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Scooterboard Founder Rose Wang Reached Kickstarter Funding In Less Than 48 Hours
Rose Wang is the Founder and CEO of Scooterboard by InMotion, an electric vehicle that fuses the electric scooter with a skateboard. Her team in San Diego includes Dr. David Hall, PhD – Engineer and Jeffery Will – Experience Manager, and an international team in China. Rose Wang looked to Kickstarter for funding and reached their $25,000 goal in less than 48 hours. What’s great about this particular campaign is that the Scooterboard ships 45 days after the Kickstarter ends. Because of the work that Rose Wang and her team already put into Scooterboard, there will be no wait time for development and testing.
Rose Wang designed the Scooterboard so that just about anyone can ride it. The Scooterboard has a three wheeled base and a handle, ensuring maximum control when cruising. While riding, the feeling is similar to snowboarding because of the axle at the base, allowing for smooth turns and a unique riding experience. Rose Wang loves the Scooterboard so much, she uses it daily. Her entrepreneurial journey has been an interesting one. From selling handmade paper dolls in daycare to creating an e-commerce store for Asian cosmetics, Rose Wang has dipped her toes in a little bit of everything.
We had the opportunity to interview Rose Wang, as she revealed her roots as an entrepreneur and the process of how she developed Scooterboard.
Rose Wang, what is your background?
I’m an immigrant from China. I moved to the US when I was in the 3rd grade. Growing up, I had all sorts of aspirations in different fields, be it in law or engineering or art, but one trait that persisted has been my entrepreneurial spirit.
When I first arrived in the US, my parents were pretty poor, and the area we lived in was underdeveloped. While I was in daycare, I loved to draw, and some of my peers loved my drawings. I came up with an idea to sell my drawings: I’d draw and color in my figures, cut them out and glue it on a popsicle stick, and sell it for 50 cents. My daycare loved it – my figures became their Barbies and Bratz, without the high price tag.
As a high schooler, I became interested in Asian cosmetics because American cosmetics were not targeting my skin tone and features. I remember people on cosmetics forums complaining about the shipping fee from buying abroad, so I decided to start my own online shop where I would buy the cosmetics in bulk and distribute it to the western Hemisphere (I had customers in the U.S., Canada, and Australia), saving my customers the costly shipping fees.
While I was in college at Dartmouth, I took a plant biology class because I went to a liberal arts college and I had to take a course in each discipline. What I took away from that class was the amazing ability of plants to alter our human makeup, for good and for bad. Namely, I learned about the astragalus root, which increases telomerase activity and prevents aging. Telomeres protect our DNA from mutation, and over time, they naturally become shorter, which causes DNA to be vulnerable to mutation and in turn leads to the downside of aging. After learning about this plant, I started a new venture with astragalus extracts in order to bring this cheap and sustainable anti-aging substance to the masses.
After graduating with an Economics degree, I proceeded into the “real world” as a technology consultant, where I learned to maintain client relationships and lead a team of over 20 people within my first year. After that year, I switched over to become a software engineer, and I learned about quality control methods and development lifecycle. Overall, I have a background in many things, and they have all prepared me to start and grow my current business with Scooterboard.
Can you describe your team?
My international team is hard-working and ambitious. Our engineers have nearly 10 years of experience in the industry, having made other electric rideables that others depend on for daily commute. As a team, we want to create new products unlike anything else in the market, and we’re agile enough to improve ourselves upon feedback. Criticism doesn’t bring us down – it fuels us to be better. We all share the vision of creating a business model that is built upon our community, and we hope that, through crowdfunding to launch our brand, we will establish a community that is willing to give us the feedback and engagement we need to move our company and products forward.
Who are some influencers that tried it out and what did they think?
Shonduras was our first influencer to try it out and he absolutely loved it. He told me his 2-year-old loves riding it with him and that it’s his new favorite!
Ben Schmanke of AuthenTech also loved the experience as well. He told us the cutting and carving is effortless and feels like skateboard/snowboarding, which is awesome because that’s the experience we were trying to design!
We’ve also gotten feedback from Sean Hollister of CNET and Sean O’Kane of The Verge, and they were pretty positively surprised by the quality and experience. (O’Kane hasn’t published his review yet though so hopefully that’ll be posted this upcoming week)
So far everyone who has tried it has loved it, and because it’s a unique experience that’s brand new to the market, it’s really something you need to try yourself to believe it.
