Monica Zarafu: This will be a game changer in the entire urban landscape because people will be encouraged once they try.

Adam Spencer: Hi, and welcome to day one, the show for regional startups and the organizations that support them. My name is Adam Spencer and today I'll be sharing with you the story of Monica Zarifu, the founder of Baico.

Adam Spencer: And just a quick note, since sitting down with Monica to record this interview and the process of putting the episode together, Baico announced some exciting news. They have a new CEO, Mark Arundale.

Monica Zarafu: Hello, I am Monica Zarifu, Managing Director of Baico.

Adam Spencer: And what is Byco?

Monica Zarafu: Byco is an electric bike share company.

Monica Zarafu: It was the first of this kind in Australia. We started in 2014 with push bikes, but then in 2016 we moved to electric bikes. So we provide a platform for electric bikes with a docked base system, so you can dock the bike and recharge the bike through the docking terminals.

Adam Spencer: Born in Romania, Monika moved to Australia in 2010.

Adam Spencer: Motivated by a need to mitigate the threat of climate change, and seeing the mass adoption of bicycles in parts of Europe, Monika is aiming to build more than just a successful business. With the lofty ambition of reshaping the way we think about transport in Australia, Monika has been working 100 hour plus weeks to build BICO As a proof of concept, with the hopes that an electric bike sharing model could be adopted by governments and used as part of an integrated public transport system.

Adam Spencer: But before we dig into the details of how Monika believes electric bike sharing can change transport in Australia, first we need to go back to day one. and learn about the research Monika undertook, which ultimately led her to believe that, as she says, bikes are the future.

Monica Zarafu: I am a transport engineer, but in 2010, when I came to Australia, and I was very lucky to meet Dr. Gary Glazebrook, one of the best urban planner, transport planner we have in Sydney. So I started a master by research with Gary. So I This brought me three big achievements, a scholarship from CSIRO looking at climate change, uh, mitigation from a transport perspective.

Monica Zarafu: Um, then, yeah, my, my research also got an award, um, the, Mar first Martin Lawson award, uh, from advanced transit association. Um, so it was my chance to, to visit Silicon Valley and I got a job at city of ride.

Adam Spencer: So Monica's research for her master's degree helped bring her three big achievements, a scholarship from the CSIRO, the Martin Lawson award from the advanced transit association, and a job as a transport engineer at the city of ride.

Adam Spencer: While working for the City of Ryde, Monika continued her research and increasingly believed that bikes could play a major role in reshaping Australia's transport systems. While bike sharing ventures had been tried in Australia, they had mostly been considered unsuccessful. But Monika has seen these systems work in Europe, and believed that they could work in Australia too.

Adam Spencer: In Europe, if we just go to Europe for a second, um, Because, because you're, you're, you're from, Yeah, I've been born there, in Romania. Um, where were you born?

Monica Zarafu: In Romania.

Adam Spencer: In Romania. Um, what, like, is that the perfect vision of what bike sharing could be? If you go to Europe, what does it look like over there?

Adam Spencer: It's

Monica Zarafu: a really good picture, to be honest. Because every major city has a public bike share scheme. Some of them, they even have more, more systems. And not only the government supports bike sharing, um, but also, um, rail, railway agencies or other public transport agencies and other agencies. Um, subsidized bike sharing as, um, you know, additional transport mode to expand their, uh, services, you know, by rail, by bus, by light rail.

Monica Zarafu: Okay. So we need to look at different models for, for something like this to work in Australia. What I believe it's bike sharing should be integrated with other public transport modes.

Adam Spencer: Right. Why?

Monica Zarafu: Because it's a perfect solution for short distance trips. And not only short distance trips, because now with electric bikes, and this is why I introduced electric bikes, they can reach up to 25 kilometers per hour with power assistance.

Monica Zarafu: So you can actually reach not only CBD, but other suburbs, uh, easily.

Adam Spencer: One thing that Monica believes is holding bike sharing back in Australia is the way we expect that bike sharing should be a profitable business as opposed to a public service like public transport.

