Bicycles are an important part of our culture at MailChimp. Many of our 800 employees bike to work, so we built a bike room that boasts storage for more than 100 bikes, as well as locker rooms with showers so our employees could freshen up before starting their day.
We believe in and encourage considerate urbanism, which is why we sponsor local projects and organizations like Streets Alive, the Atlanta Cycling Festival, and the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. We even offer a stipend to employees who opt to take alternate transportation.
Our headquarters are right off of the Atlanta BeltLine, which is a multi-use trail system that will one day be 22 miles long and connect 45 neighborhoods. Because of our location, our employees who are cyclists, pedestrians, skateboarders—you name it—can get to our office quickly without having to battle an onslaught of cars.
Not everyone takes advantage of this commuting method, of course, but all employees do have access to our bike share program for quick trips or breaks.
The beginnings of this bike share program were serendipitous. I’ve been riding bikes since I was 4. They’re a passion of mine. So when I showed up to a meeting that had 2 huge boxes from Priority Bicycles, who just happen to be one of our customers, I completely derailed the meeting to talk about the bikes. It was then that I learned our Co-Founder Dan wanted there to be a bike share that would make checking bikes in or out easy—and someone to make it happen.
When it came time to select bicycles for our bike share, Dan looked to Priority, because Priority and MailChimp share a similar mission: We both strive to build a product that’s easy to use, approachable for any customer, and is reasonably priced.
I offered to run the program, and now we have 7 Priority Bikes and an internally built app to automate the check-in and out process. (Props to our Product Designer, Izu!) Almost a year in, the MailChimp bike share mostly runs on its own at this point. All I have to do behind the scenes is maintain the bikes and provide support if someone runs into an issue.
Since that fateful meeting 2 years ago, we’ve collaborated with Priority on several occasions. We’ve featured them in What’s in Store, asked them to be a part of our customer research, and recently, partnered with them on a promotional video that features our bike share program. It was my first time meeting them face-to-face. A few MailChimp peeps got to be a part of a group ride with them, and I got a maintenance lesson from their Co-Founder Dave. They are the epitome of a scrappy small business, and it was inspiring to hear stories of their hands-on, thoughtful approach.
All of which is to say: happy National Bike Month! We hope you’re out there having safe and fun rides. We support the bicycling community because we think it’s a great way to be healthy, see our beautiful city, and reduce our environmental impact. We’re glad to have partners like Priority Bikes who design a product that makes bicycling more accessible to more people. And we hope you’ll go for a ride this month—maybe in the months to come, too.