Why Swytch doesnt need VC funding

News Summary

  • Can you explain how that’s different from crowdfunding?Crowdfunding is when lots of people get together and get big discounts to support a new product that will be delivered in the future.
  • Instead, the U.K.-based startup offers regular bike riders a way to turn their existing bike into something with a little more oomph.Swytch’s conversion kit is one of the lightest and smallest on the market, similar in size to a large smartphone and weighing just 1.5 pounds.
  • There’s a waitlist of over 1.5 million customers who have registered interest in the next release; Swytch recently had to close preorders because it is sold out until May and is busy fulfilling over 5,000 orders per month to customers today.
  • This, Montague says, has helped Swytch scale quickly for a small company without major VC funding by eliminating the need to hold onto too much inventory.
  • So we sat down with Montague to discuss the pitfalls of VC funding, why keeping stock on hand opens you up to risk and how Swytch scaled so quickly without raising much equity.
  • Its next batch of stock will be available for delivery in June, and preorders will reopen next month.The company isn’t sitting still.
The pandemic era taught many of us that bikes are a great way to get around cities. Doubly so if they are ebikes, replete with batteries to help reduce the amount of sweat required to get somewhere. [+2735 chars]