Monica Zarafu: And where I see the problems and I wanted to prove wrong is that bike sharing is public transport infrastructure.

Monica Zarafu: No public transport mode makes profit. Why would bike sharing be compared with what? With car usage? It doesn't make any sense. So if we don't consider failure light rail or, you know, with much more investment than bike sharing, why still bike sharing in Australia was considered a failure. And I still, I think it's a, it's a wrong perception of bike sharing.

Monica Zarafu: And we try to do in our way by proving that a properly planned bike sharing system can work.

Adam Spencer: So Monica set out to change people's perception of the role bike sharing could play in public transport. Her research and the accolades it brought her had given her access to a network of people working in local councils and state government and so she started talking to them about the potential of bike sharing.

Monica Zarafu: And I started going to meetings and conferences and talking to people about, you know, what bike sharing would be. Um, then we, um, We decided, okay, let's, let's do something because I thought things are going too slow. For me, I wanted to be a bit more dynamic and then is when I started a business and I say, I will do something.

Monica Zarafu: I will prove the concept. I was working at City of Ryde in Sydney and I told my husband, we should start a business with, with bikes. We didn't know what kind of business, but I, I saw the movements in Europe mainly because I did research in Europe and United States and I say, this will be huge, you know, bikes are the future and they are a viable option, um, you know, for short trips.

Adam Spencer: Okay. When you, in 2014 was when you started? Yes. Yes.

Monica Zarafu: Yeah. We started with a few self serve. stations and we installed the stations at a few hotels in Sydney, Newcastle and Hunter Valley. And we, you know, it was a side business and a small business. We, as I told you, we were looking to buy a bike shop at the time, but then we realized that competition from online sales will be fierce.

Monica Zarafu: And we saw in Sydney, a lot of bike shops closing down because, uh, because of the online sales. And we said, no, no, no, let's, let's do some bigger. And I wanted more. So we started with a few stations for hotels, but I wanted more. My, I dreamt of having, um, Station at every new residential building and office buildings in Australia and the global

Adam Spencer: Was it always in your mind to launch a business or was it you just got to a point where you're like?

Adam Spencer: No, I have to do this.

Monica Zarafu: Yes. It was pretty much this. I have to do this. I have to do something

Adam Spencer: right

Monica Zarafu: So

Adam Spencer: 2014 you launched the business Was there any big kind of launch around, around that media attention?

Monica Zarafu: No, no, nothing. We, we just found some off the shelf solutions, you know, with push bikes. Um, so stations, self serve stations, and it was pretty much bike hiring.

Monica Zarafu: Um,

Adam Spencer: on day one of the business, like when you, when you decided we're going to do this, you go and register the company. What do you, what do you do next? Like what's the most important thing that you decided that we need to do to make good progress?

Monica Zarafu: At the time it was finding good locations because, you know, that business model is based on revenues from bike rentals.

Monica Zarafu: And we, we started looking at touristic areas. This is how Newcastle, Newcastle came to our, you know, attention. We didn't know much about Newcastle at the time. We were living in Sydney

Adam Spencer: for

Monica Zarafu: many years.

Adam Spencer: Okay. Because earlier on, I think you said you, you launched the business in Newcastle, but at this stage, when you were deciding we're going to start a business, you were still living in Sydney.

Adam Spencer: Yeah.

Monica Zarafu: So we, in, in fact, we launched the business in Sydney because we had stations in Sydney too. So, and we are living in Sydney. And then we moved everything to Newcastle, and even myself and my husband, we moved to Newcastle.

Adam Spencer: Um, what was the main reason for the move? Just because Newcastle was the most ideal location to test this?

Monica Zarafu: Um, it's It was business related, but we, we also fell in love with, uh, Winnicastle. It is a beautiful city. It's a beautiful city, and it was an unexpected discovery, you know. People in Sydney, even today, they, you know, they don't get it.

Adam Spencer: Yeah.

