
So I don't know how long we'vebeen recording, but there's been
a few bikes stolen just duringthe time of this podcast.
Dr. Matt Waller (37:08):
Well, you know, and and we live in one of the
safest areas of the countrythere's not a lot of crime here,
right?
You know, I can't imagine.
I mean, you know, I've knownpeople that have gone to wash
you and st louis, and problemthere's, they'll steal the whole
car, you know, not just thebike.
Yeah, uh, I wonder, I wouldthink there's.
(37:29):
So you addressed the competitoraspect, and so one of your
benefits is essentially, thebarrier to entry is a lot lower
for a municipality to get it,but I think a campus would be
interested in this as well.
And many other things arestarting to come to mind as I'm
(37:51):
talking.
But going back to thecompetition, that leads me to
think a little bit about whatkind of companies would be
interested in buying yourcompany or IP as a result of
this, or IP as a result of this.
Matt Burton (38:09):
Yeah, and I think that's something that we've been
on the hunt for, because ourgrand vision is to get this
scaled across the country asquickly as we can, and with our
small team right now we realizethat that's impossible.
So acquisition would be greatfor us in the fact that now we
have the opportunity to scalepretty rapidly.
And you have some you know bigbike lock companies that are out
(38:29):
there.
You have big security companiesthat are out there.
You think Abus, a really youknow significant player in the
game.
You have Kryptonite, anothersignificant player in the game.
But then you think outside ofjust cycling infrastructure or
cycling security at all.
I mean, you think about ringdoorbells and you think about
all these security solutionsthat are out there, and it's
just a natural integration withthe devices that they already
(38:53):
have in the market.
This is effectively an IOT walkif you look at it that way, and
so there are a few differentcompanies out there that we do
believe that would be interestedin acquiring us once we have
the devices out there that theysee the riders that are
interacting with them, and wehope to continue to explore that
avenue as we get down the roada bit further.
Dr. Matt Waller (39:17):
How has your partnership as co-founders
really contributed?
I know I've been involved inthe investment community one way
or another for a long time, youknow.
I know there are some venturecapital firms and even seed
funding type companies that theyreally would prefer co-founders
(39:44):
rather than a single founder.
Would you mind speaking?
Matt Burton (39:48):
to that?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's funny.
Clayton and I talk about thisall the time.
It's effectively like we livein the same mind at this point,
clayton and I, I think we'veseen each other at least five
days a week for the last twoyears, and when you spend that
much time with any one person,it's almost embarrassing at a
point, because I think we wereat the stage where we're
(40:08):
finishing one another sentences,and so I mean finding a great
co-founder for this venture wasan absolute necessity.
I can't imagine doing it alone.
It would have been impossibleto do that.
You know, clayton and I bothbring our own value to the table
, and one thing that we've beenable to do is learn to argue
(40:30):
effectively.
We have very critical candor.
He and I may have differencesof opinions on things, but then
what we do, similar to amarriage, we say, hey, here's my
opinion, here's your opinion,but what is best for the
business and what's best for ourcustomer?
And so Clayton and I are bothbringing different perspectives.
Because I've not been in thecycling industry I very much am
(40:51):
a reflection of the communitythat I live in.
I lived in Hawaii andCalifornia for a number of years
, so you wouldn't have seen meon a bike, I would have been out
in the ocean surfing.
So then, when I come to thiscommunity and I have this idea
after being on the bike, well,clayton has this very robust,
you know, set of experiencesthat he brings to the table and
a lens that would take medecades, you know, to build and
(41:15):
be able to look through.
So I think having you know twopeople as co-founders on one
business is a necessity at theleast.
Clayton Woodruff (41:24):
Yeah, I mean it's.
It's critical to our success,absolutely Like Mike said.
I mean we talk all the time.
I'm pretty sure I talked to himmore than I talked to my wife,
you know I don't think she'ssuper happy about that, but
she's always like who's that?
Mike?
Yeah, but you know, I mean justbeing able to work through
these ideas, bounce these ideasoff each other.
I mean we're constantly youknow, hey, what about this?
(41:45):
I mean Mike is an ideas guythrough and through.
I mean obviously brings robustknowledge on the financial side
as well, and this is experienceand product.
And you know, walmart.
Dr. Matt Waller (41:57):
So you had experience in product I do.
Matt Burton (42:00):
Yes, I've been very specific in how I've curated my
experiences.
You know understanding whatwe're trying to do with lockstop
, so I've really tried tobackfill my experience to make
sure that we're ready to meetthe market.
So I spent a couple of years asa buyer for Walmart where I
managed an automotive categorythat was nearly a half a billion
dollars, and so I felt prettyconfident there that, hey, I
(42:21):
understand the business aspect,and so it came out to lock stop
full time.
But I realized I was stillmissing something there, and
that was really the productdevelopment.
And so I worked at Sam's Clubfor a short time in product
management there, and thoseexperiences and the knowledge
that I gained were instrumentalto making sure that not only do
(42:43):
we understand the financials,but now we can understand how to
link each one of thosefinancial metrics to a roadmap
so, as we're continuing torelease to the public, we know
which features are going to addthe most value, that are the
lowest cost, and we can get tothe market, you know, sooner
rather than later.
So building up each one ofthose experiences to make sure
that when we got to this point,no-transcript.
(43:22):
So not only are you having thatconvenience and security.
But now we're going to add somefun factors in there.
And then we've also exploredopportunities, even with the
bolder law enforcement, aboutintegrating directly into the
law enforcement network so wecan provide real-time alerts to
their law enforcement partners.
So if there is a crime in place, well now we can have direct
(43:45):
response to what's going on inthat area.
Dr. Matt Waller (43:50):
Kylie, you're investing your own money in this
, but to scale up, you're goingto need additional money.
What are your thoughts on that?
Matt Burton (44:00):
Yes, we do need additional capital.
Anytime that you have a hardwarecomponent, there's a large
capital expenditure up front.
And, you know, when you'reworking through the model that
we've developed right now, youknow cash flow is obviously a
challenge to you know.
We need to find one of thosepartners, someone that
(44:21):
understands the vision, but notjust the vision, but they can
sit down and look at thefinancial opportunities and say,
not only are we bringingsomething that's going to create
these healthier, greenercommunities, but we're also
making a solid investment.
So right now, as we go into thefall and after we release this,
that's exactly what we'relooking for.
We're looking for thoseinvestment partners preferably,
(44:45):
you know, within our community,because this idea started at a
Bentonville farmer's market andI tell Clayton all the time, I
would absolutely hate to leavethis community to generate the
capital necessary to scale.
So that's what we're going tobe looking for through August
3rd.
You know who are thoseinvestors that are ready to
partner and, you know, help usto scale this vision across the
country and then, you know,eventually across the world.
