It began with wanting to resolve a commuting downside that prompted Pushkar Phatak to develop his personal e-bike and its design turned a dialog matter when he rode it to work. Many individuals who noticed his bike requested if he may additionally make one for them, and that was how Pushkar realised the potential of his e-bike. Collectively together with his faculty pal Amit Sondhit, they went on to determine an organization the place promoting these e-bikes turned their newfound ardour.
Forward, Amit shares with us extra about Watt Wagons, its bikes and the way they set a brand new Guiness World Document.
You’re based mostly in Boston, US. Inform us in regards to the wonderful development of Watt Wagons e-Bikes.
Like a number of start-ups, we began out of a storage constructing bikes with our personal fingers. Over the course of three years, we’re a well-established model within the high-performance phase. We have now moved to an 8,000 sqft institution and employed workers to construct and repair electrical bikes. We have now additionally began a 5-star rated e-bike service firm “ebike.rehab” to “heal” electrical bikes, construct relationships, upsell, and additional the fervour for using. We have now been worthwhile for 2 years now and are engaged on new applied sciences that will probably be sport changers within the rider ecosystem. Ranging from one product, we now have a portfolio of various bikes catering to all kinds of use instances. We’re multiplying final 12 months’s gross sales!
How did the concept of manufacturing luxurious e-bikes come to Pushkar Phatak, the founding father of the corporate?
Pushkar constructed his first e-bike to resolve his commuting downside. He realised he was onto one thing when somebody at a visitors cease requested him about his bike and whether or not he may construct the identical for them. Toying round with concepts, he simply noticed that whereas there have been so many merchandise available in the market, there have been hardly any that certified as dependable, severe or, in some instances, simply plain practical. He went to the whiteboard and out got here some extremely profitable works of pure engineering!
He based Watt Wagons and bought engaged on securing design and vendor relationships after getting nice suggestions from a number of fans! He went for the holy grail to show the reliability of Watt Wagons — a Guinness World Document! After all, together with kudos, it resulted in lots of issues to work on to broaden Watt Wagons.
I’ve been Pushkar’s pal since undergrad, and had been working with him on a bunch of different issues, together with one other firm, once we determined to collaborate and take Watt Wagons to the subsequent stage. The corporate moved to a a lot greater workshop from a storage and out got here the brand new state-of-the-art merchandise, new web site and model technique, NHL participant endorsements and media protection.
Are you able to identify a number of of the early backers of Watt Wagons?
Watt Wagons is organically funded by us however we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge a number of the early backers who put their religion in us and positioned orders for a number of the finest e-bikes on the earth. There have been a number of our loyal clients who believed in us from the start and ordered based mostly on our superior ideas. Their orders helped us construct our basis and helped in scaling up.
What are the important thing propositions of Watt Wagons e-bikes? How revolutionary and “clever” is the engineering behind these bikes?
We deal with defining the know-how of the longer term. Once we began, we had been the primary to introduce excessive powered titanium commuter e-bike with belt drive, the one which we used to set a brand new Guinness World Document. The following era of our e-bikes boasts ultra-light carbon fibre frames with top-of-the-line elements and full suspension functionality. We even supply inner gear hubs to cut back upkeep. We modify the motors with our superior controllers to make them extra dependable, environment friendly and enjoyable. Our newest product, the Hound, is the one journey e-bike platform that gives onboard charging — you need to use an EV charging station identical to your electrical automobile!
In the summertime of 2019, Watt Wagons travelled to Halifax with rider Ravi Kempaiah to set a brand new Guinness world report. Are you able to inform us extra there?
In the summertime of 2019, Watt Wagons travelled to Halifax NS with rider Ravi Kempaiah to set a brand new Guinness world report on the Final Commuter Professional e-Bike (Now Helios). Our e-bike accomplished 400 miles in 24 hours utilizing beneath a greenback of electrical energy. We had been flagged off by Prof. Dahn, head of battery analysis for Tesla. We had been coated on Canadian and US information channels.
You’re bullish in regards to the development of the e-bike market, which numbers and analysis papers do you might have readily available which maintain your imaginative and prescient?
We usually comply with analysis papers from completely different consulting/knowledge organisations (like McKinsey and Forbes) and on-line information from completely different shops (like Electrek) which are targeted on electrical automobiles normally.
How do you outline sustainability? How revolutionary is your imaginative and prescient and the measurement instruments you might have put in place there?
Our seriousness about sustainability is what led us right here to start with. We wish to rework commuting by extra environmentally sustainable options wherever attainable. Our imaginative and prescient is to switch a serious a part of car visitors with a extra sustainable and more healthy various. Due to this fact, we targeted on constructing merchandise which are dependable for hundreds of miles and want minimal upkeep to create true automotive-grade replacements for fuel automobiles. Each mile ridden on our e-bike is greener and cheaper than conventional fuel transportation. Moreover, we’re additionally one of many largest recyclers in our metropolis and interact with the native governments to help with the messaging, merchandise and driving change.
Watt Wagons has been a worthwhile firm for the previous three years. Are you aiming for an IPO quickly? The place do you see the corporate in 5 12 months time?
We consider we’ve some methods to go earlier than we contemplate an IPO. There are particular merchandise in our pipeline that we wish to see to fruition earlier than we determine to go public. We recognise that we’re nonetheless a smaller participant and wish to set up ourselves because the de facto leaders in our area with a broader gamut of merchandise earlier than going public.
The place ought to our LUXUO readers go to purchase a Watt Wagons e-bike? Who’re your resellers? Do you additionally promote on-line?
We ship worldwide and have lately began onboarding sellers as effectively. LUXUO readers should purchase our merchandise on-line and be part of our different clients from 25+ international locations. If , they’ll additionally contact us to turn into resellers.
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