Rad Power Bikes

When Mike Radenbaugh was 15, living in the steep hills of Humboldt County, California, he started going to a regional high school 17 miles away from his house. The bus was unreliable in his rural town and the terrain was too intense to bike. Radenbaugh decided to build an electrically powered bicycle, and he bought a motorcycle lead-acid battery an... d a brushless motor and got to work. With his makeshift prototype, he could go 35 miles an hour and ride to school without breaking a sweat. His town newspaper wrote a story about him and his invention. Paying customers then came knocking, which later helped him save up for college. Radenbaugh and his childhood best friend, Ty Collins, dreamed of building Rad Power Bikes into a real company one day. After getting his master's degree in electric-vehicle manufacturing, Radenbaugh, along with Collins and college friend Marimar White-Espin, launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $40,000. The campaign went viral and the three made $320,650 in electric-bike presales. They decided to go for it and moved to Seattle to launch their company. After finding the right manufacturer in China and raising $180,000 from angel investors, Rad Power started delivering on its presales. The company, which sells its bikes directly to customers online in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, brought in $45 million in 2018. With more than 100 employees and 30,000 square feet of retail space in Seattle, the company is firing on all cylinders. --Will YakowiczRead More