What was the process of creating the Scooterboard like?
The process of creating the Scooterboard was quite tedious, as we were creating a new, high-quality one-of-a-kind rideable. We started out with developing the components, such as the battery, the control module, the deck, the handle. We knew we wanted to create a light deck with the battery underneath, so we made sure to test each component thoroughly to make sure it would do what we need it to do. For example, we placed a huge block on top of the deck and dropped it from a height to make sure that the deck would hold its shape and protect the battery. To test the handle, we placed a weight at the top, and placed it in a horizontal vibration system to make sure the handle wouldn’t bend, even with 24 hours of endless back-and-forth movement.
Once we’ve made sure the components would be reliable, we start to assemble. After we assembled the rideable, we start a phase we call Angel testing, which consists of testing all the basic functionalities. And this is actually where we stopped with the first iteration because it did not encapsulate the experience we wanted. After much debate and consideration, we decided to scrap that first iteration and start over, rethinking the design and functionalities we wanted to provide to our users.
After creating our latest iteration, we took it through component and Angel testing again, and once it passed Angel testing, we put it through Devil testing, where we tested for edge cases (trying different weights, inclines, temperatures) and even tried to break it (such as jumping off a vertical stage). Once we passed Devil testing, we sent it out for user testing. This is where we had real riders to try it out and give us feedback so we can learn how they will use the product and what they look for out of the experience, and we used their feedback to go back to the drawing board to brainstorm solutions. Once we come up with the solution, we go through the entire test cycle all over again. Testing throughout the process is extremely important for us because as we make changes, we need to continuously make sure the new component can be safely integrated with the rest of the product.
We anticipate more feedback as this product is released to the public, and we hope to use the market feedback from our community to continue improving the Scooterboard.
What inspired you to create Scooterboard?
The inspiration came from us challenging ourselves to the create something that solved the problems untackled in the current market. When electric skateboards came out in 2012, there was a disruption in the transportation industry. People who had relied on cars before could now use personal transportation to get around. However, the people that were able to access this new mode of transportation were few – even experienced skateboarders may have trouble feeling safe commuting around with an electric skateboard. That’s when our team took it upon ourselves to create a rideable that would cater to a greater audience.
I think most people can agree in that skateboarding is cool, but not everyone has the time or risk-taking capacity to learn it, let alone an electric skateboard going at 20mph, at the mercy of a Bluetooth connection. And perhaps current e-board companies are okay with that, because they can charge an exclusive group of people an exorbitant amount for a motorized skateboard. For us, it became a mission: to disrupt the industry by creating an unique and accessible vehicle that is easy to learn and more affordable. With Scooterboard, we want to make the e-board culture more inclusive so that more people can participate in the electric vehicle movement. We want to challenge the e-board industry to innovate with inclusion in mind so it’s not just a cliché. E-boarding is a fun and awesome experience that’s good for the environment – why wouldn’t we want get more people involved?
What were some characteristics you were looking for during the initial development?
During the initial development, we focused on creating a transporter vehicle that felt safe and modern, in line with the trend of other electric vehicles at the time but giving a new spin. What we came up with was a futuristic vehicle that relied on the pushing and pulling of the handle to accelerate and slow. It looked very cool, but the experience was not exciting. So we scrapped it and started anew, focusing on the skateboarding experience. We wanted to capture the carving of a skateboard, where the rider leans his or her body to guide the direction, so we came up with the pivoting front truck. We wanted to make sure the rider can maintain stability and balance, so we created the handlebar with a curve to ensure the hand holding onto the handle would be centered. We created the control module to allow the user to single-handedly control the acceleration, braking, and direction of the Scooterboard.
What makes a Scooterboard different from other motorized skateboards and scooters?
Scooterboard is a brand new category, as it is unlike any other rideables out there. There is no skateboard with a handle and there is no scooter that rides like Scooterboard. Scooterboard breaks down the boundaries between a skateboard and a scooter, hence the name Scooterboard.
Do you use the Scooterboard in your everyday life?
Yes I do. I don’t have one right now because we only have 10 prototypes total and we need to send them out to others for review and feedback, but once we get them back, I will go back to using it everyday.
