YouSaid · the spoken record

Dave Weiner

lines on the record: 77
first: 2023-11-13
most recent: 2023-11-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, it would have been in the spring of 2014, and there's an annual bike show that was coming up in Taiwan. So I made those my dates and I made sure I had all of my... Of my spec sheet and what I wanted to build with the bike ready, and I started weeks beforehand emailing many of the suppliers to set up a meeting”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's right. So I worked before we started the company. I, of course, worked on how much this bike would cost and how many we'd need to make to even start production of it. And the first thing I did is I got on a plane and I went to Taiwan because Taiwan is still where most quality bicycles were made because all of the... Suppliers are there from the frame welding to the seats to the handlebars to the grips. Everything is made in Taiwan, or at least if you want a high quality bike, it's all very much made in Taiwan. And I met with, I think, about 30 different suppliers to show my idea.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't remember the exact number, but it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was not a little amount of money. I approached John, who was one of the founders of Coal Systems, and I presented him what my plan was for priority bicycles. And he said right away that he would support it and he would finance it. And he did.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, it was great. I liked having a small company. I didn't like having no company. So Connor was helping in the beginning nights and weekends that moved to full-time pretty quickly. Our first employee, Lauren, was working with me. We've been in the same building on Hudson Street in Tribeca ever since we started. So one of the founders of Cole Systems, a software company, was the initial financier of priority. And so he gave us office space and And I've only worked in that building since 2004.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You don't have to oil it. It's not going to eat your pants or stain your pants. You never have to grease it. It's not going to rust. All of the gearing is inside the hub. And the advantage there is it's sealed from all the elements. And so it doesn't need all the constant maintenance. And if your bike falls over, nothing bends. You can just really focus on riding your bike.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's right. So the belt drive that we use is made of polyurethane, and inside of it is carbon fiber core. And the carbon fiber cords keep it together. And the belt drive lasts three times longer.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there's some breaking components inside the hub, but they go thousands of miles without ever needing anything. So we tried to think of simple things like Very high end spokes. The wheels don't go out of true or don't rust. And to use a comfortable seat, little things like the bike should come with a kickstand, right? Yeah. And then the final one was the belt drive, and that was really our differentiating feature.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and caught a coaster break. So, Coaster Break bikes are rather maintenance free. You can run those for thousands of miles without ever tuning the brakes.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the price tag, they see a bike and they want the cheapest bike that does what they need. And if one guy says, our bike has puncture resistant tires, most people don't care. So I just tried to do things like the puncture resistant tires. I tried to do the brakes. We wanted low maintenance brakes, and I always rode what's called coaster brake bike, which is probably how you grew up riding a bike guy. We pedal forward to go and backward to stop.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and we didn't want to, if you will say, reinvent the wheel. We wanted to use the best parts that were out there. Simple things. I knew that when I worked in a bike shop, people got flats a lot. They came in. I could say, hey, in addition to changing your tube, let's put a thorn-resistant tire on here or a thorn-resistant tube. And let's make sure that it's less likely you'll get the next flat. nine out of ten customers say, great, we want that. Other bike companies, they weren't selling bikes with things like puncture resistant tires because those cost more. And most customers don't see that.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I knew how to design everything on the bike other than the color and graphics where I needed some help, but I knew how to do all of the basics. And we wanted this bikes to last a long time. You still see a lot of older bikes on the road because they were made with good materials. A lot of what you buy today doesn't last like it used to. So we wanted to go back to that and really use every component with stainless steel and aluminum where we could so that the components would last. You know, it would last”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There was. My parents have always been nothing but supportive of me. And my wife, I had her full support to do this and to give it a shot. But there was other people in my life that when I told I left a high-paying job CEO of a company and a very good paycheck to start a startup with no money. And I'm not going to make any money, but I'm going to make this work. There were definitely others in my life that looked at me like I was crazy. And the bike industry. Is an overcrowded industry. It's not an industry that is needing another brand. Not 10 years ago, not today. It's not a slam dunk.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I also tried to bring in my experience of software. And back then in 2014, there wasn't a lot of bicycles being sold online. And those that are were pretty low quality. So I thought, gee, if we could bring something to market that's a bike shop quality bike that's really reliable, really long lasting, that maybe that'll resonate with people.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's right. So I was trying to take my experience of working in a bike shop, working for a bike manufacturer. And when you're in that world, Most excited about the high end bikes. You're excited about the carbon fiber, the titanium, the full suspension. And when I left the bike industry, The way I used a bike changed, I wasn't riding $5,000 bikes off-road. I was riding $300 bikes on the road. And so were my friends. And so I started to think about what do my friends need? Well, I go to their house and have to tune their bikes every time before we go for a ride. And, you know, the bike needs to be reliable so people aren't getting flat tires and they're not ruining their pants as they ride with their pants getting stuck in the chain. I started to just think about all these really simple creature comforts.