Monica Zarafu: We, we love, you know. It's just a

Adam Spencer: perfect balance, I think. It's

Monica Zarafu: a, it's a perfect balance, yeah.

Adam Spencer: So, out of a sense of having to do something, Monica and her husband started their business with some off the shelf, self service bike rental stations. They set them up at a few hotels, first in Sydney, then in the Hunter Valley in Newcastle, where they eventually relocate after falling in love with the city.

Adam Spencer: These first rental bikes were old fashioned push bikes where you could only go as fast as you could pedal. They were somewhat successful as a proof of concept, but they were only bringing in a small amount of revenue. This was not the grand vision of a bike. Bike sharing solution integrated with public transport that Monica envisaged.

Adam Spencer: If they were going to change the way Australia got around, they needed to move faster. You said it took a lot longer than you wanted it to. You put a couple of stations around, but that wasn't happening quick enough. So what did you do to speed things up?

Monica Zarafu: I spent a few good years just presenting the concept.

Monica Zarafu: But then at the cycle show in Europe, I tried an electric bike and that was the wow moment.

Adam Spencer: Ah, right, because right still you were doing just cycle, just pedal. Just pedal

Monica Zarafu: bikes, trying to convince the government to invest in bike sharing with no success at the time, you know. I tried an electric bike and I said, my God.

Monica Zarafu: This will change the game, because if, if I am happy, I am not fit, you see me, I am not really unfit, but I am not a fit person, I, I wasn't into cycling. I loved the, you know, riding the bike, but I didn't feel confident enough on a push bike to go on the main roads, you know, because I had this queue of cars behind me and, and I tried an electric bike and I say, my God, this is wow.

Monica Zarafu: And I thought if it's so good for me that now I can feel confident, you know, to go shopping, to go, you know, to do errands, to go to meetings without getting all sweat and, you know, I said, this will be the game changer for other people like me, especially woman. And that was the changing moment. Everything changed in our business.

Monica Zarafu: So from that moment forward, we say, okay, we will stop what we do now. We will start investing in developing an electric bike share system.

Adam Spencer: Monica experiences the added confidence that an electric bike can bring to a cyclist on the road. And she believes that this technology could move them towards their goal much faster than old fashioned pushbikes. The vision was still to integrate bike sharing into public transport, but with the pivot to electric bikes also came a new target client, residential property developers.

Monica Zarafu: Okay, so we got interest from residential developers. We had on Forbes, um, the Art Group Residential Developers. They, they really, the project director was, you know, He loved the idea and he said, yeah, I want to be an early adopter. I love what you are doing.

Adam Spencer: Can you tell me more about that? Did they reach out to you or did you reach out to them?

Monica Zarafu: No, I reached out to them.

Adam Spencer: And you decided we're going to, like, as a strategy, we're going to reach out to probably Developers. Yes.

Monica Zarafu: As a strategy, we, we started approaching real estate developers, especially this, you know, the, um, the new developments with a lot of new amenities.

Adam Spencer: What, what did you say to them?

Adam Spencer: What were you saying to them to, to make them go? Okay. That's interesting.

Monica Zarafu: I told them that this is the future gym or pool of a building, an electric bike, uh, station. And I told them that, And I still believe this. It's a, it's a great. Selling tool for them.

Adam Spencer: In 2016, BICO score their first customer for an electric bike sharing system, a residential real estate developer.

Adam Spencer: It's a relatively small contract, 10 bikes in a residential building, but it's proof that there are people out there interested in their vision for electric bike sharing. And in the same year, Monica comes across an opportunity to test out their dream project, a public bike sharing system. The opportunity is the Make Your Place grant from the City of Newcastle, which allows them to set up a three month trial in Newcastle West, where members of the community can register to use their shared electric bikes for free.

Monica Zarafu: We want that City of Newcastle, um, Make Your Place community grant. We install a station, at that time we, we had a space, an office space, at Rethink Financial Building, it was a shared office space, and we said, it's perfect place, it's kind of isolated from the city and we put a station there and people started going, uh, in lunch breaks to the beach, posting photos.

