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Comment by tomasmazetti | Hacker News Reader

Hi, my name is Tomas Mazetti. I'm one of the founders of Wheelys. I also like the outdoors, though not unreasonable so. I am from Sweden, home of the swedes.

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And my name is Maria De La Croix, the other founder of Wheelys. As seen in the video..

Oh, was that you? I thought it was some hired hipster!

Great idea! I'll have to add this to my possible retirement plans.

You are warmly welcome!

I'll assume this is an AMA then :-)

So how easy is it to ride one of those bikes? Do you have to be particularly strong, and what if you have say 50km to ride in a day to visit all the consuming destinations?

I think this could be popular in Australia. We hate Starbucks - it flopped in Australia and there are only a handful of them open in tourist hotspots. Aussies tend to be snobby about coffee and know the name and children's names of their barista. You may do well in AU if the coffee is top-notch. Although the market size is quite small here compared to the US of course.

I don't drink coffee, but I could see this working in the Adelaide CBD where the streets/footpaths are flat and in decent condition. It'd be easy to move around. Shame about the council's recent attitude to food trucks.

Hey, no, no muscles needed - the bikes has an electrical engine so whenever it's hilly you will get help from it.

The coffee is top notch, and will hopefully suit the australians taste as well.

It would be very dependent on location in Australia. I live in Sydney and I am spoiled for choice. There is literally no road from my place without at least 1 good coffee place. There are 3 roasters within a 1000m radius to me. I can get a great coffee just about everywhere.

We can certainly support more coffee businesses, but you're not going to become huge doing it.

As a British expat, the whole coffee scene is quite an amazing thing about Sydney. I can get a reasonably good barista coffee almost anywhere - the hardware store, the swimming pool, the furniture shop, most pubs, at childrens activities etc.

There are 1 or 2 coffee shops on every street near where I work in an otherwise very industrial area. They put a fair amount of effort into making themselves unique in style and differentiating themselves.

Australians are interested in but not big consumers of pour-overs. Cold-drip and other "exotic" coffee styles are increasingly seen, but by far and away the dominant style is Italian espresso.

And, presumably for power, space, and desire-to-be-low-carbon-footprint requirements, that's precisely the style Wheely's cannot provide. I'm doubtful whether this would be a viable business in Australia.

This seems like a cool product, but there's one thing I don't get: how can the cart have zero carbon footprint if the burners run on butane?

You are rightm but we can use Biogas in the burners, since the amount of fuel is negligeble compared to an engine. It is not avalible in all places yet though.

In that case, it doesn't seem very honorable for you to be giving quotes to the media like, "We’re powered only by the sun and your own body".

But it's not up to us. It's like someone who charges an electrical car with a diesel engine. How could Tesla police that? They would need thousands of private investigators, and we all know the quality of work of private investigators.

I don't understand -- the primary function of the cart is to make coffee, right? And it's impossible for the cart to carry out this primary function without some source of combustable fuel, yes?

If that's the case, there's no honest way you can claim it's "powered only by the sun and your own body".

Hi Tomas, Hi Maria! Congratulations!

I came across Wheelys online a few weeks ago, and it literally spoke to me, because it combines so many great things: (a) bicycles (b) tech (c) environment (d) coffee

Anyway, how did you connect with YC? What do you plan to do with the funds you've raised?

Thanks! We applied and they must have liked SOMETHING, though it is beyond us what. The plan is to build better and better bikes. No more, no less.

if it literally spoke to you, your meds may need adjustment. ;)

Hi Maria, How can I find out if this is legal to operate in my city? Do you need some sort of permit to occupy the space when parked? It would be helpful if you had a list of the laws in different cities. For example, I can't find any information on non-stationary selling for Montreal or Vancouver, Canada. Thank you!

Hi! The regulations are different from country to country, and even from city to city. We are learning by doing and will collect a database of all this but as for now I recommend you to check with your local council or health department :)

It seems a worthwhile experiment. I Just pre ordered ... now how do I get this thing to Panama City, Panama? Love the low carbon footprint angle.

Hey Matt, happy to have you on board. I will mail you!

Hi Thomas, I am Erik and am interested in purchasing a wheelys. Here are my questions:

* Would you consider your model a true franchise?

* Does a Wheelys 3 make drip coffee and espresso drinks?

* As you expand across the US and gain brand recognition, will there be a store locator app, gift cards, loyalty programs, etc.? (I live in a California tourist beach destination)

I am an American, home of the Yankees, the cronut, and truck balls.

Where I live in Puyallup, WA truck-balls/trucknuts are uncomfortably common.

* Would you consider your model a true franchise? I would not describe it as a true franchise. Rather a model of it's own inspired by the franchise model.

* Does a Wheelys 3 make drip coffee and espresso drinks? Yes

* As you expand across the US and gain brand recognition, will there be a store locator app, gift cards, loyalty programs, etc.? (I live in a California tourist beach destination) Yes

How does the "live in SV for a while -> demo day" model work for a company like this? Are you doing this like most regular YC companies? Does it involve conquering the SV market or maybe working on the corresponding app or are you actually back in Sweden?

Congratulations Tomas and Maria on the launch! It's a really interesting concept and it am excited to see if, when and how it will succeed.

Based on what I've read so far, it sounds like if I purchase a Wheely's cart, I almost a franchisee. What's different between Wheely's and the typical franchise model? Would I have to pay royalties for this? Also, would I have to source my own locations to place my cart and deal with the regulation within my local city?

I'll see if I can convince folks I know to bring this to Canada :)

Disclaimer: I'm the co-founder of a startup who's helping franchises find the perfect location for their store. We have done some analysis work on coffee store locations in Canada and the United States.

You refer to "franchise fees" on your Indiegogo page. Are you operating under the assumption that you are legally a franchise?

If so, have you filed franchise disclosure documents as required by law in the United States?

I'd be really interested to learn more about the "mobile greenhouse where you can grow your own coffee beans. Do you have anything written up anywhere?

Last time I looked into growing coffee the summary was pretty much "yeah, right", so hearing that it's possible on a small scale is very exciting.

I highly doubt growing coffee on a small scale will work for this application. Coffee trees typically take 2-3 years before they produce first fuit, and they mature into very large bushes/trees. A young coffee bush might make a good decoration, but will produce few if any coffee cherries.

Hi Tomas! Is this a razor + blade play? i.e. do you aim to make most of your money from selling beans?

Where in the bay can I try your coffee?

Starting in the end of next week you will be able to do this in San Francisco. Will get back with more information on WHEN and WHERE.

Have sent a mail to emily@support, would love to have a response.

Not received one yet? Mail me maria at wheelyscafe

Could you see something like this expanding into Canada?

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