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Michael Keating
Founder & CEO at TEMPO, Building Electric Mobility Solutions
Michael Keating is the Founder and CEO of Tempo, a company focused on making electric bike ownership more accessible and manageable. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Keating started Tempo with the vision of simplifying the experience of owning an electric bike, addressing common issues such as theft, insurance, and maintenance that often deter potential users from adopting this eco-friendly mode of transportation.12
Background and Experience
Keating's journey into electric mobility began in 2011 when he rode his first electric bike, which inspired him to create his first company, Scoot, that introduced over 100,000 people to electric mobility across the US, Europe, and Latin America. He has a strong academic background with degrees from Wesleyan University, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA.123
Tempo's Mission
Under Keating's leadership, Tempo aims to provide services that make ebike ownership as reliable and popular as car ownership. This includes offering theft replacement, roadside assistance, and insurance tailored specifically for electric bikes. Keating believes that if ebikes were easier to own, more people would choose to ride them, contributing positively to communities and the environment.23
Highlights
“The ebike is the biggest opportunity to come out of the bike industry since the motorcycle, the automobile, and the airplane.” - Randy Komisar
The biggest surprise of the PeopleForBikes Bicycle Leadership Conference was the talk by lifelong cycling enthusiast and technology leader Randy Komisar (Kleiner Perkins, Apple, Claris, Lucas Arts…). Before his talk I asked him what other industries he had seen go from recreation to utility the way the bike industry is shifting from mechanical sporting equipment to electric transportation.
He responded that this had happened in the bike industry repeatedly over the last 100+ years:
Motorcycles started as bicycles.
Cars were made possible by innovations from cycling like pneumatic tires.
And famously the Wright Brothers built their first airplane in a bike shop.
Each time a new industry was born and bike companies just kept building bikes.
As Randy put it, very directly, if the bike industry doesn’t embrace electric and the new customers who are coming to buy electric bikes (women, commuters, older adults, teenagers, commercial users…), the industry will miss another amazing opportunity.
Over the last 100 years, AAA united drivers around a set of useful services, like roadside assistance, and built a powerful engine for driver advocacy, changing laws, changing roads, and changing how we get around at a national scale. At Tempo, we know some of these changes came at the expense of pedestrians, cyclists, and the climate, but we believe there are things we can learn from AAA.
One reason to be a Tempo member (in addition to the roadside pickup, theft protection, and other services) is to support ebike advocacy. Tempo sponsors and partners with a growing list of bike-related non-profits who together are making the US a better place for everyone to ride an ebike. As we grow, so will our support for the important changes that only advocates, communities, and governments can make - to our laws, our streets, and how we get around at a national scale.
https://lnkd.in/ggeTK6DF
PeopleForBikes, League of American Bicyclists, Bike Index, National Bicycle Dealers Association
