Archive for the 'Business Heros' Category

Sweetpea Bicycles featured on Alltop

Calling themselves “highly subjective and judgemental”, Alltop has chosen the Sweetpea Bicycles blog as one of their top cycling sites on the web.  Alltop calls themselves a “digital magazine rack” for the internet and tracks all-the-top sites in a multitude of different categories.

Alltop, all the top stories

This is really exciting news for us.  One of the folks behind Alltop is Guy Kawasaki, who is certifiably one of our Business Heroes.  Besides working at Apple when the Mac came out, Guy also wrote the Art of the Start and whose line “the best reason to start a business is to make meaning” has helped guide us through a lot of tough decisions.  I can’t remember where we first ran into his work, but I have handed out this link more times than I can remember (it really gets going around 4 minutes).

If you get a chance, check out Alltop.  I found some great new stuff in there, and if you think some great cycling blogs are missing, drop them a line.

Business Hero: Twyla Tharp

There are a lot of interesting questions around creativity.  There are also a lot of interesting questions around business.  And sometimes, the two questions mix.  I had, of course, heard of Twyla Tharp and seen some of her work, but had never thought of her in a business context until I read a remarkable conversation with her in the Harvard Business Review.  Copying.  Failure.  Mentoring.  Pain.  This woman covered it all, so we are adding her to our list of infrequently updated Business Heroes.

Twyla

Maybe its just me, but there is so much deep wisdom and tough effort, it is hard not to be impressed.  In one section she notes that to get creative, you need to start copying.  Not because copying is right, but because “real learning comes not from taking someone else’s solutions, but by taking someone else’s problems.”  She talked about the need for movement and how it changes the mind, and also about her mentor of 20 years, who she met only three times.  “I recognized that he was the person who knew the most about what he was doing. . . so I tried to learn as much as I could from him.  I mentally parked him in the corner of my studio and the insistence on thoroughness that I saw in him became my standard.”  When you start talking about bodies and creativity, you invariably see a lot of parallels to designing and building custom bikes.

But one of her main points is this: creativity takes discipline, and that you have to prepare for it with routine.  (More on that here.)  But at the same time you have to take risks and you have to fail.  Otherwise you stagnate and your work gets less interesting.  Good lessons for all of us no matter what we do.

History, Tradition, and the End of the First Edition

A little while ago, someone was looking for our address on the website. They couldn’t find it and wondered why. Well, we’ve moved. For those keeping track this is the fourth move in Sweetpea Bicycles two year history. It’s tough work finding landlords who don’t get dizzy, short of breath, and grasp at their chests when they hear the word “welding.”

There are hundreds if not a thousand framebuilders in North America. Most of them build a frame or two, and some build a few more for friends and family. But a scant few build a lot, and only a handful have spent a lifetime building bikes. So when Andy Newlands, who has been building bikes for three decades, asked us to move in, we felt incredibly grateful and jumped at the opportunity.

Nat in the Shop

It’s rare to find a real mentor in this business. Someone who can take a look at the problem and say “it’s nothing” or “it’s screwed.” (The two questions you are constantly asking yourself when you start out.) And it is rare to get to work side by side with someone who knows what he knows because he has done it a thousand times and has painstakingly learned the language of his tools and materials. He teaches me things everyday, and on occasion, I get the satisfaction of helping him solve some fabrication problem.

There are a lot of bike companies out there that talk about their history and tradition even though they long since started building their bikes in China. But I feel a sense of awe, because the tools that I get to work with everyday reflect years of building, years of problem solving, and years of creative tradition. A tradition I feel honored to participate in and to continue in my own direction.

Strawberry

Which brings us to the first edition. When I started building, I thought it would be neat to praise the first bikes out of the shop. But being around a master builder and other amazing craftsmen has taught me that I will always need to be a student of my craft in order to truly grow. And while I feel like I have come into my own as a builder, I see a long road of learning and creativity ahead. This is an important moment. And so today, I am officially ending the First Edition to mark this new beginning and to reflect on the long past that came before me.

Sweetpea gets a little love from Patagonia Portland

Its really nice to be noticed.  Especially by folks you look up to.  That happened last week, when we got a call from Patagonia asking us to display a couple of bikes in the store and featuring our commitment to 1% for the Planet.

Front-1

Untitled-VW

We are, as many of our readers will already know, big fans of Patagonia and count them as one of our business heroes.  But it is especially nice to get a little love from the gang at the Portland store as they are all such great folks as well as truly committed cyclists.

SIJ Hearts Bikes; Sweetpea

This month’s Sustainable Industries Journal has a nice little piece about the cycling industry featuring Breezer, Strawberry, Bikes Belong, and (blush) Sweetpea Bicycles. While they mentioned our recent announcement about joining 1%FTP, they also had some great stuff from a company that has sustainability infused in almost everything they do: Chris King.