Dr. Matt Waller (45:06):
Let's suppose I work for a parks authority for
a city and we're consideringthis.
Matt Burton (45:15):
What's your pitch to me.
You know I think Bentonville isa great model.
You know we've done a great jobhere of connecting cycling with
the economic impact, and ourgoal in Benville is to get more
people on bikes.
Well, we know one of the topbarriers to riding your bike is
theft and having a safe space tolock your bike.
(45:36):
We've already discussed manypeople either forget their lock
at home, or they forget thecombination, or they forget the
key, or lose the key, if you'relike me.
And so what our goal is here isto remove one of those barriers
of entry, perhaps the greatestbarrier, which is having your
bike stolen.
How many people do you know thathave had a bike stolen and then
they go back to the market thenext day to buy another bike?
(45:59):
It doesn't happen.
You know, you have thisterrible experience.
You know, as you mentionedearlier, you're riding on.
You have this really joyfultime when you're going from work
to home and then you get there,you lock up your bike and the
next morning it's gone.
Well, where do you?
How are you going to get towork that day?
You're going to get in your car, right, and then we do what we
practice, which is right beingin our vehicles.
(46:21):
So a lot of folks that havetheir bikes stolen don't ever
get that second bike.
And though in Bentonvillebiking and cycling very much is
a leisure activity, there are alot of places around our country
and around the world where thisisn't just leisure.
This is a means oftransportation, this is a way
that someone goes from theirhome to their place of work and
that place of work that'sgenerating the income to take
(46:44):
care of their families, and sofor us, bike theft is a terrible
experience, but for them it'san impact to their livelihood.
So for us it's removing thatbarrier of entry to biking, but
also keeping those folks thatare using this as a mode of
transportation.
Clayton Woodruff (46:59):
We're keeping the bikes in their possession
and really the big piece of thistoo, you know, beyond just
being able to secure your bikebecause that's what it does
really well is the data.
So, as you know a city official, you will have access to direct
rider data so you'd be able tosee where they're going, how
long they're staying there.
And one thing that's not youknow out there currently is that
(47:22):
direct economic impact ofcycling.
We've used a lot of differentdata points for that, but
nothing is quite as good as whatwe're doing, because if you're
parked outside of a restaurant,chances are you're probably
eating there.
Not to mention, anotherstatistic is that people that
ride or walk to coffee shops orbars or restaurants actually
spend more time there, whichinevitably equates to more money
(47:43):
.
So when you're driving, you'regoing to go in, go out, done,
but when you're riding you are,you're going to hang out, you
know, and there's nothing betterthan a long ride and then just
hanging out and having a beerafterwards.
That's why, if you go by thehub and you know on a Sunday or
Saturday, it's packed.
So that's really kind of thebeauty of all of this.
I mean, security is the numberone thing, of course, but what's
(48:05):
behind it is even more, not tomention the opportunity for
advertising.
If you're like Visit Benville,for instance, they're always
trying to advertise, trying topromote.
Well, now they have theopportunity to advertise in
other networks.
So they can advertise inDurango and Boulder and all
these bike cities around thecountry, and they know that if
they're advertising through us,that's somebody that's on a bike
(48:27):
.
So you're getting down thatfunnel a lot further than they
would normally be able to getjust with the data that they
currently have.
Dr. Matt Waller (48:35):
Well, Clayton and Mike, thank you so much for
joining me today.
I really appreciate it.
Matt Burton (48:40):
Thank you for having us.
Yeah, we absolutely appreciatebeing here.
Thank you for having us.
Dr. Matt Waller (48:43):
Yeah, we absolutely appreciate being here
.
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(49:26):
mattwallerpodcastcom.
Welcome to the Matt Waller podcast, where we
look at success at theintersection of technology,
logistics, supply chain, retailand CPG, also known as the
retail value chain.
I want to clarify that thispodcast is distinct from my
responsibilities as a professorin the Sam M Walton College of
Business.
Nonetheless, it aligns with myaspiration to provide practical
(00:31):
insights to professionals andbusiness by showcasing companies
and people that can enhanceyour ability to manage, lead and
strategize and marketeffectively in the retail value
chain.
Before we dive into today'sexciting episode, I'd like to
thank our sponsor, new RoadCapital Partners.
New Road invests in proventechnologies, services and
(00:53):
products that serve unmet needsin the marketplace.
They look for companies insupply chain and logistics, as
well as consumer-orientedcompanies.
For more information, go tonewroadcpcom.
I would also like to disclosethat I am a strategic advisor to
New Road.
I'd also like to recognizepodcastvideoscom for the
(01:18):
services they provide for thesepodcasts.
I'm very pleased with theirservices and now, without
further ado, let's get into theexciting episode.
I have with me today ClaytonWoodruff and Mike Burton, two
co-founders of LockStop, whichsolves an amazing problem.
Wouldn't it be great if youcould ride your bike and not
(01:44):
have to carry a lock with you ifthe lock were just available on
the bike rack?
And imagine, from a city'sperspective or a park's
perspective, that it doesn'ttake a lot of expensive
infrastructure changes to dothat?
Well, you're going to hear areally innovative idea today
(02:05):
that, you know, it's amazing tome.
They just came up with thisidea a couple of years ago.
They've already got a prototypeand they're getting ready to
roll it out and they've got IPprotection on it as well.
It's really interesting.
When you hear about some ofthese ideas, you always think
why didn't someone already thinkof this?
(02:25):
I mean, this has been neededfor decades.
But again, this concept ofriding your bike and not having
to worry about having to evenhave a lock with you I would
love that personally.
And they came up with the ideaand the prototype on how to do
that.
You're going to get to hearthat today.
So if you are a biker, a cityofficial, someone with parks and
(02:53):
rec or a university, I thinkyou'll be interested in
listening to this today.
If you're an investor, I thinkyou'll be interested in this.
If you're interested in how tomake your community healthier, I
think you'll be interested inthis.
If you're interested in how tomake your community healthier.
I think you'll be interested inthis.
So if you're an entrepreneur, Ithink you should listen to this
as well, because you'll learnabout how they have developed
(03:16):
this and what they've done.
Clayton and Mike met in theexecutive MBA program in the Sam
M Walton College of Businessand they took a class called New
Venture Development, where theyhad the opportunity to create a
new company, a new product, newservice, and this is what they
(03:37):
created.
But so Mike had lots ofexperience in the US Marine
Corps over a decade ofexperience.
He also had experience atWalmart as a merchant and at
Sam's Club, and he got lots ofexperience in product management
, which is very helpful for anentrepreneur.
(03:59):
But again, a couple of yearsago they met in the MBA program.
But again a couple of years agothey met in the MBA program and
they met had an incredibleexperience, especially in trail
(04:36):
design.
He worked for a company calledProgressive Trail Design.
