them, building community, and bringing people back to their retail store,” Lynn says. “The Internet is affecting every brick-and-mortar model out there. Bike retailers are feeling pinched, just like everyone else.”
The goal is to not only work with independent shops, but also large companies that produce bike parts and accessories, and distribute them for sale at local stores. Blackriver has been working with one of these large distributors, Minnesota-based Quality Bicycle Products, Lynn says.
Blackriver currently has two full-time employees, including Lynn. A significant amount of the software development work was done by a team of programmers in Bulgaria, he says.
The startup has started to bring in revenue from some of the corporations it works with, Lynn says. Currently, the software is free for individual cyclists to use, though Blackriver is likely to begin charging them to use certain premium features at some point in the future, he says.
As for how his life today compares to working at Trek, which has more than 1,000 employees, Lynn says there are similarities and differences.
“Both situations can be amazing professional situations,” he says. “What I realize is, as an entrepreneur with a small business, you’re [constantly] reminded … that every moment counts in a way. There’s something about the scale of time and how much working capital you have to get things done within that time that forces you to think a little differently.”