Sustainable Industries and Cycling

(On newsstands now. Get yours today!)

The word “sustainable” seems to be losing some traction. Everyone’s got it: “Our nuclear power plant is made from Soy, so it’s both sustainable and good for your heart.” And when everyone’s got it, it is sometimes hard to see the ones who are really trying.

With the word being bantered around so much lately, I have to admit that I really admire the gang at Chris King. There is a lot that really sets them apart in the area of sustainability (all their materials and manufacturing is done domestically, they donate money to breast cancer research, and they have an innovative recycling program). But what I think is really cool is the fact that they make a fantastic product that you buy once and never have to replace. 90% of sustainability is right there.

But what really impresses me is that the same ethic applies to how they approach almost everything. It doesn’t matter if they are working with their raw materials, a new machine, their employees, or the community; they take great care of the resources they interact with. This isn’t just sustainability, it is deep sustainability. And its nice to know that we can find it not only on our bikes, but so close to home.

Michael has been up to some interesting things.

In the Wind Tunnel

Michael has been up to some interesting things.

Can a cupcake be cute and punk at the same time?

Yes it can.

Nau

Around a year and a half ago, Natalie and I met this mysterious man. He was everywhere we were. Out to coffee; there he was. At a talk; there he was. The Environmental Building Supply store? There he was.

Maybe people are just wired to recognize patterns, but I took it as invitation to introduce myself. Predictably, the conversation started like this: “Hi. We see you everywhere. I’m Austin.” We had a nice little chat about whatever, and we went our separate ways.

A couple of weeks later while we were in line for coffee before a ride, someone tapped my shoulder. You guessed it. It was him. “Do you guys do a lot of riding?” Why yes we do! In no time we were talking bikes, and had mentioned that we were starting up a bike company. As chance would have it, he was starting up a company too. But when pressed on the details, he kindly said “I can’t really talk about it.”

Fast forward a year or so, open up the latest issue of Outside Magazine, and you have Nau. And there he is, the very same guy; and he is aiming to change the way you think about and buy clothes.

I really like thinking about companies. Especially start ups. When you start your own, the sky is the limit. You can be as cool or as lame as you want, and there is always a lot to think about, too much to do, and lots of questions that need answers. For example: What does your company do, and how are you going to support yourself? Those are the easy questions. But is it fun? What makes it different? Who is your role model? What does it look like? Sound like? Feel like? If your company was in the kitchen with a cup of joe, what would it want to talk about?

These are questions that the gang at Nau has clearly been thinking about. Shirts made from corn. Jackets made from recycled polyester. A Flickr page, and a little love for BikePortland on their blog. They are a brand new brand, but they intentionally don’t have a logo. They are going to contribute 5% of what you buy to the charity of your choice. And to top it off, they haven’t even officially launched yet.

Considering I can’t even look at a pair of jeans without thinking of the gallon of pesticides that went into them, I am looking forward to their intro. But before they launch, I have to mention that I am really impressed with the thought they have been putting into it. We wish you guys the best of luck, and I am sure we will see you around.

WWYCD?

“If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. Cause, you know, they’re saying ‘This sucks, and I am going to do it my own way.’”

Yvon Chouinard

So those of you who have been reading our blog for a while probably think we go around with bracelets that say “WWYCD?” The truth is probably not too far from that. I mean we build stuff. It is as green as we can make it, but it is still kind of dirty. Paint don’t grow on trees, steel doesn’t weld itself; and we need to figure out what that means and the best way to do it.

This video is one example of where we get our inspiration.

Warning: Best viewed if you have an hour to spare. Also contains references to theft, the mafia, and sticking it to the man.

Business Heroes: Malcolm Gladwell

Did you know that there is a guy in Washington that can tell whether you and your significant other are going to make it with 95% accuracy? What if I told you he only needed to listen to you talk for three minutes?

What if I said that how safe you felt in a car or truck is directly proportional to the number of cup holders it has and that the plushest of SUV’s would not feel safe without them?

What if I said that reducing the amount of information makes people better decision makers? (See video.)

The New York Times calls it “The Gladwell Effect”. Gladwell says that “in a culture with too much information and not enough time, he offers “organizing structures” for people’s lives.” We say that we read two incredible books that changed the way we think about almost everything from the bidnes, to buying jam, to the way we think about the decisions we make.

This post was not intended to be a Reading Rainbow book report, but if you like books written by a guy with the craziest hair you will see today, try The Tipping Point or Blink. Your prefrontal cortex will never be the same.