[vcarl]

Hey, I tried to do this! I was CTO of a little student startup called A2B Bikeshare for a while. We called it "stationless" though :)

We got a prototype working with a custom Android device with touch, 3g, GPS, and built in credit card swiper in Lansing MI, but ultimately we b it off more than we could chew. The team collapsed in mid 2015, and the company was just recently completely shuttered. It's validating to see a more skilled team put together a solid product, but damn it would have been fun to be that team haha.

Best of luck!

[teh_klev]

> It's validating to see a more skilled team put together a solid product

Don't put yourself down. It looks like the founders are reasonably well financed, probably well connected, and of course the Bay area effect.

[vcarl]

No, I was in my early twenties, didn't know how to scope a project, didn't know how to effectively push back on scope creep, and didn't really have the technical chops for what we were attempting. I learned a ton and wouldn't make the same mistakes again, but none of us had any prior startup experience. These guys have a lot of startup experience, and being well connected is being skilled at networking. I'm not being self deprecating, this team is objectively more experienced than we were.

[rckclmbr]

I love this comment, thanks for sharing it. And next time, you'll be the "more skilled person".

[mac01021]

What part of making a solid product did you fail at (if you don't mind sharing)?

[vcarl]

Turns out hardware is hard. My view of it is scope creep that caused delays in starting environmental testing, ultimately leaving us with too little time to properly address the problems that we discovered.

We tried to use 3d printed cases for the prototype units, but it turns out 3d printed material (at least the type we used) is porous and doesn't respond well to heat expansion when left out in the sun. We spent far too long trying to get our 15 printed cases to be watertight, and once we finally did, they expanded in the sun and cracked. But we couldn't afford injection molding and didn't properly explore cheaper plastic casting methods.

We spent a bunch of money on tooling for cast aluminum parts that ended up being about 1/32" too tight and complicated fitting components in. And we had a major scope creep in the form of wanting to support mid-rental lockup (we were "stationless" in that the bikes had all the tech, there was still a rack that rentals started/ended at) via a retractable pin and chain, that ended up causing electrical issues with detecting lockup, condensation issues due to the larger openings, much more complicated mechanical workings... I honestly think that if we had cut that single feature, things might have turned out differently.