4 cycling female founders to watch out for in 2024
As the bike industry is still heavily dominated by men – and rider numbers mirror this inequality – Caz Conneller is shining a light on the cycling female founders doing groundbreaking work and inspiring others…
The Bicycle Association of Great Britain recently announced the results of its Diversity in Cycling’s International Perception Survey, and it showed that senior leaders in the cycling industry are overwhelmingly white, heterosexual men. It also shows that 71% of women are considering leaving the industry.
Change needs to happen. And women who have identified gaps in the market and founded businesses and initiatives that solve problems play a vital role in changing the landscape of the industry.
Whether it is increasing participation and reaching underrepresented groups, or launching businesses that look to revolutionise segments of the industry, these four female founders are all putting passion, talent and action into play to drive the cycling industry forward and reach out to more women.
JEYDA HESELTON
Role/Business: Co-founder and CEO > Fettle
Years in the industry: Four – just with this business!
What bike do you ride?
Day-to-day, I ride a ‘pub bike’ which I can leave anywhere. It’s an old Raleigh frame which I spray painted a vibrant yellow and red and has been pimped up with some snazzy parts. On the weekend, you might catch me zipping around on my Liv road bike. It’s a sleek, black number with orange branding, which makes me think of a tiger. My main requirements for a bike are being light and stylish.
Jeyda got in touch with me about three years ago, as a fellow female founder, to tell me about her startup, Fettle (then Handlebars), a network of repair-only bike workshops, underpinned by a home pick-up and delivery service. It aims to take the faff and hassle out of bike repair. As someone who doesn’t really like to get my hands dirty fixing my own bike, and having had some less than pleasant and efficient experiences getting my bike fixed, I immediately saw the value. And so, it seems, have many others.
Fast forward four years and Fettle has raised £1.3 million in funding from crowd investors, opened five workshops in London and is now branching out to Bristol and Cambridge. The company announced an ingenious partnership with Kwik Fit earlier this year and won an award for best start-up at the Micromobility Industries Summit in May 2023 in Amsterdam.
In my experience, the entrepreneurs that really go the distance and build something big are those who see a gap in the market and have a great idea, but also have a vision for how their venture will grow, grabbing each opportunity along the way. Jeyda’s vision to build a national network of modern, friendly, faff-free bike service centres to cater for the growing and evolving market, alongside her business acumen to move into eCargo bikes and fleet servicing, have put her in an incredibly exciting position as we move into the age of e-mobility.
Jeyda is an inspiration for future female founders in the industry. But also, Fettle’s service helps women overcome a common barrier to cycling, getting their bikes out of the shed, fixed up and ready to get out on the road. The company also ensures that customers receive a digital quote before any work is done, which is all part of being fair and transparent.
I caught up with Jeyda to find out a little more about how they are riding the wave of growth and what’s in store for the future: “Life at Fettle has been a bit of a whirlwind recently, developing the exciting partnership with Kwik Fit and opening up new workshops, including finally venturing outside of the capital! With our services proving popular with customers, we’re keen to extend them out across the most densely populated towns and cities for cyclists, and there’s a tonne of work involved in doing that. Next stop is Cambridge and we’re excited to see what the reception is like there.
“We’re also simultaneously launching custom-built trailers, which will be towed by eBikes, and replace the vans we use for our collection and return service. As a much greener solution, as well as way more efficient, we’re really looking forward to getting going with this. Watch out for bikes towing trailers full of bikes around the city!
“As well as building a network to support cyclists, we’re doing more and more work for businesses. We’re growing out the service partnerships we have with manufacturers, particularly as many customers are choosing to buy bikes online and want peace of mind when it comes to servicing. We’re also collaborating with lots of employers who want to make sure their staff are cycling to work safely by offering onsite servicing as well as workshops teaching people basic maintenance skills. Finally, we’re offering servicing for businesses using eCargo bikes to make sure they’re able to keep on the roads. We see this as the future for delivering goods and services in towns and cities so we’re really supportive of all the businesses taking the leap to try this new way of working now.”
www. fettle.cc
jeyda@fettle.cc
linkedin.com/in/jeydaheselton/
GEORGIA YEXLEY
Role/business: Founder > Loud Mobility
Years in the industry: It’s been six years now, and the longest I’ve stuck with any industry throughout my career. I started out working in micromobility when I joined Mobike in 2017 during the early days of its rapid global expansion, while I was living in Beijing, China. I haven’t found a better way to make a positive impact since.
What bike do you ride?
I ride just about any bike I can get my hands on. I love to try new things and have loved exploring all kinds of different cycles this last year. Recently, I’ve been exploring cities on a borrowed Brompton, getting into the great outdoors on my Forme Gravel bike and have been thoroughly enjoying using a Volt eBike while working on the World Bicycle Relief charity partnership with the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow. I’m thinking about trying out an eMTB next. I borrowed one from a friend while holidaying a couple of years back and I’ve learned that the combination of exploring nature and the speed you get with mountain biking is very much my cup of tea. I also saw one or two I’m keen to try while at the Specialized event during the UCI World Championships. It was a delight to meet Mike Sinyard, Specialized founder and longtime ambassador of the value cycling has to offer to those of us with ADHD. I’m excited to delve deeper into the studies and projects championed by his Outride Foundation and hopefully bring some of those learnings to the UK.
