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20VC: Lime CEO Brad Bao on How Lime Assess The Micro-Mobility Landscape and Competition Today, What It Takes To Launch and Win A New City & Why Lime Have Spent $0 on Marketing To Date

Jun 14, 2019

Brad Bao, Co-founder and CEO of Lime, shares his journey from Tencent to launching Lime, aiming to revolutionize urban transportation. He discusses the fierce competition in the micro-mobility landscape and why customer loyalty is vital. Intriguingly, Brad reveals why Lime has spent $0 on marketing, attributing this strategy to a strong product focus. He also delves into the importance of technological innovation and how it shapes their approach to enhancing user experience, all while navigating regulatory challenges in new cities.

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ANECDOTE

Path to Profitability

Lime has already achieved profitability in dozens of markets.
The fastest time to profitability for a new market was two weeks.

INSIGHT

Hardware Innovation

Lime prioritizes rapid hardware innovation, releasing four major vehicle versions in 12 months.
This iterative approach aims to improve hardware based on user feedback and data.

INSIGHT

Balancing Hardware Priorities

Lime focuses on hardware that balances advanced features, durability, and cost-effectiveness.
They strive to combine all three, although it presents significant management and supply chain challenges.

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Brad Bao is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Lime, the startup that provides distribution of shared scooters, bikes and transit vehicles, with the aim to reduce dependence on personal automobiles for short distance transportation. To date they have raised over $775m in funding from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, GV, IVP, Uber, Fifth Wall, GGV, Atomico and Bain Capital Ventures just to name a few. As for Brad, prior to founding Lime he was Managing Partner @ Kinzon Capital for close to 6 years and before that spent an incredible 8 years at Tencent in numerous different roles including VP of Business Development for Tencent Games and General manager for Tencent's US branch where he was responsible for Tencent's US operations.

In Today's Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Brad made his way into the world of technology with Tencent, how that led to the world of investing and then what was that a-ha moment for the founding of Lime? How did Brad's time with Tencent impact his operating mentality today with Lime?

2.) With significant levels of competition, how does Brad assess the competitive landscape today for micro mobility? Does Brad believe customer loyalty comes into play in the segment? Is capital itself a defensible moat in this market? Why is Brad adamant that it is important to spend $0 on marketing? What does this say about the product?

3.) How does Brad think about technological innovation within the space? Does it subscribe to Moore's law in the advancement of the core components? How does Brad think about inherent trade-offs that have to be made in product decisions? How does Brad think about prioritising for unit cost vs product superiority? Why can you not have it all?

4.) How does Brad think about launching new cities? What does it take to win in those geographies? What are all the necessary parts to setup when entering a new location? What is the biggest determinant of a location success? Density? Maturity?

5.) Brad has assembled a truly world-class exec team, what does Brad think it takes to attract truly A* talent? When should founders really start to think about building out their own exec team? What does Brad believe it is that makes his partnership with Toby Sun work so well? What have been his learnings from the development of that relationship?

Items Mentioned In Today's Show:

Brad's Fave Book: Good To Great by Jim Collins

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