He was vice president ofoperations and customer
experience and had been involvedin account management and
project management.
But you can imagine, havingthat experience would be really
(04:58):
relevant to this kind of aproduct.
And on top of that, he's hadother experiences with apparel
companies and technologycompanies, and so you know both
of them together have differentexperiences but very
complementary to what they'retrying to accomplish.
I think you're really going toenjoy this Well.
Clayton and Mike, thank you somuch for taking time to visit
(05:20):
with me today.
Yeah, we appreciate theopportunity to be here Well.
I'm really interested in whatinspired you to create a public
bike locking network and how didyour personal experiences shape
this idea?
Matt Burton (05:38):
You know, matt, it's funny Clayton and I were
just talking about it and Ithink I've effectively
subconsciously been developingthis idea for the past 31 years.
So anyone that's seen me pitchknows that I had my first bike
stolen when I was six years old,this sweet little candy apple
red, you know, 20-inch, huffychrome pegs.
I had it effectively for maybe12 hours, locked it up to the
(06:00):
water meter with this cable lockat night.
Next morning I came back andthe bike was gone.
Where were you living?
So I grew up in Maysville,kentucky.
My family.
So I grew up in this small twobedroom apartment with my mom,
my grandmother and three of mycousins.
So you know we didn't get a lotof new stuff.
So that bike really meant a lotto me.
And so fast forward, you know,25 years walking through
(06:23):
Bentonville's farmer's marketwith my family.
We get to the farmer's market.
We realized really quickly wehad forgotten our bike locks.
And moving to Bentonville fromCalifornia, you obviously bring
a lot with you from California.
There we lock up everything.
I joke that we even lock up,you know, our dogs.
And so we got there.
My wife, you know, hadforgotten the bike locks and so
(06:47):
I stood there the whole timewhile my wife and my kids are
kind of walking around themarket and standing there.
I'm just thinking why is it2021 and I'm still carrying this
heavy bike lock around?
Why isn't there some way Icould just lock my bike?
I'll pay for it.
I just want to pull my bike up,lock it, walk away, and so
that's really where the ideastarted.
That's great.
Dr. Matt Waller (07:07):
So can you tell me a little bit about how the
system works and what makes itdifferent from traditional bike
locks?
Clayton Woodruff (07:14):
yeah.
So I mean a big problem in theindustry is that you know,
either nobody carries a bikelock or they carry one.
That's just like a little cablelock, and we actually had a fun
little challenge last year atthe heartland challenge, where
we did a competition to see whocould steal a bike the fastest.
And we actually took a cablelock, like a really thick cable
lock, locked it up to a bike weactually had the Secretary of
(07:35):
Commerce was there, secretaryMcDonald, and the fastest time
to take a pair of bowl cuttersand clip it and run was seven
seconds.
Are you kidding?
No, the slowest time wasactually 45 seconds, which is
probably to take a pair of bowlcutters and clip it and run was
seven seconds.
Are you kidding?
No, the slowest time wasactually 45 seconds, which is
probably even more staggering.
Needless to say, most peopledon't carry locks that are very
(07:56):
stable or solid.
So you know we kind of joke aswell that we've created the
lightest and most convenientbike lock in the world.
Now, reality is that thingweighs about 25 pounds, but it
actually stays, did you?
show everybody.
Yeah, yeah.
So the whole point of it isthat it actually stays on the
bike rack, so you're not havingto carry this around.
Dr. Matt Waller (08:12):
So that's why this is a public road.
Clayton Woodruff (08:15):
Exactly, and it retrofits to existing bike
infrastructure.
So we're not trying to re-emitthe wheel and try to do a lot of
construction, we're just saying, hey, bike racks are there.
They're everywhere, actually,and almost all cities have a
mandate to where, if you make abusiness or anything, you have
to have bike parking, so we canturn almost anything into into a
bike lock at this point, sotell me about this piece of
(08:37):
equipment.
Dr. Matt Waller (08:37):
Yeah, absolutely so it's.
Clayton Woodruff (08:39):
It's pretty simple.
I mean honestly.
You just you're able to justlike walk up, it turns on QR
code, kind of similar to how youwould do Macro Mobility
Rideshare you just scan, itactivates the lock.
Just lock it up and then you'reon your way.
It's all fully app enabled.
There's no keyholes.
There's really no way to breakinto it, you know, aside from
like a pair of pliers and ablowtorch kind of thing.
(09:01):
But we also have notificationsystems we've built into it.
This is the other beauty of it,beyond just your personal bike
lock, Because it's at an actualbike rack and it's
battery-powered ordirect-powered.
It allows us to build inbasically a tripwire system.
So if somebody tried to grindthrough it or anything, it would
set off an alarm at the rackand send you a notification.
(09:24):
Wow, and so you don't get thatlevel of security with the
personal bike lock so now thatyou're right, that's a big
difference.
Dr. Matt Waller (09:31):
But would cutting through this thing here,
that's yeah.
Would that be harder than justa cable?
Clayton Woodruff (09:38):
absolutely so.
This is tempered steel, so thatthen you know if you have
enough time you're going to beable to get through it right.
You can grind through justabout anything if you have
enough time.
But the problem is that mostpeople just carry little cable
locks which you can clip withhardly anything.
It doesn't take much.
You cannot clip these withcable locks or with bolt cutters
at all.
So the only way you couldeffectively get through this is
(10:00):
with a grinder, and that's wherehaving a notification system
built into it.
And then we're even exploringactually being able to directly
connect with police departments.
So it would.
It would immediately send thepolice department notification.
So just like you know yoursecurity system at home, you can
.
It sends a notification ifanybody tries to, you know, open
the door or break in in any way.
(10:21):
We'll have the same sort ofsecurity.
Dr. Matt Waller (10:23):
Well, you know these just taking a lot.
You were talking aboutforgetting to bring your lots
with your family.
It's a hassle.
I don't like carrying around alot personally, and I do forget
them.
Now we're lucky because we livein Bentonville, where it's
(10:44):
pretty safe.
I've got a Allied gravel bike,abel, which is fairly expensive.
It's not the most expensive butit's expensive and I actually
don't lock it.
If this were available, Icertainly would do it.
If this were available, Icertainly would do it, but I
just I don't want to carryaround lock Now in some cities I
(11:08):
take it to.
I will absolutely, butNorthwest Arkansas, especially
Bentonville and Rogers, aresuper safe.
But so tell me, how do you seelockstop contributing to the
creation of a healthier city?
Matt Burton (11:29):
in general.
Yeah, you know, one interestingstatistic that's out there
right now is 40% of the tripsthat we take are within two
miles of their destination.
You know.
So imagine if we were toreplace one of those trips each
week, so effectively taking 52bike trips a week or bike trips
a year, that's effectively likeplanting a tree and allowing it
(11:50):
to grow for 10 years.
