Episode 18 | Ryan Hersh

The Atlanta Story

The Atlanta Story podcast features meaningful stories of Atlanta’s builders, creators, and entrepreneurs. In this episode Jon Birdsong sits down with Ryan Hersh, Founder of Edison Bicycles.

Ryan scratched his own itch when his 4 mile commute in Atlanta took over 1 hour. Through trial and error, he built the first prototype of what would be the first Edison Electric Bike. Fast forward 5 years later and over 1000 bikes have been sold locally and they are just getting started. In today’s episode, we talk about building a company out of his living room, the science of a quality electric bike, transportation in Atlanta, and much more.

The Atlanta Story is put together by the folks at Atlanta Ventures -- and we can’t wait to share some of the personalities behind the brand. Atlanta Ventures invests in entrepreneurs through community, content, and capital -- most notably through our Studio with companies like Greenzie and Intown Golf Club. We believe the best entrepreneurs learn from other great artists in different fields.

In this episode, we discuss…

1. When did you get excited about solving Atlanta’s transportation problem? (1:34)
2. Were you building bikes after you found the problem or were you always a tinkerer in the garage? (3:10)
3. Have you always been a builder...a tinkerer? (3:40)
4. What job did you take at Emory? (5:00)
5. Talk to us about 2015 and the start of Edison. (6:10)
6. Share some of the advancement on the bike lane infrastructure in the city of Atlanta. (9:15)
7. Talk to us about the evolution of building bike #2, #3, and so on. Share more about the market pull. (10:02)
8. How do you build a company while maintaining a corporate job? (12:15)
9. Can you share how it grew out of your living room and into more of an official business? (15:01)
10. What’s a “Build Night?” (15:32)
11. As you built the physical product, how did you also market the bike? (17:30)
12. How do you feel about and view the venture-backed competition? (19:55)
13. How does the cycling and bike market view electric bikes in general? (23:05)
14. Can you share more about the customer base? Who is the perfect customer for Edison? (25:42)
15. Where do you take Edison from a growth perspective? (28:42)
16. Can you share more about the customer growth over the past few years, it feels very organic. (31:48)
17. What is the target market for Edison customers from a geographic perspective? (34:08)
18. Talk to us about balancing family life, job life, and entrepreneur life? (36:01)
19. Is there any cyclical nature or seasonality to your customer growth? (38:36)
20. Will there be a point in the near future that you decide to do this full time? (39:25)
21. Share some more of the scientific advancements y’all have made. (41:32)
22. Why Atlanta and what has Atlanta done for you? (45:05)

How you can get involved:

Visit atlantaventures.com/studio if you’re interested in learning more about Atlanta Ventures and the Studio.

Where you can find us:

Website: www.atlstory.com

Twitter: @theatlantastory

Instagram: @theatlantastory

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