They are featured on thousands of motorcycles. A tiny, about 10-centimeter-long, black box made in France that serves as a two-wheeler's theft deterrent.
Following the motorcycle theft of Thomas Chambon, the narrative starts in 2017. His inspiration to develop a system that keeps an eye on motorcycle riders and their vehicles struck him at that point.
This will eventually lead to the creation of GeoRide. I had an alarm disc unit and a lock installed when my motorcycle was stolen in 2017.
I couldn't understand why someone couldn't get notifications on his phone, which was causing me constant stress when I was parking my motorcycle. We built a tracker because they are so uncommon.
In essence, it's a product I developed for my own use, the business owner claims. 15 people are currently employed by the startup, including one in the United States who works on international business development.
The company's business strategy has recently changed to favor a subscription model where customers pay ten euros per month for the "mini" version of the box. The business did not want to disclose its turnover, though.
A shift in perspective The motorcycle protection industry underwent a revolution thanks to the invention of this tiny box, which was produced in Toulouse and Lille. The company quickly achieved success in securing a position of preference in this industry given that this type of technology was virtually nonexistent in France up until that point.
The brand gained popularity in part because of Thomas Chambon, who founded it, and who runs the Walane YouTube channel, which has close to 500,000 subscribers. When his project first began in 2018, L' ex-videographer, who specialized in motorcycle videos, was able to gain support from his neighborhood.
Prior to now, the term GPS tracker was frowned upon in the motorcycle community. We sent an SMS request for a GPS position because it was very expensive.
According to the founder, there was no cloud application. The three areas in which GeoRide boxes innovate are safety for riders (fall detection), motorcycle security (tracker, alarm), and the development of a daily ecosystem (automatic message sending, route visualization).
With a round-the-clock assistance service, the system is operational in roughly ten European nations. The solution comes with a mobile application that enables users to consult all of its data (previous journeys, motorcycle inclination, etc.).
) as well as the capability to remotely control the siren. The phone receives messages, sends out alerts, and can even call the vehicle owner when vibrations are felt or there is an attempt at a theft.
"In 2022, 90% of vehicles were found in 24 hours and 74% in less than two hours," the manager claimed. On the installation side, a straightforward connection to the battery is sufficient for months of operation.
While the car is moving, the box automatically recharges. Even so, GeoRide has not only experienced successful times. There was a failed partnership with a company.
The second iteration of its case was scheduled for release in 2019 following the release of the first, which was successful. Everything did not, however, go according to plan.
"One of our errors was having too much faith in our partner business. We had products that weren't working properly, but this one guaranteed to resolve the problems in a matter of days.
Due to my experience as a developer, I am aware that these issues are solvable. A few months later, when we began shipping, the updates were still not arriving.
They gave us the order to "stop" over night and demanded payment so we could finish the project. Prototyping, internal software development, and product industrialization fell under the purview of this partner.
A production chain break occurs as a result of this incident. The startup has chosen transparency with its community as a strategy to get through this crisis.
95 percent of the company's pre-orders were kept after explaining the situation and providing a recovery strategy. It demonstrates both that no products were available and that customers trusted us.
The process of releasing a product in just six or seven months was extremely complex, so it was a very difficult time. Despite everything, we prevailed in the wager and delivered the best product currently on the market, according to Thomas Chambon.
The two businesses are still engaged in litigation as of right now. The young shoot has continued to grow since that time.
With CFMOTO, the dominant quad provider in France and Europe, a partnership was formally established in June 2022. As a result of their collaboration, they are now able to provide motorcycles that come pre-installed with the GeoRide system.
A "mini" variation of their case has only recently, in November 2022, hit the market. The only difference is that it is half as big as its big brother while having the same features.
A shift in perspective The motorcycle protection industry underwent a revolution thanks to the invention of this tiny box, which was produced in Toulouse and Lille.
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