Monica Zarafu: And then people contacted us, ah, bring a station and we can bring a station at a ferry, bring a station in Hamilton. You know,

Adam Spencer: how important was that to you in the business? Very

Monica Zarafu: important, very important because it gives us the opportunity to test the model.

Adam Spencer: Did money come with that?

Monica Zarafu: Very little. Very little.

Monica Zarafu: So, yeah. Right.

Adam Spencer: It was, so what was the benefit of it? It was just the ability to test it around. Just

Monica Zarafu: the ability to test and get some data and prove, you know, the model. Show that actually people are using electric bikes given the opportunity.

Adam Spencer: And then in 2018, BICO was awarded a contract by Transport for New South Wales to install 19 electric bike sharing stations across the city of Newcastle.

Adam Spencer: And from there, bi O'S growth Continu. Can you wrap some numbers around where the business is today? You don't have to talk about revenue, uh, or specifics, but just some things that you measure your success by, your, your milestones.

Monica Zarafu: We, we are actually quite proud of our achievements, considering that, you know, we are a small business.

Monica Zarafu: Still a small company and a bootstrapped company. So we started with literally 25 bikes in 2014 and now we have programs running in Newcastle, in Perth. We just launched in Perth the program with RACWA and University of Eastern Australia. We have in Canberra. We have now installations soon in Sydney, Sunshine Coast, Nusa.

Monica Zarafu: It's a big, it's a huge growth.

Adam Spencer: How many, um, bikes in total are out there on the roads?

Monica Zarafu: Currently around, uh, 300. But by the end of the year we will double the numbers.

Adam Spencer: Wow. What's been the biggest challenge for you, like, in running BICO? Why, has there been something, like, what's the hardest thing about it for you?

Monica Zarafu: To create a market for our product here in Australia. I think this was the biggest challenge for us to create a market. I think we were a bit ahead of the times. It was too new. Bike sharing is not new, but in Australia it was a bit, a bit new. And even the, the concept of residential bike sharing, it was absolutely no one knew.

Monica Zarafu: So people in Australia, they don't take risk easily. And it's a, It's a very different environment compared to Europe or United States, you know, there, there you have to be the first always. And I came with this, you know, attitude, let's be the first, but it's much harder here.

Adam Spencer: I think perhaps you picked the, uh, uh, Newcastle is notorious for, for, you know, being hard to get, get things going.

Monica Zarafu: Everyone told us that if we succeed in Newcastle, the market will open. I didn't understand exactly what they wanted to say. We understand now. It's a bit difficult.

Adam Spencer: So the biggest challenge has been creating the market. How have you been trying to overcome that? How have you been overcoming that challenge?

Monica Zarafu: 100 plus hours work per day, per week. That

Adam Spencer: was going to be my next question. How many hours are you working? Yeah, 100 plus hours. 100

Monica Zarafu: plus. No weekends, no holidays. We, I don't know when the day starts or ends. So you invest, you, you invest whatever you have. If you believe in an idea. This was our, you know, belief.

Monica Zarafu: I, I was so determined to, to prove that, you know, and I still believe, you know, imagine if. Every developer will provide bikes for free for residents. This will be a game changer in the entire urban landscape because people will be encouraged once they try. Do you know how many people we have users here in Newcastle?

Monica Zarafu: They send me emails thanking for the system and telling me they bought electric bikes after a few months of using our bikes. Because they discover how great they are.

Adam Spencer: A huge thanks to Monica Zarifu for taking the time to speak with me. This episode was produced by me, Adam Spencer, with scripting and audio editing by Andy Jones. Amazing, amazing work. Information about everything mentioned in this episode can be found on the show notes page at welcometodayone. com.

Adam Spencer: Music by Leigh Rosevere, full attribution on the Welcome Today One website. If you'd like to support this show, please consider leaving us a review or supporting us on Patreon. I'm Adam Spencer, thanks for

listening.