Who do you think the Scooterboard customer is?
Because Scooterboard is aiming at breaking down barriers to a culture that had been mostly exclusive (in experience and in price), we hope that answer is: everyone! But of course, if we must be more targeted, I’d say it’s for students, young professionals, and people who want to have fun without risking their safety. It’s a virtuous cycle: As you ride the Scooterboard, you experience immediate improvements, which increases your confidence in yourself, which then reinforces your skills as you start to be more bold and take more risks in riding it.
When can we expect the official launch?
We will officially launch our website right after our crowdfunding campaign ends!
Photos and video provided by Rose Wang and Scooterboard by InMotion.
When it comes to financial sustainability, you’re going to want to know as much as possible. As the negative effects of climate change exacerbate, financial sectors are (finally) starting to shift their investments toward Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations.
Sustainable finance is the process of taking ESG considerations into account when making viable investments. That means putting money into companies that develop renewable energy, hire and promote employ members of marginalized communities, and infrastructure that will help protect humans in at-risk environments.
This is a very serious, very complicated issue that we are running out of time to meaningfully tackle. There is also the risk that many of these efforts are performative (see: greenwashing), we have to make sure we are keeping those in power accountable.
Once again, we bring in our favorite finance expert, Danetha Doe Chief Economist at Clever Real Estate and creator of Money & Mimosas. There is a lot to consider when financing sustainability – and she’s here to break it down in a digestible way.
Here are 5 questions you should ask when considering financing sustainability, as explained by Danetha Doe.
Are these investments profitable? Or is this just charity for rich folks to pat themselves on the back?
Imperial College of London’s business school ran a multi-country analysis comparing the returns from each country’s largest fossil fuel and renewable energy stocks over the last 10 years. They found that renewable energy stocks delivered higher returns for both 5 and 10-year time periods.
Some people such as Kara Swisher and Chamath Palihapitiya think the next trillionaire will be someone that cracks a major problem in green energy. And for better or for worse, Elon is the richest person in the world based primarily on Tesla’s value.
All this to say, the answer is YES. You can care about the planet and make money at the same time.
Will these investments actually help the environment in tangible ways? How soon?
Broadly, yes, these investments will help – and are helping – the environment in tangible ways. Investing in solar panels, rainwater harvesting, and electric vehicles while divesting from fossil fuels will help to reduce the pollution from power plants.
The timeline of course correcting the damage that has already been done depends on a lot of factors. addition to investments from individuals, we need governmental bodies, Wall Street, and other parts of the private sector to continue to get on board.
President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act includes environmental measures that will go a long way to support climate change efforts. The fashion industry, one of the biggest pollution culprits, has started to place a bigger emphasis on resale which will help to reduce waste. Wall Street has pumped out ESG funds that are more greenwashing than helpful, so we will need to hold them accountable.
As an individual, the way you choose to spend and invest your money will go a long way because it will force corporations to prioritize sustainability efforts.
Will taxing the wealthiest people their fair share help? Would something like a ban on private jets help?
The short answer is maybe. The corporate tax structure may need to be reviewed, but I’m a bigger fan of adding fees to resource use to cover the externalities and then redistributing those funds to climate change efforts. For example, Kourtney Kardashian exceeded her water allotment budget by 101,000 gallons in June. Instead of increasing her base income tax percentage, maybe there’s a fee of $1,000 for each gallon over the allotment budget. The $101,000,000 fee is then redistributed to technology companies solving the freshwater scarcity crisis.
Instead of banning private jets, you should have to pay a carbon fee for each ride. These fees might not stop the behavior, but they could finance the changes needed to get us to a greener future.
There are wealthy people who are actively trying to help with climate change efforts. Instead of penalizing all of them with a blanket tax, I suggest adding fees to resource use.
What kind of expenses will we be looking at if we fail to address climate change?
Deloitte’s report shows that inaction will cost the U.S. economy $14.5 trillion by 2070. Utility officials in Illinois estimate the warmer summers could cost locals an additional $11 billion over the next 30 years. By 2040, extreme heat in Arizona could add up to $110 to residents’ electric bills each year, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago predicts homeowner’s insurance premiums to rise due to climate change. In fact, some insurers have already stopped covering parts of California deemed too risky because of wildfires
Why me? Why do I have to make these changes? Should it just be the corporations since they’re the ones ruining the world?
