STORY | SHARK-Bike

The STORY

Denmark a few years ago

Some years ago during my exchange studies in Denmark, I got a call from a danish friend and she asked me, if I want to stop by for a glass of wine. It was in the middle of the night, rainy, windy, but I thought why not and I said yes. I took my bicycle and rode to her place. The danish weather was not really kind to me that night. Totally soaked by the rain and completly frozen by the wind I finally arrived at her place and rang the door bell. At that moment I asked myself only one question:"Are there no covered bicycles out there?"

That was the moment, when I had the IDEA of the SHARK-Bike.

From an idea to a Start-Up

In 2013 the first sketches where drawn, but it took some years of saving enought money to enter the construction stage. The combination of functionality, light weight and design was the tricky part of the construction. However, after many, many... many interations we finally had found our SHARK-Bike design, combining the world of cars with the world of bicycles.

Working

With the SHARK-Bike design and basic constuction plans, I was searching for a workshop to build our first prototype. After pitching our SHARK-Bike concept at the FH CAMPUS VIENNA, we got a golden ticket to the STARTUP-CORNER with acces to a great workshop and even an office space.

Shortly after new team members joined the #teamsharkbike and together we started working on the first prototype of the SHARK-Bike.

The first Prototype

One day we got an invitation to a German RTL-TV show in Cologne ("Hol dir die Kohle") and they asked us to bring a prototype to the show. Well, I should mention, that we had only 5 day to fulfill the task. At the very last second we put the trike on 3 wheels and afterwards in a truck, ready for the show.

Ever since we have been constantly working on the prototype. However, being a START-UP means not only to work on your product, but also pitching your VISION of a sustainable mobility concept to a big audience.

Pitching a Vision

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Uncountable times we have pitched the VISION of a sustainable mobility concept. Sometimes it was even literally an elevator pitch in an actual elevator. But the most exciting experience was at our pitch in the Puls4 TV show "2Minuten 2Millionen".

However, there is no perfect pitch! This is one of many things we have learnd during my all those pitches. But the most important lesson we have learned, let your idea being challenged and stand up whenever you fall down.