Business Update – I’m Starting New Business!

It has been a long time since I’ve posted an update on what going on with me in the financial world.  Some fun news is that I’m starting a new business with several other folks.  Before I go into details on it, I’ll talk a bit about what been shifting in my personal world and hobbies.

What Hobbies Have I Gotten Into?

One of the biggest hobbies I’ve gotten into over the past 12 months is e-bikes!  I started getting interested in e-bikes after learning more about them from some coworkers and researching them via reddit.

I found this guy that makes YouTube videos and trains people on how to build their own e-bike – Johnny Nerdout.  He was a great resource to help me gain the confidence that I could build my own e-bike from my existing mountain bike.  And, I could save hundreds or thousands of dollars vs. buying a brand-new e-bike.

So, I went out and bought an e-bike motor and battery kit from AliExpress right around Thanksgiving 2023.  I’m a mechanical engineer by training, so it was a lot of fun to upgrade my bike and get everything working.  It took WAY longer than I thought, but it was a fulfilling exercise once the build was complete.

Another great thing that drew me into e-biking was that I could commute to work most days of the year.  I live about 12 miles from my work, so an e-bike is perfect to get to and from work in ~40 mins per trip.  Also, a HUGE benefit is that I get nearly 1.5 hours of exercise each work day.  It does stink to ride in the Oregon rain though, but it’s still fun overall!

I’ve been e-biking into work for about a year now (11 months I guess by now), and it has been great overall for my physical and mental health.  I feel like a kid again, and I just love it.  I used to ride my bike ALL THE TIME as a kid, and I stopped doing that as I got into high-school and beyond.  Riding my e-bike to work has been a great decision for me, and has saved a HUGE amount of money on gas vs. using my Corolla to get to work.

My Current Financial Situation

Long-time readers will know that I’ve been running MoneyAhoy.com for ~11 years now.  I cannot believe it’s been that long, but here we are :-)!

Anyhow, through disciplined money saving, money making, and investing, we have been able to build quite a nest egg.  Our family is basically at the point of financial independence, and we can “retire” at any point.  This has caused us to re-evaluate what “work” means to us and to get more comfortable selecting work/things we enjoy vs. working in some kind of hellish type of job that stresses us out.

As a result of this, this reality has created in me a whole new mindset.  I’ve trained myself over the past two years to NOT stress out at work (my day job) over the next crazy flavor of the month kicked off by management or some PITA person that would normally annoy me to no end.  I just let it roll off of me like water off of a duck’s back.

This has brought up a lot of thinking for my wife and me about what’s next for us as our kid’s are moving through their high-school careers.  I know as we get closer to retirement, I need something to keep me busy.  I can not just sit around and play video games and watch TV all day.  I would go crazy!

So, I did some soul-searching to try and look for answers on what to create as a 5-year plan for myself.  One thing which occurred to me is I’d like to find my Ikigai.  Ikigai is basically a melding of the following:

1. What you LOVE
2. What you are GOOD AT
3. What you can be PAID FOR
4. What the world NEEDS

What Kind of Business Should I Start – How to Decide?

Based on the Ikigai way of thinking, I needed to think through if I even wanted to start a business.  It is tempting to just leave the world behind and plan to travel for the rest of my life.  As my wife and I thought more and more about this, it didn’t seem terribly realistic.  We do NOT have enough saved to support world travel 24×7.  If we wanted to get to this point of savings, we might need to work another ~10 or so years.  We’re not sure we’re ready to sign up for that, so perhaps some compromise is necessary.

Also, based on what I was learning on the Ikigai principles, items #3 and #4 above basically dictate working in some kind of business – either owned by me or as an employee.  So, I began to think through what sort of business would be ideal for me to participate in both now and into the distant future as I eventually “retire” from my day job.

The Ideal Business for Me

When I combine all of these four Ikigai principles: what I love, what I’m good at, what I can get paid for, and what the world needs, I came up with an interesting idea that I’m pursuing.

Here’s the thought process:

1. What I LOVE – E-biking, cool bike parts, and building up E-bikes and standard bikes.
2. What I’m GOOD AT – I’m good at mechanical engineering, CAD work, CNC knowledge, running a small business (putting my MBA and training to work), and websites/internet (a long hobby of mine).
3. What I can be PAID FOR – e-bike and standard bicycle parts (think pedals, chain rings, stems, frames, etc.).
4. What the world NEEDS – e-biking seems to be exploding.  Many people I see and know are buying e-bikes and enjoying biking again.  As the effects of Global Warming become more and more evident, low emission transportation solutions need to be explored.

So there you have it – if I could build a business around creating and selling parts for bicycles and further encourage the adoption of e-bike usage, this would be my true Ikigai.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

So, I set out to find some partners that could help me on my vision.  I found a couple of folks I trust that I feel like will make the perfect partners to help achieve this vision.  And the great part is, they are bringing MANY ideas on how we can expand beyond bicycles to help them realize some of their vision, hobbies, and passions!

1. Partner #1 – an expert at part design, CNC programming, and running a CNC.  Also an expert artist.  Loves to ride BMX and dirt bikes.
2. Partner #2 – an expert at welding, talented at CNC and painting, and a natural born salesman.  Loves to ride BMX, dirt bikes, and skateboarding.
3. Partner #3 – an expert at running CNC machine shops, materials procurement, bills of materials, and has a passion for road biking.

We started our company in May of 2024, and have several business units mapped out that we would eventually like to get into as we grow.  For now, we are totally in startup mode, and we are still running things on a shoe-string budget.

Here are the business units we envision:

1. Bicycle – CNC parts, welded frames, and distributor for electronic components utilized on E-bikes.
2. Motorport – CNC parts for dirt bikes, ATVs, motorcycles.
3. Fabrication – CNC parts for CNC machine shops (recursive 🙂 ).
4. Art – various apparel (hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.), stickers, laser-etched household items (like tumblers) and welded metal art.

Pictures of prototypes and products for sale that we’ve made:

 

 

 

Check Out our Business Websites

We are set out on the journey to build a business in which we (the four of us) will LOVE and one in which we can dedicate ourselves!  This is realistically a multi-year journey as we all need our day jobs currently.

We have websites roughed out now for #1 and #4 above.  These are changing all the time, so check them out often:

1. MoongateCycles.com – this is our bicycle brand.
2. MoongateCustoms.com – this is our art and customization brand.

At MoongateCycles, we are working on a generation #5 pedal now.  Check out the blog to read up on some testing we’ve done for the generation #4 version of the pedal.  We plan to have the generation #5 pedal ready for sale before the end of the year with custom pedal Cerakote colors!  Check back and purchase your set soon!!

At MoongateCustoms, we are releasing a bunch of cool hats and t-shirts.  Check them out now – you will look awesome in them I’m sure!!  We are rolling out new designs all the time, so check back here often as well!!