That's the carbon offset there.
Now you take into consideration, you have over 50 million
riders in the United Statesalone Like think about how large
that forest is and so morepeople on bikes, less people in
cars, less congestion, lesscarbon and happier people,
healthier people.
You know, it's been proven outthere.
(12:10):
The more that you ride yourbike well, the stronger your
cardiovascular system is.
It decreases the risk of heartdisease.
Mental health is another bigproponent here.
People that are riding theirbike.
It's been proven that they'rehappier, they're healthier, they
release more endorphins intheir bloodstream.
So, realistically, we'reoffsetting the carbon, but we're
(12:31):
putting happier people back outinto the community.
Dr. Matt Waller (12:34):
I've noticed when I ride my bike home after
work and I'm maybe who knowswhere I am at the time and I've
changed.
We lived in Fayetteville for 28years and moved up to Rogers two
years ago but you know, itmight take me, let's say, 45
(12:56):
minutes to ride home, dependingon where I was coming from, and
sometimes it would be pretty hotweather, sometimes it was cold
weather, sometimes it was great,and sometimes it would be
pretty hot weather, sometimescold weather, snow is great.
But in any case, I noticed thatand I have four kids and they're
all out now, but back when theywere home I noticed that after
(13:18):
riding my bike home after work Iwas more present with them.
In other words, it was like abreak, because one problem I
always have is coming home andI'm thinking about I should have
said this, I should have donethis, I didn't get enough done.
That's kind of stuff that'salways going through my mind.
But when I would ride my bikeand it was nice because on the
(13:42):
greenway I was mainly riding onthe Raz, on the Greenway I was
mainly riding on the ReserveBack Greenway, you know you've
got trees and grass and fieldsand streams and it's just so
refreshing.
Clayton Woodruff (13:56):
Yeah, yeah.
Matt Burton (13:57):
You know I was a Marine for a long time so 12
years I was in the Marine Corpsand one of the things I would do
before I come home is I wouldtake my boots off at the door,
and so that allowed me theopportunity to kind of leave my
day behind.
And that's effectively the waythat we see bike riding.
It's the way to leave yourboots at the door.
You know you've had a long day,maybe it's stressful.
You know it's given you theopportunity to unlace your boots
(14:19):
, take them off on the way home,so by the time you're meeting
with your family or friends, youknow they're getting the best
version of.
You know Matt Waller, mikeBurton and Clayton Woodruff.
So just gives you thatopportunity, and that's what we
want to extend to everyone, youknow, by kind of lowering this
barrier of entry for riding.
Dr. Matt Waller (14:35):
Well, you know, I love this idea of you know
you've taken a problem andturned it upside down, right,
because now, with your approach,you don't have to take your
luck with you.
To me, from a user perspective,that's huge, right.
I mean, if I knew a certaincity or location had an ability
(15:04):
to do this, certain city orlocation had an ability to do
this, I would be more inclinedto do things there on my bike
than if I had to take my bike,my lock, with me, which it's
interesting because this kind ofis a way a city could get a
competitive advantage in termsof outdoor activity.
But when I look at yoursolution okay, conceptually, I
(15:27):
like this.
Right, you don't have to takeyour luck with you.
That's cool.
Okay, now I'm looking at thisit looks complicated.
So I'm curious could you talk alittle bit about the challenges
you faced in developing theprototype?
Clayton Woodruff (15:43):
Yes, there has been many challenges.
This thing started.
Mike actually found a photo theother day and sent it to me, of
multiple versions of ourprototypes, which literally
started off with an electricalbox from Home Depot that he
built with his 8-year-old sonovernight during a mentorship
weekend at New VentureDevelopment, the U of A.
(16:04):
So that was the prototypenumber one, and then we went to
a 3D printed prototype that wasclear that we literally painted
in a bathroom at a hotel at apitch competition in Canada the
day we pitched.
And I know you know SarahGoforth, she was a fun story
(16:25):
there she was kind ofencouraging us not to do it for
the pitch, not to use it becausewe were literally building it
that day.
And she's like if it goes wrong, it doesn't work and we're like
we're doing it, we weredetermined to do it and we did
it and it worked Absolutely.
Do not look inside of it.
It was a bunch of stuff shovedin there we had for our
(16:46):
notification system and thealarm we literally had a little
like mobile alarm thing and hehad it behind his back.
So when we showcased it, thewizard of all the alarm it goes
off, sarah's mouth goes to thefloor.
Uh, that's reinterpreted.
I think we ended up winningthat competition, uh, so,
anyways, and that.
And then we had another 3Dprinted version.
(17:06):
But, honestly, the beauty of itfor us is that we got connected
with the U of A and they werejust starting out Beta
Bentonville, which is theprototype lab up here in
Bentonville, and we were numberone on the list.
So we worked heavily with themover the last year and it's been
just completely integral to usactually going from, you know,
an electric box to what you seehere.
(17:28):
And while it does lookcomplicated and internally there
are some complicated factors toit, uh, the fact is is that we
actually designed it relativelysimple.
Everything in here is out ofthe box, so there's not a lot of
very customized, you knowcomplicated things.
That keeps the cost down.
Keeps the cost down.
If anything breaks, it's easyto order.
Um, we even I don't I can'ttake the back plate off, but if
(17:51):
we took the back plate off,you'd be able to see what we
call our nintendo cassette,because the whole internals of
this thing is literally in thiscassette that you can just slide
in and slide out.
So if we have to do any repairs, you don't have to like take it
apart and unhook all theselittle things.
You just slide this cassetteout, you know, blow on it like
the Nintendo and slide it backin and then, in terms of just
(18:12):
usage, you know we've had I'vehad my 19 year old son.
I had him use it, you know,unsolicited, just like hey, go
use the app, do it, and he waslike, oh yeah, that's pretty
simple.
I've had.
You know, I had, I think my momused it the other day.
So it's very similar.
If you've done any of thescooter shares, the app layout,
ui is very similar.
So it's something that peopleare used to.
That was obviously veryintentional.
(18:34):
You know it's like and we haveour little scan lock live.
You know it's a three-stepprocess.
So while it looks complicated,it's actually relatively simple.
Matt Burton (18:56):
So could you speak to a little bit about how the
entrepreneurial ecosystem inNorthwest Arkansas has supported
your journey?
So I mean, without being there,none of this would have been
possible.
Clayton and I worked, you know,together over the last couple
of years.
So without one of us, you know,the idea wouldn't have come to
fruition.
And so, starting in new venturedevelopment, that's really
where we got some steam there.
(19:17):
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, new venture development.
You know, working with SarahGoforth, David Henton down there
, I think their confidence inour vision is really what gave
us confidence in our own vision.
