“The Throttle” – ScooterOPS Micromobility and E-Scooter Blog
Recently ScooterOps applied for a Business Grant through Hello Alice. So we wanted to share the full Q & A on “The Throttle” so that ScooterOps can better share its vision with the community. If after reading this Q & A, and you or someone you know are interested in partnership, investing, mentorship, or social media influencing with Scooter Operations don’t be afraid to connect and email chris@scooterops.com!
SCOOTEROPS- HELLO ALICE BUSINESS GRANT APPLICATION Q & A
How would you describe your business? What are the products and/or services you offer?
Scooter Operations is an e-scooter rental and repairs company based in Phoenix Arizona. Rooted in sustainability, with a vision of the long future, Scooter Operations aims to provide rentals and repair services of e-scooters and e-vehicles with the intention to greatly minimize car use and subsequently lower the dreadful “automobile mortality rate” or “Accident Mortality Rate” according to cdc.gov. We want to rattle the global paradigm of all human transportation and curve human’s dependency on the car, at least in urban areas. ScooterOps is not anti-car. ScooterOps is anti-car death. “Freedom Scooter-fied” with the “Safety First” approach.
Please elaborate on your biggest obstacle or challenge!
Affording a brick and mortar location near a Phoenician University is a great challenge. Also, product development and low inventory is really hurting us but we are confident we are going to Grow.
Tell us more about you. Why did you become a small business owner? What is the origin story of your business?
My name is Chris. I founded ScooterOps to make a change in the global collective thought stream and dependency towards not only the use of automobiles but genuine sustainability practices. Nothing was going right in my life so when I turned 32 and during the pandemic, I buckled down, saved my money, and took charge of my life and moved to Arizona to constitute and discover my life’s purpose and direction. ScooterOps is just the beginning. The beginning of a top-down change in the way all humans are living on this planet –and it starts with me. I am not anti-car, but I am anti failed potential and when 4000 people per capita are dying in cars in just to get to work or just to do everyday situations it calls for global change. Also, Traffic is one of the greatest inefficiencies of our minds. If I can make an impact on that then it would be a start in the right direction as well.
If selected as a grant recipient, which of the following do you plan to use thisgrant primarily for?
Sourcing, researching, and expanding inventory
Please elaborate on how you intend to use this grant funding.
With a 5000 dollar grant I would use about half of it to double my quarterly inventory for starters. This would instantly create not only steady but larger cash flow yield so that I could have more breathing room. With the other half, I would use it to identify and/or perhaps partner with or find, or rent out a brick and mortar location that would be near either ASU or GCU– to directly cater to the student populations. I would simultaneously continue to build my “scooter tools portfolio” to couple and continue our multi revenue stream model and vision (Rentals, Repairs). Perhaps also, I would hire/partner with a social media expert or advisor to aid in building the brand.
How would this grant accelerate your business and help you achieve your business goal/s?
A small grant would allow us to achieve “fleet status”. ScooterOps is aware that many e-scooter companies that have come and gone and either folded or failed. This will not be Scooter Operations, because we are founded and grounded in character, vision, planning and not greed. We are about the vision of global sustainability practice and changing the game, and the way ALL humans function, from the ground up. We WANT to change the paradigm. We ARE unorthodox by nature. This is why we came to Phoenix. We WANT Phoenix to lead the way in urban transformation of not just micromobility but all mobility.
How does your business connect with and support your community?
One thing we are teetering on is the threshold of affordability– Many of our clients are in that financial category between affording and not being able to afford an automobile. We want to serve these clients but crucially we do not want to depend on them. We want all types of clients to serve our mission.
We want to hear what makes you proud of your business. What’s your biggest accomplishment to date?
It sounds cliché but everyday is an accomplishment. Every time we learn how to fix a new scooter model and reach that “A-ha” moment of repairing an e-scooter and getting it back on the road for a client is an accomplishment. Or getting a client to sign the Rental Agreement to reach the POS…After all they will be contributing to less time a person will use a car to get somewhere, which is one of the main statements in most “Sustainability Pledge” movements across the internet.