I met Georgia on International Women’s Day 2023. After an exhilarating meeting exploring projects we could work on together to tackle the gender gap in cycling, we went for a cycle and e-scoot around King’s Cross in the snow. I knew this woman meant business!
Having had a highly successful career in the fast-paced world of shared mobility at Tier and Beryl, Georgia now brings her skills and wealth of experience to her new start-up, Loud Mobility. Loud Mobility’s mission is to make sustainable mobility more inclusive with an emphasis on cross sector collaboration and system change… but also with an element of play!
Georgia has a number of exciting projects on the go, many of which involve cycling and I’m excited to be collaborating with her and Loud Mobility on She’s Electric, a national behaviour-change campaign to introduce more women to the benefits of riding an eBike in 2024.
I have seen Georgia identify an issue or problem within the cycling community and very quickly and effectively turn it into a project, connect with people, source funding and get on the road to fixing it. It’s immensely inspiring to see someone move at such pace with such deep insight into the system change needed in the cycling and active travel space, particularly within underrepresented groups.
Georgia is also on the board for the Bicycle Association of GB’s Diversity in Cycling project and a trustee for the Women of Colour Cycling Collective. She is a powerful spokesperson for women and cycling and I’m excited to see what the future holds for her in 2024 and beyond.
I caught up with Georgia to find out a bit more about her current projects and her plans for the future.
“Right now I’m wrapping up a five-month project supporting World Bicycle Relief and delivering their charity partnership with the largest cycling sporting event in history, the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships. Throughout my career I have seen first-hand the tremendous impact cross-sector projects of this sort can make in widening participation and shifting the culture/narrative towards the positive.
“The energy in Glasgow was palpable and I wasn’t alone in learning I am indeed a cycling sports fan. I tried my best not to fangirl too hard when joining a panel with the impressive Kadeena Cox OBE, but could barely hold back the emotion of seeing the two-week crescendo with the Women’s Elite race.
“It’s been an incredible experience to see Women and Girls championed through this historic event and has filled me with excitement and ideas as we dive further into the next stages of our collaboration with She’s Electric. Again we have the opportunity to bring cross sector organisations and change makers together to help more women and girls enjoy cycling, with a specific focus on making eBikes more accessible, approachable and exciting.
“This year I’ve had the opportunity to connect with so many incredible women who are the diverse role models we will all benefit from championing. Our collaboration is about changing the image and rhetoric about eBikes, but also about creating low-barrier routes to actually being able to experience them.
“Last, but certainly not least, I’ve been working with our strategic advisors, a wide group of supporters and the Transport Research Laboratory on a longer-term research and development project that seeks to evidence and help scale the impact of community cycling projects. As national and local transport bodies speak of the importance of widening participation in active travel, and political ‘leaders’ continue to prioritise polls over the planet, we’re collaborating to push forward policies, funding routes and innovation that is pro-people and pro-community.
“With everything we’re working on, it’s also critical that the Loud Mobility team grows, and I’m excited to share news about our growing strategic advisory board, team and ambition.
Overall, Loud Mobility is advocating for system change in sustainable mobility, and a shared responsibility to make it happen. I think we get there by saying it how it really is, pushing forward and championing the change makers, welcoming everyone to experience and influence the sustainable mobility space and shouting about all the benefits we get when we do.”
www.loudmobility.co.uk
loudmobility@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/georgiayexley
KAREN GEE
Role/Business: Founder & Editor > Cycle Sprog
Years in the industry: 11 years
What bike do you ride? A Liv Avail Advanced 1 road bike for fun fast rides and a second hand Boardman road bike for daily commuting. Plus a second hand Laura Trott Mountain bike for riding at trail centres, and a Bamboo Gravel bike for local off road riding.
Karen Gee had the idea for Cycle Sprog as she endlessly and unsuccessfully trawled the internet for useful information on getting out cycling with her own two young children.
“Someone should start a website for family cycling,” she told her husband, and he replied: “Why don’t you start it?”
And that’s exactly what she did. Eleven years on, Cycle Sprog gets over a million visitors a year. Karen’s team has grown from one to four staff members, plus a host of freelancers. The website is a valuable source of guidance and inspiration to help parents get cycling with their kids.
Whether it’s getting them onboard with them as tots, riding a family e-cargo bike or getting them going on a bike of their own, Cycle Sprog has given millions of families the push and support they need to get cycling.
I caught up with Karen to find out more about Cycle Sprog and what’s in store for the future.
Karen told me her key principles when starting the website was to create advice that “was not full of technical jargon and that was really easy to understand if you are starting from scratch” and to provide the practical advice that parents need. As a cycling parent of two boys, Gee is always writing from experience.
This is what I love about Karen’s story and I fully identify with it, as it was a very similar point of both frustration and inspiration that led me to start Cyclechic.co.uk. I saw no inspiring imagery, advice or products for women who wanted to look good and not be Lyca-clad.