You know we went into thisrealistically as grad students,
thinking, hey, we need to have abusiness in order Because you
were both in the MBA program.
Dr. Matt Waller (19:38):
We were yes, and you took this new venture
development as a course in the.
We were just trying to get an Areally, yeah, really yeah, yeah
, that's how it started off.
Matt Burton (19:47):
It's like, okay, we need to have a business so that
we can go through new venturedevelopment.
He and I both, um, you know,did our graduate courses down
there, and then we added ontheir certificate of
entrepreneurship, which, youknow, allowed us to participate
in the new venture development,partnering up with, you know,
the team down there at theoffice of entrepreneurship, and
so, you know, working with usall the way from understanding
(20:08):
how to develop the business plan, understanding, you know, who
our customer base would be, youknow what our go-to-market
strategies would be.
And so we spent, you know, alot of time on the front end
really doing the research inorder to build this really solid
foundation.
And, you know, then we had theopportunity to circulate this
idea on the pitch circuit.
So we were accepted into somepitch competitions, the first of
(20:31):
which was at Ivy BusinessCollege in Ontario, canada, and
so we take this idea that we haddeveloped you know, we had
written a business plan behindit.
Well, now we have theopportunity to share our vision
with people outside of just newventure development not just
outside of new venturedevelopment, but outside of the
country.
And so we go to Ivy BusinessSchool.
We pitch the competition thereand then we end up winning the
(20:53):
entire competition.
And I think that's really whenClayton and I kind of looked at
one another and thought, okay,this may be real.
And so he and I really startedinvesting a lot of our time
there, and so we continue toiterate on what our plan would
be, started investing a lot ofour time there, and so we
continue to iterate on what ourplan would be, you know, again
prototyping different devicesthere.
(21:14):
And then we got accepted intoanother business competition in
Manitoba, canada, for the StuClark New Venture Development, I
think is what it's called.
And so we went there and again,we were really successful in
the elevator pitch and wereceived a lot of positive
feedback from the judges.
So then we just continued todevelop this idea and refine it
and we put it in front of asmany people as we possibly could
.
And you know you're going tothese pitch competitions, so you
(21:34):
have this really robust networkof judges and mentors that are
providing you.
You know all of the feedbackthat they possibly can.
They're punching holes in yourstory, your business plan, your
go-to-market strategy.
So each one of those holes thatwe identified we just kind of
filled with data and then, youknow, went back to the drawing
board how do we make this betterand better and better?
(21:57):
And then we came back and wecompeted in the Heartland
Challenge and you know, we had agreat experience there,
especially in the startup studioor the startup I can't recall
what it was, but it was astartup competition there, where
that's where we did the biketheft competition.
And, you know, then wecirculated the idea there and we
just continued to develop it.
We had the opportunity to pitchat the Governor's Cup and
received a lot of feedback.
(22:18):
And then we put it in front ofthousands of bike riders at Bike
Fest.
You know, here in BentonvilleAgain, that entrepreneurial
network where we have, you know,kenny Belay, with Bike Fest
bringing this great experienceto Bentonville thousands of
riders from all over the country, and they had the opportunity
to lay eyes on it.
So what we did is we listened.
We listened to what our mentorswere saying, we listened to
(22:41):
what the professionals weresaying and, most importantly, we
listened to what the riderswere saying and we took back
each one of those little bits ofinformation and continued to
develop the product that's goingto give that experience.
You know that, that they reallyneed and what they want how
many competitions have youcompeted?
five.
I think our last competitionwas in bangkok, thailand.
(23:02):
You're kidding?
Yeah, so we competed at theassassin school of business, of
Business.
Did you physically go?
We?
Clayton Woodruff (23:07):
physically went.
We flew 35 hours.
Matt Burton (23:10):
It was quite a trip .
Yeah, it was terrible.
It was a terrible trip there.
No one wants to spend that muchtime on a plane, but again,
clayton and I spent all thattime on the plane working
through our pitch and trying tofigure out additional ways to
make this a value add to anyonethat's going to use it.
Dr. Matt Waller (23:28):
You're talking about listening to people, and
you've been doing that a lot.
For what?
Two years now?
Yeah, two years.
You have personal experiencesand biases, but how valuable has
it been really listening to allthese different people?
Clayton Woodruff (23:49):
Yeah, I mean, I came from the bike world, so
I've actually worked in the bikeindustry for over eight years
and so for me, you know, when wemet and we started talking
about this, you know I was like,oh okay, I could see this.
I've been, you know, I'veridden my bike all over the
world and and I've just seen thesame exact problem over and
over again.
Uh, and you kind of mentionedBentonville, where we're
fortunate here.
So actually, when we first met,I was like I'm not sure people
(24:11):
are going to care around here,because you go outside of the
hub bike lounge you'll see$100,000 in bikes not locked.
But we started setting up$100,000 bikes, $100,000 in
bikes.
Oh right, you're out, that's.
You're an owl, that's probably$9,000.
You have 10, 20 of those.
No, not $100,000.
(24:32):
I'll wait to see what that onelooks like, but anyway.
So we obviously started talkingto people.
Customer discovery is probablythe key part of any new venture
and that's one of the thingsthat was drilled into us through
GORB, as well as New VentureDevelopment and, honestly, even
in Bentonville we found thateven all those people that don't
lock their bikes, they'reworried about it and they're not
(24:54):
, you know, locking their bikes,running inside, hanging out
forever without going out andchecking on it.
And we had a good idea as, likea marketing ploy was like you
know, what you should do is youshould give somebody $3,000 and
have them go set it outside andthen go inside for an hour and
see if they're comfortable,which is essentially the same
thing.
And 3000 is even low for someof those bikes.
(25:15):
So really, back to the mainpoint here is that you know, we
just listened to what people hadto say.
You know what their thresholdwas in terms of even, you know,
paying for something like this.
You know what their concernswere with riding and really, as
you even said, a lot of it justcomes down to that peace of mind
as well, as people that arelike you know what I won't stop
(25:36):
at places because I don't havemy lock.
And if you're riding fromdowntown Bentonville you're
riding on bike trails and allthat.
You're not going to carry alock.
So really you are kind ofmissing out on a lot of cities
or, in particular, missing outon a lot of revenue
opportunities.
Dr. Matt Waller (25:52):
Can you tell me more about the upcoming beta
test and official launch inAugust?
Clayton Woodruff (25:58):
Yeah, so we're launching on August 3rd we're
going to do a launch party atthe Hub we're going to set up in
Bentonville.
So we're, like I said, we're inproduction right now of 75
units.
We'll have 20 by then and thenwe're going to roll the rest out
throughout August.
So we're about to do kind of analpha test so just limited
users here in the next week orso, and that's where we'll
(26:20):
really test out our app kind ofwork out the kinks and the bugs,
and then with our beta tests wereally want to get you know
it'll be available publicly.