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's correct. Yeah, we wound up selling the company to a bigger company, which was the right thing to do. It's where our industry was going. But it got to the point that I felt like I wasn't using my entrepreneurial energy the way I wanted to. So I had the title of president and CEO, but I certainly didn't feel like it. And I was getting told to run the business in ways that I disagreed with. And so I felt like it was time to go. Yeah. And when I stepped down. I was used to working seven days a week, and I've never known how to relax. And so relaxing wasn't going to start then. And I had a young family. So I knew I needed to do something. In selling the company a year earlier, my non-compete was heavy. And I knew software at this point. I knew bikes. And all I could think about is how can I put those two together?”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, in 2013, I started to think about what would be next for me. I loved having entrepreneurial ideas. I loved... In software being able to twist and turn with the software company and figure out how we could evolve, we grew much larger. We had, I think, 280-something employees when I left in 2014. This was, it was.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, absolutely. So, something that was different for me in New York than California. In California, we ride our bikes all year round. New York, we don't, and it gets really wet and the snow and the ice are on the ground and we stop riding bikes. And so people here in New York, you know, spring comes and their bike sat in the basement all winter. And if they're lucky in the basement didn't flood, the bike probably needs a tune-up and needs some adjustment. And so I found a lot that every time I wanted to go ride a bike with a friend, my bike was ready to go because that was part of what I did, but their bike never was ready to go. So I always had to call a friend, get there early, tune their bike, and make sure it's ready to ride.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, there were two founders and they mentored me extensively. And they also really encouraged me to grow my area of the business. And then at some point take over management of the business. And I liked managing, I would say I liked managing the business more than I liked managing people. But we had a really nice group that we're all passionate about the software. And even more importantly, we're passionate about our customers.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, right when I got to New York, I got a used 70s schwinn and made sure it was properly adjusted and used it every day to get to work and get around the city. And so I've now been in New York 19 years and I rarely go anywhere that's not by bike.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Enterprise Resource Planning, and that entails all aspects of the company. So it's your inventory management, your financial management, everybody in accounting and down the line. And all of a sudden, I realized that. Microsoft owned this software and they were going to be putting tremendous resources behind it. And I knew it really well And so I started to look for a role in doing this new software, which was later called Microsoft Dynamics. And I found a company in New York that needed someone to head a group to take this software on. And I took that opportunity to move to New York and try something new. And plus, my friend Connor Siegel just moved to New York and he was having a good time. And it seemed like a fun place to be in your early 20s.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was tin And that's why having me, who I was at, I both had this kind of database in my head of every bike for doing it for four years. You didn't need the software. You had me. I could tell you every little. And I knew a lot about software, and that's why they asked, put me in this joint role because they had a small IT department and they were going through a big system implementation.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I got a job opportunity from Giant Bicycle, which was one of the top and still is. Of course, one of the top bicycle companies in the world. And I saw myself growing in the bike industry. So, who doesn't want to go work for one of the top bike companies?”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so I was fortunate enough to work for the local chain of bike shops, had a wonderful owner who took me in and let me learn my knowledge of how to work on bikes through their mechanics, which were all great with me. And I learned a lot more about how a bike shop ran.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Which I did. I think it was more, yeah, it was playing cards, not like a baseball card. You need like a wax coated playing card. That's right. Wax to make that yourself.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Spot on. We got home from school. Well, first off, we rode our bike to school and then rode our bikes on and then stayed in front of the house or down the street at the mountain. And not only did I like to ride my bike, I love to work on it. I like changing my bike and fixing my bike and making my bike better. And then I loved working on the neighbors' bikes and doing everything I could to be involved in how the bike worked and how to improve it”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I loved riding my bike. And my friends and I went riding. That's what we did after school. It was long before there were kids playing video games, right? We were mountain biking and we loved it. And that was absolutely my passion and still very much is”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the classic bike was still doing well, so I knew that we had a win that could change. The company, though it couldn't carry me. And now I'm pretty deep. I have one successful product. I have one unsuccessful product. I know that the way I can grow this business is simple in theory and hard in reality. I need to have a bike that changes everything.”
2023-11-13 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Priority Bicycles: Dave Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT