A new startup out of Sweden is going after Starbucks in the least traditional, most awesomness way.
The Hustle
Fri, Oct 7
Bike baristas are the next big thing
Interested in opening your own café? Good luck.
You got Starbucks on every corner, Keurig's in every kitchen, and depending on the location, rent can exceed $200k per year!
But thanks to Wheelys, a 2-year-old startup out of Stockholm, launching your own café is now quite feasible… even if you’re completely broke.
In fact, Wheelys has already helped 550 people in 65 countries realize their dreams of running their very own coffee shop. And, for the record, Starbucks is only in 62 countries.
It’s all thanks to bicycles…
Inspired by companies like Airbnb and Uber that bucked the “laws of the industry,” Wheelys co-founder Maria De La Croix set out to create a café chain that didn’t require physical storefronts.
What she ended up creating is, technically speaking, less of a coffee business and more of a bike company. It just happens to involve the sale of caffeinated beverages.
How it works
First step for anyone interested in starting their own Wheelys café is to buy a bike cart which start at $7k upfront and no monthly rent.
Considering they’re tricked out with things like espresso machines, juicers, and a sink, that’s a small price to pay to go from non-business owner to business owner.
The carts are spectacularly designed with tons of moving parts and hidden compartments. Order a coffee at one and watch as the owner “slides out a platform for a row of pour over brewers.” Woah, trendy.
Wheelys owners can brand their carts to their liking, and they even buy add-on modules to make things like crepes and ice cream.
All of these items must be purchased from Wheelys, of course. But the owners keep all of their profits.
The benefits of this business model
Wheelys only has 10 employees at its offices in Stockholm, China, and the US, yet people from all over the world buy their bike carts and come back month after month to restock on supplies or upgrade their digs.
Consistent revenue stream + low overhead costs = recipe for success.
As for the Wheelys cart owners, the portability of their “stores” is a huge advantage. Like that hot dog guy who hangs out on different corners, they can travel to the customers as opposed to sitting in one spot.
No wonder the company is backed by Y-Combinator and raised nearly $1m on the Swedish version of Kickstarter.
We’re drinking the Kool-Aid
Big week for Chatsnap
Up until now, anyone interested in advertising on Snapchat had to work directly with their ad sales team. That kept the user experience relatively ad-free, which is good. But it also limited the company’s revenue, which is bad.
This past week, however, Snapchat officially launched its ads API which allows third parties to sell ad inventory quicker and more effectively using automated bidding algorithms.
A classic pre-IPO move
According to yesterday’s Wall Street Journal report, Snap — the parent company of Snapchat — is preparing for an IPO as early as March that could value it at $25B or higher.
Rolling out the ads API makes even more sense now, doesn’t it? Wall Street loves them some fat, juicy revenue numbers.
But some cause for concern…
When a company is considering an IPO, one of the main things investors look at is the competitive landscape.
In Snapchat’s case, Instagram Stories is essentially the same product. Like, literally the same. And according to numbers released yesterday, it now has 100m daily active viewers, aka. ⅔ of Snapchat’s 150m active users after only 2 months.
Meanwhile, Snapchat’s been every millennials’ home screen for 4 years.
Is this something Snapchat should be worried about? For now, probably not. Instagram Stories’ growth is mainly from people already using their platform, not users abandoning Snapchat for greener pastures.
But if this trend continues, it could affect the IPO and possibly putting more pressure on Spectacles or whatever random hardware accessory they come out with next.
API, IPO, WTF
Send us a postcard
Few things in life are worse than having to deal with mailing letters or packages. Buying stamps? Printing labels? Actually going to the post office? Yeesh, somebody help!
That’s why 3 short years ago, a little company named Shyp launched with an ambitious vision: to be “the Uber for shipping.”
Need to send grandma a new scarf? Open up the Shyp app, put in all the shipping info, and POOF — a Shypper shows up, picks up the package, and off they go.
Problem was, this white-gloved service is only available in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, meaning there were still a ton of hopeless people struggling to lick their stamps.
Welp, that’s about to change (kind of)
Yesterday, Shyp announced a new pricing tool that let’s anyone in the US compare rates from the major carriers (Fedex, UPS, USPS), print their own shipping labels, and even track past shipments from a dead-simple dashboard.
While there won’t be any Shyppers in these new markets to actually pick up and deliver packages, the company is basically presenting itself as “the Kayak for shipping.”
Want to know the cheapest/best option for delivering that oversized package? We got you.
The beauty’s in the simplicity
Creating a tool like this is genius because it puts Shyp — and their mission of making shipping easier — on people’s radars throughout the entire country, not just their current markets.
It also allows them to collect a ton of data. This will be critical when they expand their full services nationwide, as it’ll inform decisions like, say, where to expand next and what type of mail people are sending.
Signed, sealed, delivered
Your weekend recommendation
Looking for something to do this weekend? Well, look no further than your couch, a cuddly blanket, excessive snacks, and Westworld — that show you kept hearing about this week.
We won’t give anything away other than it’s kind of like The Truman Show meets Ex Machina mixed with Jurassic Park and The Matrix. The first one when there were still spoons, not underground cave raves and drum circles.
Westworld is produced by Christopher Nolan’s brother (Memento, The Dark Knight, Interstellar) and J. J. Abrams, has an all-star cast, and is based on a 1973 movie written and directed by Michael Crichton.
And to get people hooked, HBO made the first episode available to everyone for free, even if you’re not a subscriber.
Which, like Shyp creating a free, public tool, is a smart move since people like us can recommend it to people like you who then runs the risk of NEEDING the $15/month subscription.
If that’s the case, sorry we’re not sorry. Home Box Office is killing it right now and it’s high time you caught up on The Sopranos, The Wire, and Game of Thrones anyway.
Let us know what you think
friday shower thoughts
Adblock should buy out signs in Time Square and replace them with “This ad has been blocked by Adblock.”
I have so little faith in humanity that I look both ways before crossing a one way road.
There should be a TL;DR on terms and conditions.
If you don’t speak English, the phrase “edited it” sounds ridiculous. Seriously, say it.
My car keys have traveled farther than my car.
Having a heart attack on April Fool’s Day must be one of the worst times to have it happen.
via Reddit
SUBSCRIBE ADVERTISE JOBS
Kendall "Edited it" Baker
WRITER
John Havel
EDITOR
Wayne Debach
INVENTORY SPECIALIST
You opted in by signing up, entering a giveaway, or through divine intervention.
1381 9TH AVENUE, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94122, UNITED STATES • 415.506.7210
The post Cup of coffee… to go appeared first on The Hustle.