This week the get a 300k investment for 20%.
http://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/m/pitches/velofix
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/11/30/deal-with-dragon-sets-mobile-repair-shop-on-road-to-growth/
For those who don’t know, Dragons Den is Englands version of the US Show Shark Tank. Actually, I think Shark Tank was inspired by this show.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_Tank
The concept came from Japan, the UK version started in 2005. Canada started in 2006. This pitch was on the Canadian version. 2 of the Dragons became sharks on the US version.
I used them for a complete bike overhaul, very convenient as they were parked right outside my building. I wonder though once they become more popular if the lead times will stretch out, or I guess the franchise owner will just get another truck.
Yes - It was good to see finally, and out in public. The show was shot back in April of this year.
They partnered with the right guy - Jim Trevling - turning down more money with another Dragon. Jim is known as the Franchise King and with VeloFix’s franchise model, I am assuming they felt his deep knowledge of that business would be an additional advantage over and above is money.
Dragon Jim Trevling(l) and first Toronto VeloFix owner, Nick Di Cristofaro(r)
My sense is that this is really going to start to roll. Massive potential in the U.S.
I think they have something like 3-4 vans servicing the Vancouver area now.
I used them 4-5 times in the summer, and at the beginning, I was often able to book something the next day, whereas mid summer, it was typically a few days, and then towards the end of the summer, it was back to within a couple of days as I believe they added two new vans.
In any event, it was much quicker then the service I’d be able to get a local shop, significantly more convenient (saved me multiple trips to the shop) and the quality of service was always great. I haven’t gone anywhere else since, and likely won’t, as the guys got me out of a bind twice by going above and beyond as follows:
- I royally effed up my shifting trying to “fine tune” it myself and had a race to the next day, and ended up with a bike that was not rideable. I emailed Boris at Velofix and he came by after hours to my home that evening (9 PM on a Friday) to get me back in working order for the race the next morning, and only charged me half the hourly rate.
- I flew back from Hawaii and had some damage to a shifting cable and the guys squezed me in the next day so I could be up and running for the group ride that I normally do that night.
Great service, reasonable prices, hope they continue to do well!
From what I heard on the show the pricing sounds really good. I’ll have to do some more digging but to avoid bike shop travel time this could be money well spent.
I’ve always paid the hourly rate for service, which is around $70 to $75 with tax I think.
It likely isn’t the cheapest option around, but it is reasonable, and it saves me likely 1-2 hours each time, depending on which local shop I’d be taking my bike to (based on a round trip for drop off and pick up). I value my time, so to me, the convenience factor is huge, and to get quality service and reasonable rates with the ability to book in online, sometimes next, day, it is well worth it.
I’ve always paid the hourly rate for service, which is around $70 to $75 with tax I think.
It likely isn’t the cheapest option around, but it is reasonable, and it saves me likely 1-2 hours each time, depending on which local shop I’d be taking my bike to (based on a round trip for drop off and pick up). I value my time, so to me, the convenience factor is huge, and to get quality service and reasonable rates with the ability to book in online, sometimes next, day, it is well worth it.
When do they come? After work hours or on weekends?
I think the vans run pretty much 12 hours a day, some 7 days a week.
When you enter in your address information online where you would like them to come (work, home, other) they show the availability for that van in that area, which most often starts at 7 AM I believe. I’ve had them come at this time before I went to work, I’ve had them come downtown during the day when I was working, and I’ve had them come in the evening after work (as late as 9 PM), so there really are a lot of timing options, which is great.
The standard bike shop hours I often found a hassle too, as I couldn’t drop my bike off early in the morning and it was sometimes tough to make it before close, so this works much better for me.
I think the vans run pretty much 12 hours a day, some 7 days a week.
When you enter in your address information online where you would like them to come (work, home, other) they show the availability for that van in that area, which most often starts at 7 AM I believe. I’ve had them come at this time before I went to work, I’ve had them come downtown during the day when I was working, and I’ve had them come in the evening after work (as late as 9 PM), so there really are a lot of timing options, which is great.
The standard bike shop hours I often found a hassle too, as I couldn’t drop my bike off early in the morning and it was sometimes tough to make it before close, so this works much better for me.
Yes some non work hours would be key since most people aren’t around during the day to wait for any type of repair person.
Well it isn’t like you have to really wait, at least in my circumstances I never have.
You schedule the appointment, they show up, give you a call, you bring your bike to where they show up (can be outside of your work office or home or wherever is convenient). They perform the requested services while you are back in the office or at home or out for a jog and they call you when you done, you pay, take your bike and away you go.
It takes about 5 minutes of my time total for the drop off and pick up, unless I stick around to chat, in comparison to two separate bike shop trips, which can easily take 2 hours in total.
Franchise owner down the road from me. Going to be using them soon!