We'll have the app availablepublicly.
We just want to get as manypeople connecting to it, giving
us feedback.
You know, understanding it isstill beta.
We're still working throughsome of the kinks on the app,
but with us being local and ableto manage any of the issues
(26:41):
personally, that will help a lot.
But the big point of it is just, you know, it's a novel idea.
So we're kind of having to showpeople something new and
something that they haven't donebefore, and so we kind of have
to retrain a little bit Like,hey, you know, now you have a
lock that you can use or youdon't need to worry about
carrying a lock, because we'rehere to you know, cover you.
Dr. Matt Waller (27:00):
So one thing that occurs to me is that the
intellectual property or IP,here is really important.
How do you protect your IP?
Clayton Woodruff (27:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
So early on we knew we wantedto protect this.
In all the pitch competitionsit comes up a lot what's your IP
, how are you protecting it?
So we immediately submitted fora provisional patent.
That was last year.
We've since submitted for anon-provisional patent.
So our patent is around themounting bracket system.
So we have a unique mountingbracket that retrofits to
(27:29):
existing bike racks, which is ahuge part of our value prop.
It also includes, kind of ournotification system and the
inner workings of the lockitself.
So really we will be protected.
Dr. Matt Waller (27:44):
You know once we're fully patented, we'll be
protected from any other newentrants.
Well, and you're protected nowto some degree, right, because
you have a patent and a pen date.
Absolutely Well, that's great,congratulations, thank you.
The other thing that occurredto me as you were talking and
I'm so glad you have that IPprotection the other thing that
occurred to me is how do yousell this?
(28:05):
You know, selling bike lotstoday is different than what
you're going to have to do tosell bike lots.
Matt Burton (28:13):
Yes, it's definitely challenging and you
know that's something thatClayton and I've, you know,
whiteboarded over and overbecause it's a novel idea.
There's nothing to patternmatch against.
You know, when I was a buyer atWalmart, it was really easy to
understand how you're going toprice an item.
You find a like item, youundersell you know that item and
you have instant demand.
Well, anytime that you'redealing with a novel idea, we
(28:34):
have to really whiteboard outwhat our customer is willing to
pay.
And again, it's listening tothe customers and we have a few
different customers here.
You know, our end goal here iswe want people to see lockstop
as a utility.
So the pipe dream is that we gointo municipality and they
subsidize, you know, thisservice for the riders because
you subsidize the security andyou have more people on your
(28:56):
bikes.
And if you have more people onyour bikes you have less people
on your vehicles and then youhave those healthier, greener
cities.
But we understand, you knownovel ideas are hard to adopt
early stage.
So, clayton and I, what we'vedecided is we're going to hold
the upfront inventory.
So we've invested ourselves inthis, you know, in our vision
and in our idea to manufacturethe first 75 devices so that we
(29:18):
can put those out in thecommunity, allow the riders to
interact with them, and thenwe're very confident that those
riders, their voice, is going tobe heard from the community,
especially when what we can dois the data that we're able to
collect with this device.
Now we're able to map out the,the rider routes, where are our
riders actually riding through acity?
(29:39):
And that data is reallyimportant to city planning
because city planning, we haveideas about how our riders ride
through our communities.
But those are ideas.
And so now we can take thatdata and we can overlay it with
our current infrastructure, orthe lack thereof, and develop
that infrastructure aligned torider behaviors.
So initially we're, you knowwe're handling all of the
(30:00):
upfront costs with manufacturingand you know the monthly
payments that are required, youknow, to keep these devices
connected to the internet.
But what we really see happeningis, as more riders interact
with this device, well, thatmodel flips.
Now the cities and thebusinesses come to us and say,
(30:20):
hey, how can we bring lock-stopto our communities so that our
riders are riding like they doin Bentonville, bike lock free?
And so initially it'll be aservice charge, so unfortunately
we'll have to charge the ridersup front at first.
So it's a dollar to activateand five cents a minute for so,
for less than $4 an hour, you'reable to go secure your bike
(30:44):
while you're in having a coffeeor a beer or you're going to
church or whatever it may be.
But, yes, eventually're able togo secure your bike while
you're in having a coffee or abeer or you're going to church
or whatever it may be.
But, yes, eventually we expectto partner with a lot of these
municipalities or corporationsthat want to underwrite the
ability for our communities tohave this type of experience and
this type of security.
Dr. Matt Waller (31:02):
Clayton, let me ask you a little bit about
competition.
This is a great idea.
I had never heard of it until Iheard of it from you two, and I
liked it right away when Iheard it.
It's one of the reasons why Iinvited you on my podcast.
I mean, this is a great examplehow personal experience,
(31:32):
combined with listening to lotsof people, helps you identify
opportunities in the marketplace.
And there's, you know.
Again.
It's another example, too, ofhow there's no end to innovative
ideas.
Right, absolutely, yeah.
I mean, no one thought aboutthis last year, 10 years ago or
20 years ago, but it was neededthen too, so it's pretty neat.
But one other idea that came tome is that there may be
competition out there already.
(31:53):
Sure.
Clayton Woodruff (31:54):
So, yes, there is competition.
And you know we first kickedthis off when Mike first had
this idea.
It actually kind of startedwith him looking at it.
You know he was saying, hey,this doesn't exist, I'm just
going to be the person to bringit here from somewhere else.
And so there's a company out ofSan Francisco called Bike Keep.
Funny enough, there actually isa rack in Crystal Bridges.
(32:15):
But the problem is is it's afull infrastructure.
I mean it's a big bike rack andit has this big swing arm that
comes down and it costs about 25grand for five bikes.
And there's another company outof New York city called Uni
that actually has a you knowcrate.
I mean it's a big enclosedsystem.
So while it's kind of coolcause you can, you know you get
(32:38):
in, it's got like sliding doorsand you walk in it's probably
half a million dollars.
And so you're having to dothese big infrastructure changes
.
And in my job, when I worked inthe trails world, in the biking
world, I worked withmunicipalities.
And there's one thing Idiscovered with municipalities
they typically don't have bigbudgets and it's very hard to
get them to spend it.
So trying to come into a cityand say, hey, you already have
(33:02):
bike racks, but let me just ripthose up.
You can drop $30,000, putanother one in here Versus us,
where we're saying, at leastright now we're saying let us
just put them here.
You know, we don't have to takemoney to at the beginning,
we'll get our money from the,from the end customer.
I mean, we've already talked tothe city of Fayetteville and you
know they were like absolutelyyeah, just come on.
(33:23):
And they just have kind of aracist open arms to say you can
turn any bike rack into that.
So that's where we reallydifferentiate from the
competition out there is thatagain, we're not trying to do
this big infrastructure change.
