Launchpad helps Cycleswap take peer-to-peer bike rental to the mass market
The idea for Cycleswap came about when David Knap was studying at the Science Park in Amsterdam. He realised that students and tourists would always need bikes for getting around the city, especially as the Science Park could not be reached on foot from Amsterdam centre. His idea was to connect students and tourists needing bikes to locals wanting to rent theirs out. After getting three friends and a 15-year-old digital whizz-kid on board, Cycleswap was born. The team enjoyed some initial success in their first year, with 120 bikes rented in 2014. But it was after they joined Google Launchpad that things really took off. “Launchpad taught us to think about e-commerce from different perspectives, and this helped us tap into the mass tourist market and to target people outside of the Netherlands,” says CFO David Knap. With Launchpad support, they created an incentive plan for Airbnb owners to direct their guests to Cycleswap, and they launched an “I want a bike now” button to allow tourists to book bikes instantly from the Cycleswap network. Google Analytics showed that most Cycleswap users came via mobile, so the team also focused on building a quality mobile site. Launchpad helped deliver real results. “In the first three months after the launch of Launchpad, we rented out 1,827 bikes. That’s an increase of 1,500%,” says David. This staggering growth led to Cycleswap being acquired by US company Spinlister, and now tourists from all over the world can easily hire a bike at the touch of a button.
In the first three months after the launch of Launchpad, we rented out 1,827 bikes. That’s an increase of 1,500%!