RSG127: Tarani Duncan on Mobility Lessons Learned from Early Bikeshare Days

Ever since I took my first Bird scooter ride in 2017, I’ve been a fan of micromobility. In order to make a great transportation city, I think you need a few things – and one of those things is an investment in micromobility. Today, we’re going to be talking to an expert in this field about how micromobility companies can achieve growth through outsourcing and more.

If you’d like to read a transcript of this podcast, please click here.

Intro

  • Today I’m talking with Tarani Duncan of Astral Cowboy
  • Chat about what life was like during early bike-share days
  • What struggles micromobility companies have today
  • We’re going to cover opportunities for operators, companies and others in the micromobility space

Intro to Tarani Duncan

  • Tarani Duncan is founder of Astral Cowboy, a consultancy for last mile logistics, shared mobility providers, and the platforms that power them
  • She was one of the first hires at Motivate, operator of Citibike and some of the world’s largest bike share schemas
  • Tarani was Director of Operations Intelligence at JUMP during the acquisition by Uber
  • Favorite mode of transportation? Dirt bikes!

Bikeshare Background

  • Hired at Motivate – one of the first hires
  • Before the bikes were electric!
  • Moved to Biketown
  • Joined Jump
  • Citi Bike – one of the first big bikeshare models, public-private partnership worked well

Tensions Among Micromobility Companies

  • Old school approach vs new school approach
  • Still working toward a common goal
  • Disruption among VCs, sometimes discount old school methods
  • Lessons learned – institutional knowledge

Outsourcing for Micromobility Companies

  • Kick-scooters in Europe
  • Think about outsourcing fleet optimization
  • So many factors that go into fleet optimization, for one – there are companies that focus on this
  • In general, day to day operations are difficult

The Future of Micromobility

  • Looking forward to working with shared mobility operators
  • Working with companies on product development and technology transfer
  • Working with automakers is going to be big in the future!
  • Important to know about the history of micromobility too

Outro

  • Big thanks to Tarani for coming on the show! The more I study the transportation industry, the more I realize ‘disruptive’ companies are less disruptive than they really thought
  • Is it really disruptive when you need to be bailed out by the government?
  • The best strategies involve understanding the industry that came before you – what elements are you building on rather than breaking things down?
  • Technological advancement

Show Notes