how to start a bike collective

This is from my talk in Oaxaca Mexico about how to start a bike collective:

Hello,

My name is Momoko Saunders.  I live in portland OR and 5 years ago, a group of friends and I started the bike farm. We were just a bunch of idealist mid 20 year olds, realizing there was a need in our city for a bicycle collective. A bicycle collective is a place where you can learn to fix your bike.  

The idea was not new, San Francisco and LA had the bike kitchens and bikerowave, Seattle had the bikery. These bike collectives where in every major cycling city, it only made sense that portland should have one too. So we gathered up a list of interested friends, and we stared to have meetings to talk about how we were going to make one of these in our city. The process was quick. We divvied up responsibilities, some people made a tool list, of all the tools we'd need to run the shop, and other contacted bands they knew and asked if they'd put on benefit shows so we could fund raise. Another group of people set about writing letters to all the bike shops in town, asking for donations of tools or used parts. In a month, we had 3 parties, and raised about $1000. We had about 5 donated bikes, a bucket or two of used parts, and permission to use a friends garage for our shop. We had a work party, painted the walls fresh, and put up our tools. We had our first official meeting on September 7th and by December 1st, we were open and helping people fix their bikes.  

Our beginnings were slow, we helped maybe 20 people in the first month and made all of $97. But every month was better, and now we've been running for 5 years and thousands of people have fixed their bike in our shop.

I tell you this not because I think this is some recipe for creating a collective, but rather to inspire the idea in you that anyone can. I want you to understand that the hardest part about building a collective is showing up. But the reality is, if you show up, and you have tools, you can help people get on bikes. And it's not just helping them fix a flat, it's empowering them, it's saving them money, it's helping your city with it's pollution or crowded streets. It's doing your part to make the world a better place.  

start ups are hard

http://blog.jazzychad.net/2011/05/02/startups-are-hard.html

this is true, but i've done it now three times

four maybe...

kinda

CORE (a real estate company i worked for) was already started, but i was there for the big push, from 5 employees to 30

same with black star, dave already had the idea and traction, he just needed the organization.

bike farm, i was pretty much there from the beginning

"Collected", that was my failed attempt, i think i'll lump that in with trying to make my house an art collective.

and here i am again, with secure cellar door.

the difference between my successes and failures is first and foremost, having a partner.

"collected" was the biggest failure, and i really felt like i was doing it on my own. i didn't feel like anybody cared one way or another if i succeeded. my dad basically thought i was wasting my time, and while kurt liked the idea of having friends in the house all the time, he didn't care enough to work on the idea with me, or help me renovate the house. I basically had to pay for work from "friends" and so i was financier and founder. I became physically exhausted, and mentally burnt out. after the first year, i dove into depression which was only lifted by my first bike tour. Life changing,

to say what got me through in one word, inspiration.

ok, there are more words, drive, an overflowing of life and goodness, yes!

i went straight into bike farm, the next start up, and i had lots of partners. That helped with the success, and the other thing was that is was a really good idea and totally needed in the portland bike community. i look at the bike temple and wonder why it's not succeeding, and i think it's mostly because, it's just down the street from us. it wasn't really needed. if they had done it in the south east, it might be a different story.

The other success was having a partner that was better than me in a certain way. Ariel is a social mastermind. As much as i like to believe that i am good at making friends and influencing people, she is better. she could just convince people to help her, and followed through with them to make sure it happened. she was also in the community. another thing that i've seen to lead to the success of a company/organization. Dave of black star bags is also very intrenched in the community. he's respected, and has a name. these where too things i lacked with Collected.

as for secure cellar door,

i sort of have a partner. sometimes i don't feel like ben is my partner, sometimes i feel like i'm trying to make the company work on my own. that's silly tho, i have two partners really,

hmm, having a stake in the company is also new, and important

i think that's what i lacked at black star. that's why i left,

i remember the day i realized i was stressing over the business as if it were my own, and then a friend said, "but momoko, it's not."

the same can be true for Secure Cellar Door. while there is a thought of 5% or 10%, it feels far off, and with strings attached. it's not my baby. ben's not my husband and this is not our baby.

but the idea of 5% helps, and certainly with the biggest success, bike farm, i feel that i have a stake in it. not ownership, which is kinda of amazing.

like, i have as much pride as a owner, but whenever i get to a point where i don't know what direction to go with the org, i just ask all the other owners. and honestly, when we fail at things, i don't feel total personal responsibility. this could be seen as a bad thing, and personal accountability is something we work towards, but at the same time, it's really nice to have a space where i can experiment and try things out and not feel like a failure if it doesn't go the way i thought it would.

lots of work environments could be like this, accepting of failure, but even writing it out seems like something you wouldn't want to encourage in your own business. it seems like unsound business advice, "to be ok with failure."

there's something to this i'm sure,

how can i apply this now to my current project.

bike seeds will not be as accomplished if i have to do it on my own. see, i'm already going down the same path as collected, because this is my idea, the other start ups where not.

Is there a need for my idea.

to spread the ideas of collectivism,

eh? yes, but i'm not the first to try,

so yeah, i need to work on that one...

am i in the community? yes, but, i'm loosing my stance. leaving for Australia has really hurt me here. but, i have another year to make it again.

am i ok with failure? yeah! that's the one i've really got. see i want to go on this ride even if i don't change the world. i mean, i sure hope i do, but, biking the pan america highways going to be awesome even if it's just for the ride...

so, i've got a few things going for me,

i shall meditate more on what makes for a good environment for a start up.