Frustration with the void of information for a certain niche demographic can be a powerful force, and instead of sitting about moaning about it, Gee took the initiative to fill that gap and provide what was missing from the market. She opened cycling up to a whole new demographic that was not being effectively communicated to… parents.
Karen told me: “I’m really proud that our audience is 48% female. Getting that level of gender parity in both the cycling and parenting media is quite rare. Cycling websites generally tend to cater for male audiences and parenting websites for female.”
Karen also currently employs more women than men in Cycle Sprogs’ growing team, something she puts down to following the Bicycle Association’s advice on inclusive recruitment which has opened up the number of female applicants for each role.
Current project: Cycle Sprog recently launched a Kids’ bike search directory. This is music to the ears of any parent who doesn’t know where to start when buying a kids’ bike when the ocean of options available online can often feel bewildering. You can input your requirements and the directory will provide you with brands the team or their readers have tested and can wholeheartedly recommend. This not only helps parents but also ensures children will enjoy cycling and can progress with a suitable set of wheels, and it benefits brands and retailers as it points the right customers to the right bikes/dealers.
Karen is also a big advocate for buying a good bike second hand or leading, rather than buying a new bike of lower quality: great advice for both your wallet in the current cost of living crisis, but also a way to reduce waste and boost a circular economy.
Cycle Sprog is also increasingly focusing on family cargo bikes as more parents seek ways to reduce reliance on car journeys, whether for reasons of health, cost, environment or time.
I asked Karen whether she had a ‘career high’. She told me it’s every time she gets an email from a parent thanking her for enabling them to get their child cycling.
“I never get bored of that,” Karen says, and let’s hope Cycle Sprog gets many more children and families cycling as the business grows and as active travel plays an increasingly important role for future generations.
www.cyclesprog.co.uk
karen@cyclesprog.co.uk
linkedin.com/in/karenlgee/
RACHAEL BURNSIDE
Role/Business: Business & Marketing Director at SHIFT Active Media, a marketing agency dedicated to cycling.
Years in the industry: 13 years in marketing, with six years of them in cycling marketing.
What bike do you ride? I currently own an Orbea Orca, a Liv Envi Advanced and a battered commuter bike, but also have Peloton and Zwift subscription. Electric, I know!
I first noticed Rachael on LinkedIn. Her presence, dynamic energy and passion jumped out from her posts, and it was clear she was doing some exciting and progressive work in the world of women and cycling. A marketing professional, she works with major cycling brands in the industry at SHIFT Active Media. Rachael is committed to ensuring women’s cycling gets the recognition it deserves and is passionate about giving more women a chance to work in the cycling industry.
Rachael is the founder of a new mentoring scheme UpLift. UpLift’s mission is to nurture and mentor young women coming into the industry with the help of experienced women in senior roles from heavyweight companies such as Rapha, British Cycling and Specialized.
Rachael has definitely tuned in to what the industry needs as the recent results from the Bicycles Association of GB Diversity in Cycling Perception Survey indicated that 80% of women wanted more support in the industry, 37% asking for mentoring.
“I couldn’t find any programme so I thought I’d start my own!” Rachael tells me and it’s just this kind of initiative that instigates great things and drives change.
“My project is a new mentoring programme specifically designed for women in the cycling industry, titled UpLift – The Women in Cycling Industry Mentorship Programme.
“UpLift aims to support the next generation of women leaders in the cycling industry. The goal is to provide future female leaders with vital insight, guidance and advice from experienced women leaders who have already made a big impact in the industry in order to help them develop successful careers – and hopefully at the same time create future female role models”
“From my personal experience, having been in the cycling industry for the past six years, I’ve observed a real need for young aspiring leaders to have someone external to their organisation to speak to, and learn from. I believe they can really benefit from one-to-one conversation with female leaders who have already successfully navigated the early part of their career in an industry that can present additional hurdles.
“Uplift will provide access to these female mentors, who have greater leadership experience in the cycling industry, who, via the mentorship programme, can provide advice, direction, and help in situations that sometimes only other women will really understand. That’s why I’m taking the lead on this initiative, and SHIFT is fully backing and supporting this endeavour.”
If you want to get involved in Uplift, get in contact with Rachael:
Website: shiftactivemedia.com/uplift
Email: Rachael.burnside@shiftactivemedia.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-burnside-1bb0b937/
CAZ CONNELLER
Caz Conneller is the founder of Cyclechic.co.uk, an ecommerce business catering for stylish female cyclists. She has written for The Sunday Times and is The Author of The Girls Bicycle Handbook and is the creator of She’s Electric – a behaviour change campaign to inspire more women to ride eBikes.
Caz has a proven track record for getting more women cycling and works with companies to unlock the female market in the cycling, active travel and micromobilty sectors. Get in touch if you’d like to collaborate.
Email: caz@cyclechic.co.uk
Website: Cyclechic.co.uk
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caz-conneller-n%C3%A9e-nicklin-2505b18/