We're saying we have bike racks, people don't carry their locks
(33:43):
.
Let's bridge the gap here.
Let's create something thatretrofits to all these different
types of racks that are outthere.
And you know, easy, it takesless than five minutes to
install this.
With the right tools and you'reon your way.
Dr. Matt Waller (33:56):
You know the other place that this.
So when I was dean of theWalton College, one of a part of
my vision was to make studentshealthier, not just more
academically knowledgeable, etcetera, et cetera, but to really
(34:17):
help them be healthy.
I mean, I'm pretty passionateabout that.
I was dean for eight years.
I maybe made some progress, Itried, but I would.
I maybe made some progress, Itried, but I would have liked to
(34:38):
have done more.
But one challenge we had.
So we actually had in theWalton College because, you know
, we've got access to theGreenway, we have the
Fayetteville Traverse, whichgives you access to almost all
of the living spaces in oraround Fayetteville, so you can
access it from your bike.
We started attracting people tothe U of A because of this and
(35:03):
especially in the businessschool because, as you all know,
you come out of the businessschool building, take a left, go
down to the corner.
You know, 50 yards from thebusiness school building there's
a world-class mountain bikingcourse right there.
So you know, not far fromFayetteville, you've got gravel,
you've got mountain biking,you've got road biking, you've
(35:27):
got biking on the greenways, youhave pump tracks, bmx, we've
got everything around here right.
So we started noticing thatthere were more and more
students coming to the businessschool, not just because it's a
great business school, but alsobecause of the biking aspect.
(35:51):
I thought this is so fascinating.
Who could have ever guessedthis would happen?
Especially, I got here 30 yearsago.
I mean, there was nothing.
I mean there was no trails thatI didn't know of.
Maybe there were, kessler.
Kessler was the only one.
It was.
Clayton Woodruff (36:04):
Kessler, which was illegal, I know.
Dr. Matt Waller (36:10):
I know, but now the infrastructure is so much
better than it was.
But one problem that we stillhad, because I thought I want to
build out this idea One problemwe had was the safety of the
bikes, because bikes get stolena lot and it's not just on
(36:31):
campus.
I mean, you know, one of mykids got their bike.
They were living in anapartment not too far from
campus, real close to campus,and someone stole their bike.
They must have cut the bikelock because it was locked.
But this happens so much youwouldn't believe it.
I mean, I'm sure you wouldbelieve it.
Yes, I do believe it.
Matt Burton (36:52):
There's 2 million bikes stolen across the US.
Oh is it?
Yes, maybe yeah.
Effectively every 30 seconds abike's stolen.
So I don't know how long we'vebeen recording, but there's been
a few bikes stolen just duringthe time of this podcast.
Dr. Matt Waller (37:08):
Well, you know, and and we live in one of the
safest areas of the countrythere's not a lot of crime here,
right?
You know, I can't imagine.
I mean, you know, I've knownpeople that have gone to wash
you and st louis, and problemthere's, they'll steal the whole
car, you know, not just thebike.
Yeah, uh, I wonder, I wouldthink there's.
(37:29):
So you addressed the competitoraspect, and so one of your
benefits is essentially, thebarrier to entry is a lot lower
for a municipality to get it,but I think a campus would be
interested in this as well.
And many other things arestarting to come to mind as I'm
(37:51):
talking.
But going back to thecompetition, that leads me to
think a little bit about whatkind of companies would be
interested in buying yourcompany or IP as a result of
this, or IP as a result of this.
Matt Burton (38:09):
Yeah, and I think that's something that we've been
on the hunt for, because ourgrand vision is to get this
scaled across the country asquickly as we can, and with our
small team right now we realizethat that's impossible.
So acquisition would be greatfor us in the fact that now we
have the opportunity to scalepretty rapidly.
And you have some you know bigbike lock companies that are out
(38:29):
there.
You have big security companiesthat are out there.
You think Abus, a really youknow significant player in the
game.
You have Kryptonite, anothersignificant player in the game.
But then you think outside ofjust cycling infrastructure or
cycling security at all.
I mean, you think about ringdoorbells and you think about
all these security solutionsthat are out there, and it's
just a natural integration withthe devices that they already
(38:53):
have in the market.
This is effectively an IOT walkif you look at it that way, and
so there are a few differentcompanies out there that we do
believe that would be interestedin acquiring us once we have
the devices out there that theysee the riders that are
interacting with them, and wehope to continue to explore that
avenue as we get down the roada bit further.
Dr. Matt Waller (39:17):
How has your partnership as co-founders
really contributed?
I know I've been involved inthe investment community one way
or another for a long time, youknow.
I know there are some venturecapital firms and even seed
funding type companies that theyreally would prefer co-founders
(39:44):
rather than a single founder.
Would you mind speaking?
Matt Burton (39:48):
to that?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's funny.
Clayton and I talk about thisall the time.
It's effectively like we livein the same mind at this point,
clayton and I, I think we'veseen each other at least five
days a week for the last twoyears, and when you spend that
much time with any one person,it's almost embarrassing at a
point, because I think we wereat the stage where we're
(40:08):
finishing one another sentences,and so I mean finding a great
co-founder for this venture wasan absolute necessity.
I can't imagine doing it alone.
It would have been impossibleto do that.
You know, clayton and I bothbring our own value to the table
, and one thing that we've beenable to do is learn to argue
(40:30):
effectively.
We have very critical candor.
He and I may have differencesof opinions on things, but then
what we do, similar to amarriage, we say, hey, here's my
opinion, here's your opinion,but what is best for the
business and what's best for ourcustomer?
And so Clayton and I are bothbringing different perspectives.
Because I've not been in thecycling industry I very much am
(40:51):
a reflection of the communitythat I live in.
I lived in Hawaii andCalifornia for a number of years
, so you wouldn't have seen meon a bike, I would have been out
in the ocean surfing.
So then, when I come to thiscommunity and I have this idea
after being on the bike, well,clayton has this very robust,
you know, set of experiencesthat he brings to the table and
a lens that would take medecades, you know, to build and
(41:15):
be able to look through.
So I think having you know twopeople as co-founders on one
business is a necessity at theleast.
Clayton Woodruff (41:24):
Yeah, I mean it's.
It's critical to our success,absolutely Like Mike said.
I mean we talk all the time.
I'm pretty sure I talked to himmore than I talked to my wife,
you know I don't think she'ssuper happy about that, but
she's always like who's that?
Mike?
Yeah, but you know, I mean justbeing able to work through
these ideas, bounce these ideasoff each other.
I mean we're constantly youknow, hey, what about this?
(41:45):
I mean Mike is an ideas guythrough and through.
I mean obviously brings robustknowledge on the financial side
as well, and this is experienceand product.
And you know, walmart.
