Anton

“Yes!” Anton sounds loud and proud in the living room, “two bikes a day keeps the trouble away”. It’s an early morning and he just logged into the MyHotelBike Software to check the amount of cycling experiences in Dresden while enjoying his daily—as he calls it—"Popeye coffee!".

It’s quite a jump going from mechanic to franchisee, with all your saving money inside a business. Anton believes that this type of responsibility will automatically make him grow. For him it’s the perfect road. His first cycling job was in the delivery industry, which got him paid for something he loves to do. His second was joining MyHotelBike’s headquarters in Amsterdam, where he learned more about fixing bikes. His third was managing a cycling delivery team in Dresden, which became one of the most efficient teams in Germany! Now he’s on the verge of creating a full on cycling culture with all bike enthusiasts alike.

Being rapid on a bike and surprising people with fast service times is what he likes the most. He highly recommends anyone to get a cycling job. “It makes you a bit tougher. Basically, you’ll get paid for exercising!”, says a passionate Anton who doesn’t hold back on expressing his love for cycling: “When you have your own bike it is great to have those little missions around town. It’s the perfect way to get to know the city. Then, to learn how to fix your own is a gift. It gives you freedom.”

There’s no doubt that this franchise opportunity is made for him. He wants to make it a success. For him and his family. For Dresden and the world. “It needs to be done”, says Anton while he opens the garage where the next batch of bicycles are stored. “I’ll make it nice one day—when all the bikes are placed at hotels. Then, after a round of repairs, I will just come here to sit down on a big, comfortable chair. My feet up… Listening to some music… Tools on the wall… You get the idea? Like a bicycle lounge.”

Luise

When visiting Luise in Dresden, the first thing you’ll notice is how proud she is about the region—which is just a little away from her hometown where she grew up as a little girl. Filled with enthusiasm she talks about the Elbeweg that leads all the way to the Czech Republic. It’s an amazing cycling path, where cyclists pass wonderful castles, neat olive gardens and authentic bridges that were built during the medieval times.

Luise loves to be creative. She makes handcrafted art of second-hand bicycle products and she likes to draw too. Her latest project was a little kids’ book with fun and joyful drawings of all kinds of animals riding a bike! One of her many initiatives to inspire people to go cycling. The bike has always played an essential role in her life. Just like Anton, she worked at MyHotelBike's headquarters earlier in her career. She shines when talking about her experience with her former team mates: “It was amazing, back in the days. The people, the bikes, the culture. I was not used to that. At previous companies I was more on my own, now I was part of a team. I just felt home right away.”

As soon as the franchise formula was launched, Luise applied for Dresden. For her it made so much sense. After having learned how to maintain bicycles in the most sustainable way and experiencing the care that people at MyHotelBike have for each other, she was ready to go all in on Dresden and enrich the city with a new way of cycling.

Family

Luise and Anton have two kids together: Emma and Arthur. At the age of two, Emma is already cycling in the backyard, the living room and at friends’ places! She has two great examples in her life: Anton, who brings her to school on a bike every school day, and Luise, who brings her and her little brother everywhere else on a bike with a kids carrier—downhill and uphill! That’s why we are full of confidence about the two making a success out of the franchise. They just live the concept.

“Maybe one day they’ll take it over”, says Anton when he looks at their kids. “That would be amazing. They could give away the first bicycles to those in need. For the kids to experience the effects of that would be something else. It would show them how the world should be. When that happens, I think we have accomplished our goal.”

Franchising