The Financial State of the Bike Industry - Jeff Brines on The Inside Line 5

Today we're joined by Jeff Brines, a long-time mountain biker, Litter Mag and Vital MTB fan. He's also educated and versed in finance. He kicked off a forum thread on Vital MTB that asked "Will more companies be shutting down in the next 12-24 months?" At a year old, the thread has over 100,000 views with nearly 800 replies as news about our industry has broken. We discuss the past and current state of the bicycle industry through his analysis and tools and see if we can figure out where we're headed.

THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

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Podcast Contents
0:00 - Intro, who is Jeff and what are we discussing?
6:11 - Why start a Vital MTB forum post about bike companies shutting down?
11:07 - Why did the *money people* think MTB would make them rich during Covid?
17:30 - Is it just greed and ego?
19:55 - Why did bikes stop selling?
23:49 - Why don't brands save money for slow times?
27:54 - Most of the bike industry is privately held
32:52 - Companies that went under, does the investment money just disappear?
38:05 - Original owners buying a company back, Family Office and Private Equity
46:25 - Private equity and how it works
51:54 - Is going bankrupt expected with venture capital investors?
53:51 - The lunacy of VanMoof being worth $500 million
1:04:23 - What does the bike industry future look like?
1:12:41 - Is there any incentive to get into the bike industry now?
1:15:41 - Is there an ideal company size?
1:17:48 - Will the business world repeat the same mistakes 10 years from now?
1:21:31 - Tools to learn about the bike industry
1:26:10 - Vital audience survey

• Check out Jeff's slideshow presentation here (Google Slides)
• Vital MTB Audience Surveys (scroll to bottom of page)
• https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
   

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