This is an all-hands-on-deck scenario. Corporations should be held accountable, but they do respond to your spending and investing decisions. Greenwashing wouldn’t exist if corporations thought no one cared about the environment. At the very least, be selfish and think about the fact that the quality of the environment directly impacts you. The more you do your part, the greater chance you’ll have at being able to enjoy the beautiful outdoors without worrying about fire smoke ruining your lungs or extreme flooding wiping out your island vacation home.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Investing in ESG is critical – but we have to be selective where we divest and relentless in our pursuit to ensure accountability. Further things to consider when financing sustainability are:
- Are these ESGs contributing to organizations or projects that counteract environmental harms perpetuated by the company? Or are they arbitrary investments that let them greenwash their reputation/only investments that provide “accreditation” over genuine impact?
- Are ESGs investing in genuine solutions, or projects that perpetuate inequities and environmental harm?
- Are companies engaging with ESGs also changing their own practices? Probably not: “They found that the companies in the ESG portfolios had worse compliance record for both labor and environmental rules. They also found that companies added to ESG portfolios did not subsequently improve compliance with labor or environmental regulations.”
- Also – looking at ESG investments relative to a company’s other investments is imperative.
We send many thanks to Danetha Doe for her expertise in the financial field and her lovely disposition. Be sure to check out Money & Mimosas for other financial tips!
Big thank you to Molly Blondell for her perspective on sustainable finance as an expert in the field.
We can solve the climate crisis – we have a lot of work ahead of us. Get involved in your community, start in your neighborhood. Organize a clean-up, press your local officials to get serious about recycling programs, any little thing you can do helps.
Let’s get to work.
We live in distracting times. And with many of us operating remotely or in computer-dependent workplaces, it’s not hard to imagine why. But modern obstacles call for modern solutions. There are a number of apps on the market today to help you integrate a more efficient workflow.
What is a productivity app?
A mobile productivity app is a software program that allows smartphone, tablet, and wearable device users to perform essential day-to-day tasks.
Productivity apps are meant to increase the efficiency of their users. They can be useful for individuals and teams looking for transparent, collaborative methods of communication. A good productivity app can help you focus on work, track habits, manage time, and prioritize your obligations. Finding the best tool for your schedule and lifestyle is key.
What are the best productivity apps?
Here are 5 productivity apps to give you an extra push.
Proofhub
Proofhub helps teams organize and track their projects, facilitating a smoother collaborative process. What makes ProofHub one of the best project management apps, however, is that it has tools that help your team discuss visual materials.
Proofhub isn’t without its compromises. It doesn’t have budgeting, invoicing, or resources management tools. But you can integrate Proofhub with your accounting software if needed!
Pricing:
- Essential – $45/month. 40 projects, unlimited users, and 15GB storage.
- Ultimate Control – $89/month. Unlimited projects, unlimited users, and 100GB storage.
TickTick
TickTick is a cross-platform and collaborative to-do app that has a few neat features suited to the Getting Things Done (GTD) method of working and the Pomodoro Technique. TickTick offers two membership tiers: free and premium. Both tiers offer strategies for focusing to get hard work done without wasting time or procrastinating.
However, TickTick’s free account does carry some restrictions. For example, you can only make 9 lists, with 99 tasks per list, and 19 subtasks in any task. In terms of collaborating, free account holders can only invite one person per list.
TickTick’s Premium service allows you to add up to 5 reminders on each task, and share a task list with up to 29 members, making collaboration easier for your team. Additionally, you can upload 99 attachments every day.
Pricing:
- Free
- Premium: $2.99/month. $27.99/year ($2.33/m).
Trello
Trello is a great choice for fans of simplicity and those looking for the most user-friendly project management solutions. It’s easy to use and has almost no learning curve at all.
Trello’s free plan may actually suffice for smaller teams with lighter task management needs. This is especially true for individuals looking to manage their own workflow, rather than to oversee the work of others. However, the free plan does miss out on some helpful features, such as Trello’s priority support.
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month per user.
- Business Class: $12.50/month per user.
- Enterprise: $17.59/month per user.
