Building Rocket Espresso
From The Top
Rocket Espresso is not a cycling brand per se, but it’s arguably the best known coffee brand who are part of the orbit in our own little cycling world. It’s only a recent phenomenon that cycling and coffee have gone hand in hand, and most cyclists have an appreciation for beautiful, mechanical, craftsmanship which Rocket does so wonderfully. New Zealander Andrew Meo is the co-founder of Rocket Espresso and it’s no coincidence that the brand found its way into cycling. Andrew is a lifelong avid cyclist and his passion for coffee didn’t come until a bit later in his life......
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Building Ritchey
From The Top
So much of Tom Richey's story has already been documented and I didn’t want to just do that again. In fact, I can’t do justice to telling Tom’s intertwined life and business journey in a reasonable length of podcast. But as it turned out, what came out of Tom during our interview ended up being so much better. At this point of Tom’s life I found him incredibly reflective on his experiences, with the benefit of years of hindsight and perspective.
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Building Cervelo
From The Top
The genesis of Cervelo started in 1995 when two young engineering students named Phil White and Gerard Vroomen met in the composites lab at McGill University in Canada. Over a span of 15 years they went from building a crazy aerodynamic time trial bike as a university project to creating one of the most disruptive and loved bike brands in the world.
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Building Zwift
From The Top
Indoor training has been around for longer than I can remember, but it was in 2014 when Zwift came along that it changed this market forever.
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Building Castelli
From The Top
You’ll be hard pressed to find a more iconic brand in cycling than Castelli. The company dates back to the late 1800’s.
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Building 'Life in the Peloton' with Mitch Docker
From The Top
When pro cyclist Mitch Docker announced his retirement I was in the middle of producing Christian Meier’s story, much of the background I got from Mitch’s podcast, Life in the Peloton. So it got me thinking about Life in the Peloton. Is it a business for Mitch? How did he start this? What makes him tick? Where might it go? Mitch is clearly a smart, talented and hard working guy, so why not document his story now at this point of his journey rather than 10 years from now?
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Building The Service Course
From The Top
If you follow professional cycling and are attracted to specialty coffee, beautiful custom bikes, and boutique travel, then there’s no doubt you haven’t already come across Christian and Amber Meier’s businesses. The couple from Canada embarked on a professional cycling career for Christian and settled in the once sleepy Catalan town of Girona. The two of them are the founders of La Fabrica, Espresso Mafia and Service Course which have now become institutions of Girona that people seek out.
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Building 7mesh
From The Top
7Mesh are an apparel brand based in Squamish, Canada who make top quality clothing made for the demands of mountain biking, gravel and road.
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Building Curve Cycling
From The Top
It all started in around 2010 when Curve’s earliest founder, Steve was working in a bike shop and got asked all the time for wheel upgrades. At that time the only thing available for after market carbon wheels were basically ENVE, Zipp, and a few others which were a major price leap from high end alloy wheels. Steve started asking himself why a more accessible carbon wheelset wasn’t available, so he did it himself.
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Building LIV/Giant Bicycles
From The Top
You could very well argue that Bonnie Tu is the most powerful woman in cycling, although she wouldn’t think of describing herself that way. She’s best known as the face of the LIV brand she created back in 2008, but more than that she’s the Chairman of the largest bike brand in the world: The Giant Bicycle Group. What does that mean? Quite simply – she runs the entire show.
info_outlineJosh Poertner isn’t your typical cycling industry personality. In fact, he’s not your typical anything. He’s one of those people that when you meet him, you’re taken back by a man who is filled with enthusiasm, curiosity, positive energy, and intelligence that really makes him stand out from most human beings.
These days, you may associate Josh’s name as the man who reinvented Silca, the Italian tyre pump brand founded over a hundred years ago. But as with most of these stories, it was far from a straight path, and anything but easy. He started as a keen and talented cyclist, who later became a brilliant engineer who got his feet wet in motorsport and later went on to be an enormous influence in making the Zipp wheel brand what it is today.
Josh’s story is nowhere close to being finished and dare I say we’ll see so much more from him and Silca in the next decade and more. Josh is a fairly regular guest on our weekly show and nerd alert podcasts, so check back regularly to get his clever insights, and to keep up with what he’s doing. Also, don’t forget to support Josh by going to Silca.cc when thinking about a new pump, a set of alenkeys, a titanium anodised drinking straw if that’s your thing, or whatever he’s cooking up next.