Michael Burtov is the Founder and CEO of GeoOrbital (www.geoo.com). In his discussion with Venture Café Presents host Christine Dunn, Mr. Burtov discusses his successful, innovative company providing the equipment to turn regular bicycles into electric bikes, and the unique atmosphere that makes the Venture Café so important in the growth of companies like GeoOrbital.

Mr. Burtov is a longtime member of the Venture Café community. He has been working there for the last four years while founding two different companies and even met his GeoOrbital co-founder and CTO Dakota Decker, who previously worked at SpaceX, at Venture Café. He has also volunteered as a mentor for the last two years, talking to entrepreneurs with early stage start-ups to offer advice and help them find and make connections in the community. “I’m very happy to contribute,” he says. “These are great people and a great community.” The value of mentoring in business has long been known, as discussed in the Forbes article “Why Every Entrepreneur Needs a Mentor.”

Venture Café fosters an environment of trust and support, and the culture quickly overcomes new members’ reticence at sharing the secrets of what they’re working on. That culture of trust is a key to the success of Venture Café. “When people start trusting, that’s when they make the real, genuine connections,” says Mr. Burtov. “It’s really about the culture, the understanding, the diversity that Venture Café built” that has created such a long, storied history of successful companies founded there.

Mr. Burtov’s inspiration for his motor-driven electric bike came from watching the movie TRON. The bikes in the movie had an empty front wheel, which made him wonder why not use that space? He left his job to build a prototype, despite not having an engineering background, and soon found his co-founder at Venture Café in Dakota Decker.

The motorized wheel snaps in place of a bicycle’s traditional front wheel and is made to fit almost any model of adult bicycle. The bike can be driven with just the motor, or by using the motor to supplement pedaling. The rechargeable batteries, the same battery cells used by Tesla, will also be recharged while pedaling. A bike using a GeoOrbital wheel can travel up to 20 miles per hour, and has a range of 20 miles (if used without pedaling) up to about 50 miles (if used while pedaling).

The GeoOrbital wheel is designed for use in commuting and general transportation while reducing fossil fuel use. “I like riding a bike, but I don’t like showing up to places sweaty,” says Mr. Burtov. For exercise, the GeoOrbital wheel can be easily removed and replaced with the bike’s traditional wheel.

Related Links

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