Dr. Matt Waller (41:57):
So you had experience in product I do.
Matt Burton (42:00):
Yes, I've been very specific in how I've curated my
experiences.
You know understanding whatwe're trying to do with lockstop
, so I've really tried tobackfill my experience to make
sure that we're ready to meetthe market.
So I spent a couple of years asa buyer for Walmart where I
managed an automotive categorythat was nearly a half a billion
dollars, and so I felt prettyconfident there that, hey, I
(42:21):
understand the business aspect,and so it came out to lock stop
full time.
But I realized I was stillmissing something there, and
that was really the productdevelopment.
And so I worked at Sam's Clubfor a short time in product
management there, and thoseexperiences and the knowledge
that I gained were instrumentalto making sure that not only do
(42:43):
we understand the financials,but now we can understand how to
link each one of thosefinancial metrics to a roadmap
so, as we're continuing torelease to the public, we know
which features are going to addthe most value, that are the
lowest cost, and we can get tothe market, you know, sooner
rather than later.
So building up each one ofthose experiences to make sure
that when we got to this point,no-transcript.
(43:22):
So not only are you having thatconvenience and security.
But now we're going to add somefun factors in there.
And then we've also exploredopportunities, even with the
bolder law enforcement, aboutintegrating directly into the
law enforcement network so wecan provide real-time alerts to
their law enforcement partners.
So if there is a crime in place, well now we can have direct
(43:45):
response to what's going on inthat area.
Dr. Matt Waller (43:50):
Kylie, you're investing your own money in this
, but to scale up, you're goingto need additional money.
What are your thoughts on that?
Matt Burton (44:00):
Yes, we do need additional capital.
Anytime that you have a hardwarecomponent, there's a large
capital expenditure up front.
And, you know, when you'reworking through the model that
we've developed right now, youknow cash flow is obviously a
challenge to you know.
We need to find one of thosepartners, someone that
(44:21):
understands the vision, but notjust the vision, but they can
sit down and look at thefinancial opportunities and say,
not only are we bringingsomething that's going to create
these healthier, greenercommunities, but we're also
making a solid investment.
So right now, as we go into thefall and after we release this,
that's exactly what we'relooking for.
We're looking for thoseinvestment partners preferably,
(44:45):
you know, within our community,because this idea started at a
Bentonville farmer's market andI tell Clayton all the time, I
would absolutely hate to leavethis community to generate the
capital necessary to scale.
So that's what we're going tobe looking for through August
3rd.
You know who are thoseinvestors that are ready to
partner and, you know, help usto scale this vision across the
country and then, you know,eventually across the world.
Dr. Matt Waller (45:06):
Let's suppose I work for a parks authority for
a city and we're consideringthis.
Matt Burton (45:15):
What's your pitch to me.
You know I think Bentonville isa great model.
You know we've done a great jobhere of connecting cycling with
the economic impact, and ourgoal in Benville is to get more
people on bikes.
Well, we know one of the topbarriers to riding your bike is
theft and having a safe space tolock your bike.
(45:36):
We've already discussed manypeople either forget their lock
at home, or they forget thecombination, or they forget the
key, or lose the key, if you'relike me.
And so what our goal is here isto remove one of those barriers
of entry, perhaps the greatestbarrier, which is having your
bike stolen.
How many people do you know thathave had a bike stolen and then
they go back to the market thenext day to buy another bike?
(45:59):
It doesn't happen.
You know, you have thisterrible experience.
You know, as you mentionedearlier, you're riding on.
You have this really joyfultime when you're going from work
to home and then you get there,you lock up your bike and the
next morning it's gone.
Well, where do you?
How are you going to get towork that day?
You're going to get in your car, right, and then we do what we
practice, which is right beingin our vehicles.
(46:21):
So a lot of folks that havetheir bikes stolen don't ever
get that second bike.
And though in Bentonvillebiking and cycling very much is
a leisure activity, there are alot of places around our country
and around the world where thisisn't just leisure.
This is a means oftransportation, this is a way
that someone goes from theirhome to their place of work and
that place of work that'sgenerating the income to take
(46:44):
care of their families, and sofor us, bike theft is a terrible
experience, but for them it'san impact to their livelihood.
So for us it's removing thatbarrier of entry to biking, but
also keeping those folks thatare using this as a mode of
transportation.
Clayton Woodruff (46:59):
We're keeping the bikes in their possession
and really the big piece of thistoo, you know, beyond just
being able to secure your bikebecause that's what it does
really well is the data.
So, as you know a city official, you will have access to direct
rider data so you'd be able tosee where they're going, how
long they're staying there.
And one thing that's not youknow out there currently is that
(47:22):
direct economic impact ofcycling.
We've used a lot of differentdata points for that, but
nothing is quite as good as whatwe're doing, because if you're
parked outside of a restaurant,chances are you're probably
eating there.
Not to mention, anotherstatistic is that people that
ride or walk to coffee shops orbars or restaurants actually
spend more time there, whichinevitably equates to more money
(47:43):
.
So when you're driving, you'regoing to go in, go out, done,
but when you're riding you are,you're going to hang out, you
know, and there's nothing betterthan a long ride and then just
hanging out and having a beerafterwards.
That's why, if you go by thehub and you know on a Sunday or
Saturday, it's packed.
So that's really kind of thebeauty of all of this.
I mean, security is the numberone thing, of course, but what's
(48:05):
behind it is even more, not tomention the opportunity for
advertising.
If you're like Visit Benville,for instance, they're always
trying to advertise, trying topromote.
Well, now they have theopportunity to advertise in
other networks.
So they can advertise inDurango and Boulder and all
these bike cities around thecountry, and they know that if
they're advertising through us,that's somebody that's on a bike
(48:27):
.
So you're getting down thatfunnel a lot further than they
would normally be able to getjust with the data that they
currently have.
Dr. Matt Waller (48:35):
Well, Clayton and Mike, thank you so much for
joining me today.
I really appreciate it.
Matt Burton (48:40):
Thank you for having us.
Yeah, we absolutely appreciatebeing here.
Thank you for having us.
Dr. Matt Waller (48:43):
Yeah, we absolutely appreciate being here
.
Thank you If you're findingvalue in this podcast.
We greatly appreciate yoursupport by subscribing to our
YouTube channel.
Additionally, following us onApple and Spotify and leaving up
to a five-star review would beimmensely helpful.
We welcome any feedback orquestions related to the podcast
, as well as suggestions forfurther topics and guests.
(49:04):
You can leave your comments onour YouTube channel and rest
assured that I will read eachand every one of them.
Please also take a moment tocheck out our podcast sponsors,
as they play a critical role inkeeping this podcast running.
For more information onspecific topics, timestamps or
links to articles mentionedduring the podcast, head over to
(49:26):
mattwallerpodcastcom.
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