Katherine Olives
On May 1st youll meet this years crop of CCNY startups at our annual Demo Day on Monday, May 1st. Youll chat with the entrepreneurs who will have completed our Lean Startup Bootcamp, and get to vote for your favorites. But unless youre an avid cyclist, Cyqlo (a startup that helps you find biking routes in the city) might not immediately stand out to you.
I sat down with the Cyqlo team–made up of seniors Michael Hendrickson, Haris Nadeem, Daniel Obi, John Spencer, and Junhua Wu–and talked about the role of entrepreneurship in their lives, and why theyre so excited to inspire New Yorkers to start biking. This team of best friends genuinely wants to give you all the freedom of two wheels. Learn more about Cyqlo in the interview below.
The Zahn Center: So first of all, it seems like every team is looking for developers, and, well, you are all developers.
Michael Hendrickson: Haha yeah all of us are computer science majors.
Haris Nadeem: Well, Im computer science and math. You know, I can actually do what they all approximate.
ZC: Haha, still, Cyqlo seems like a well-balanced team. How are you dividing up your roles on the team?
John Spencer: Thats a good question. I think were all just working to make it as dope as we possibly can. You know, were still figuring out what were doing.
MH: Yeah, the roles are pretty fluid right now.
HN: Id say Im doing Finance for now since Im the Math guy.
JS: And Mike is creating our voice on social media. Obis our rocket scientist.
Daniel Obi: Haha and Juns our biking specialist. Hes our Google before Google. He knows all of the competitors, so we always check with him first.
The Zahn Center: Haha so Jun, youre the cyclist? Was Cyqlo inspired by your love of biking?
Junhua Wu: It was a project in one of our classes, but we definitely knew a bit about the market we wanted to serve.
MH: Yeah, we had to come up with an idea for an app for Professor Grossbergs class last year. He really pushed us to think of an actual problem, and to focus on smaller markets. We thought of some medical apps, some apps for finding your stuff, and then eventually Jun suggested this.
ZC: Did all of you meet in that class?
DO: Weve all known each other for at least two years, weve taken different classes together.
HN: And some of us did the RBC Capital Markets Fintech Hackathon together in the Fall.
JS: Yeah, the Hackathon was the first event that we did together and it solidified our team, especially because we won.
ZC: Is that what made you want to apply? Because you got fast tracked after winning, right?
DO: I definitely planned on applying to the Zahn Competition before the Hackathon–Ive actually wanted to apply since my first semester here, back in 2014. I was waiting for the right time.
MH: I think we knew that if we had something substantial to play with, and if would be a good fit for the competition, wed apply.
DO: Professor Grossberg was pushing us to apply, and then after we won the Hackathon, we knew we had to.
MH: Did we mention that we won the Hackathon?
ZC: Hahaha congratulations on that win, really. I remember all of you coding for hours…and that was the day the internet broke, remember?
DO: Haha thanks. What was incredible about that whole thing was that I had actually never heard of Fintech until the Hackathon. We just wanted to hack something.
MH: Yeah, it was definitely a situation where we just kept saying yes to opportunities, and now here we are, creating this app to help people experience the freedom that riding a bike gives you.
JW: A lot of people are afraid to bike in the city…its definitely our biggest barrier…but thats what were looking to change.
MH: And for people who dont bike often, the fear is magnified. Cyqlo will provide a route for everyone. Well give you that freedom…that euphoric feeling…on two wheels.
DO: Cycling is also a great way to explore. We want to empower New Yorkers to explore their own city again.
ZC: It sounds like all of you are excited about this venture. What are you most looking forward to in the coming months?
MH: We cant wait to get this into the hands of our customers. Weve been building it for them, so we really cant wait to get their feedback.
DO: Im so excited to test it soon–we're going to do a Pizza Bike Tour in April.
ZC: Pizza? That sounds like so much fun!
MH: On April 15th we're leading a bike tour through the city that makes stops at pizza shops. So you'll eat pizza and burn it off. It's a great way to see the city from a different perspective…and sample pizza of course.
HN: We're also really excited for Demo Day. To interact with the audience there, to show them what we've been working on.
ZC: Do you think you'll win?
JW: Of course, we're Cyqlo.
DO: Haha, well the humble version of that is that we have the best team to execute in terms of programming experience–we have a lot of experience coding–our team is solid.
ZC: But it's not all about winning?
HN: Of course not. We feel like everyone has had an experience with cycling at sometime, and we just want to re-visit that, bring them back to that time.
If you want to go back to that first time you got on a bike, check out Cyqlo's bike tour & check them out on Demo Day on May 1st outside of the NAC on CCNY's campus!