Besides this potentially being the fastest unicorn exit, and/or perhaps, this will boost the next round of financing, this recent scalability push is worth noting.
The Bird Platform (similar to Amazon Flex) is set up to let independent operators run their own fleets. Operators upload a logo and choose a sleeve color, and Bird manufactures + delivers the scooters, builds a customized website, and provides fleet mgmt tools.
We see this new group of “Internet franchises” as combining the scale of marketplaces with the ownership and incentive structure of franchises.
We believe that recent developments in global shipping and payments will allow capital-light franchises to achieve greater scale than ever before. When retail franchises were first established a century ago, it took years, if not decades, to scale regional operations. Today, a parent company can relatively quickly and cheaply deliver physical goods, payments, content, and marketing to distributors around the world.
We’re starting to see early examples of this – Wheelys (bike-powered coffee carts), Tinkergarten (outdoor classes for kids), Robin Autopilot (robotic lawn service), Hotpod Yoga (portable yoga studios), and Beeline (mobile bike shops) are just a few.
Intersection notepad 