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Volume 17, Issue 16, Week of April 23, 2018
Thomas rather fell into the Biktrix opportunity after his own electric bike went a little viral. “It happened gradually. I built my first bike and some people asked me to build theirs . . . So I built them a couple. We just started doing a lot more conversions. Before I knew it we were doing 50, 60 bike conversions,” he said. “I found a need for a fat-tire electric bike that wasn’t on the market, so we designed one ourselves. In 2014, we launched a Kickstarter campaign for that bike model and that was hugely successful.” Fat-tire bikes are out there, but at the time there weren’t a lot of electric ones, he noted. “We were one of the few Kickstarter campaigns that delivered all of our goods by the promise dates. We delivered all of the bikes and more people started buying them off our website.” The website, by the way, is the Biktrix sales model. Thomas notes there are electric bikes on the market, but one of the things that makes his company different is how he sells them. “A lot of them sell to bike shops and they have a lot of middlemen involved, so the distribution channel ends up eating a lot of the cost,” said Thomas. “We’re disrupting that model by selling direct to the consumer. “We don’t have any middleman. We don’t sell through dealerships. We have some online retailer partners, but we’re mostly selling online.” The showroom at 100-120 Sonnenschein Way is the first, but the idea is to put small showrooms in other cities so people can test Roshan Thomas’ company, Biktrix Electric Bikes, was started in 2014 and has been growing ever since. (Photo by Joanne Paulson) and ride the bikes, and still order online. After the fat-tire bike, Biktrix launched a couple more models the next year, and the following year a few more — all of them through the website, www.biktrix.com. He may be a disrupter, but Thomas doesn’t engage in a lot of social media; rather, sales Joanne Paulson “I was out to build an electric motorcycle, the accolade after those in attendance at the come largely by word of mouth. Saskatoon Express but it was too expensive and not easily banquet voted by text. The Kickstarter campaign was run in f the world is truly going electric, Roshan feasible,” said Thomas. “So I built an electric He’s not new to entrepreneurship. His North America, so it helped Biktrik get into Thomas has a big head start on the trend. bicycle and everyone who test rode it wanted father is an entrepreneur, and when Thomas the U.S., he said. Admittedly, he’s going about it to buy it, so I started selling them.” was a youngster in Bangalore, India, he “Most of our sales are in the U.S., some his own way: Thomas is creating electric That was the beginning of Biktrix Electric started a couple of his own companies, here in Canada, and some worldwide. The bicycles, as opposed to turning gas-guzzling Bikes in 2014. Last month at the NSBA selling them before moving to Canada. He’s farthest place we’ve sold, from here, is cars into, say, hybrids, but the initial inspira- Business Builder Awards, Thomas (and his always on the lookout for opportunities, Dubai. We’ve sold a bunch in Europe, like tion was similar, and some of the effects on company) was presented with the Young and admits to being “influenced by his sur- Iceland, Finland.” the environment are also there. Promising Entrepreneur Award, winning roundings.” (Continued on page 6)
Electric Bicycles
City company selling bikes worldwide
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CT042301 Carol
May 4-6, 2018
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