its new web survey. The company added that it expects
the zone to grow.
The company planning to bring a private, free-floating bike sharing service to Portland is asking for input.
In a short web survey launched this month, Spinlister asks Portland residents how often they’d expect to rent bikes using the proposed Smart Bikes service, what they’d pay, how far they’d walk to reach the closest bike and what service area they’d like to see.
“We’re not doing this for fun or verification of a system already created to make them feel good,” Spinlister chief marketing officer Andrew Batey said in an email about the survey. “We’re building the platform to allow for variable business rules – which allows us to make fast and systemwide changes to various inputs (price, geo-fence, payment structures, support, etc.).”
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In other words, Portland wouldn’t just be Spinlister’s test market for the launch. The company will keep being able to experiment with its business model after its launch.
“For instance, we expect the zone to grow, but we need to understand the market and usage dynamics before scaling it entirely across Portland at once,” Batey said.
Spinlister’s business model, currently backed by venture capital, is unique. It has said it expects to ship branded bikes to selected Portlanders who would then essentially become owners of their own fleets of smart bikes, with a share of the revenue going back to Spinlister.
Last week, Batey told us that Spinlister could launch in Portland immediately but hasn’t fully staffed up yet as it gathers market information like this. It’s happening as the city simultaneously considers a public bike share system that would use both smart bikes (of a different brand) and fixed stations. Portland City Council will decide tomorrow whether to sign a contract for its system to launch next July.
Spinlister’s survey took me about 10 minutes; after completing it, you can choose to enter in a prize drawing.