Engross
Engross can be useful for those looking to improve their focus while working from home or manage a bustling life on the go. This app offers a clean, minimalist design that saves you the trouble of acclimating to a busier, more feature-laden app.
Engross includes a Pomodoro clock, a planner and calendar, and reminders alongside statistical analysis of how you use your time.
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month per user.
Evernote
Evernote has been regarded as the king of note-taking apps. But this has as much (if not more) to do with its tenured status as its effectiveness. It’s been around since 2004, which means it’s seen a lot of changes to the way we integrate technology into our task management.
The primary strength of Evernote is, of course, note-taking. Individual files are saved in Notes, which can then be organized into thematic Notebooks. Multiple Notebooks can be combined to create Notebook Stacks.
Evernote is known for its straightforward, intuitive interface. On both desktop and mobile, Evernote’s UI is clean and makes use of familiar icons to indicate the tool’s core functions.
Pricing:
- Free: $0/month per member.
- Personal Account: $8/month.
- Professional Account: $10/month per user.
- Endnote Teams Account: $15/month per user.
Trader Joe’s employees at a store in Hadley, Mass., have voted 45-31 to unionize, becoming the first location in the company to do so, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
The election marks yet another victory for working people and continues the promising trend of unionizing efforts across the country. The petition for the election was announced in June, with workers expressing a desire to have more say when it comes to compensation, benefits, and workplace safety.
“We would like to have a system that guarantees accountability from management,”
said Jamie Edwards, a Trader Joe’s Crewmember.
“A system that guarantees our benefits won’t be stripped away whenever they feel like it. But, overall, it’s about us having that power, and being able to make those decisions as a team.”
The election results achieve the first step towards that end.
Labor Movements
But for the workers in Hadley— a small town located about 100 miles west of Boston— the fight for a union began in May, when workers issued an open letter to company CEO Dan Bane. The letter cited concerns about pay, benefits, and safety.
The letter, dated May 14, was posted through the workers’ social media pages under the name “Trader Joe’s United.”
The 81 workers at the store — called crew members by the company — were eligible to vote in the election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.
The letter claims that two years ago, in March 2020, Bane sent a letter to the employees of Trader Joe’s. He asserted that unions were “falsely” claiming only they can protect the pay and benefits employees “currently enjoy”.
A Contract in the Works
In a statement to the press, a Trader Joe’s spokesperson said,
“We are prepared to immediately begin discussions with union representatives for the employees at this store to negotiate a contract. We are willing to use any current union contract for a multi-state grocery company with stores in the area, selected by the union representatives, as a template to negotiate a new structure for the employees in this store; including pay, retirement, healthcare, and working conditions such as scheduling and job flexibility.”
Trader Joe’s may be the latest company to see a successful attempt at unionizing, but their effort comes on the heels of several other labor victories around the country.
A Growing Wave of Labor Victories
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has seen a 58% increase in union representation filings over the past year alone, as well as a 16% increase in claims of unfair labor practices.
In December, a Starbucks in Buffalo became the first of its company-owned U.S. locations to form a union. Since then, at least 150 of the 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize, with 10 stores rejecting the union.
In January, engineers and other Google workers announced that they had formed a union—the Alphabet Workers Union— named after Google’s parent company, Alphabet. It represents about 800 Google employees.
April saw Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York vote to unionize, marking a first for the retail giant.
In May, video game workers at a division of game publisher Activision Blizzard voted to unionize, making them the first to create a labor union at a large U.S. videogame company.
What’s Next for Trader Joe’s Hadley Location?
The Hadley location employees are celebrating their organizing victory, but now comes the task of coming together for contract negotiations.
“Today, Trader Joe’s Hadley became the first unionized Trader Joe’s location, ever,”
the group said in a statement Thursday.
“We now begin the difficult work of sitting down at the negotiating table as equals with our employer, and securing a contract that will benefit and protect us, the crew, instead of the company’s bottom line,”
the statement continued.
The corporation has more than 530 locations across the U.S., with 10,000 employees and an estimated 2022 revenue of $13.3 billion.
Workers at two other Trader Joe’s locations have begun their own unionizing efforts as well. More Perfect Union reported Thursday that workers at a location in Minneapolis had filed for a union election, following the vote in Hadley. Workers at a Boulder, Colorado, store filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday.
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