024: Putting People On The Road To Success With MyCityRides

Today, Ed sits down with Andy Nix and Megan Klein from MyCityRides. Their organization provides an affordable motor scooter lease-to-own program so that the need for transportation is no longer a barrier for people to pursue the work and the lives they want.

Show Links

Ed Gillentine:
EdGillentine.com
Instagram: @journey.to.impact
Journey To Impact by Ed Gillentine

MyCityRides
MyCityRides.org
Instagram: mycityrides
Facebook: @MyCityRides
LinkedIn

Books
Thirst: by Scott Harrison
Toxic Charity: by Robert D. Lupton

Transcript

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Andy Nix: Transportation dictates how people live, how they live their lives, where they can live, where they can work, where they can shop, where they can learn, where they can play. MyCityRides as a program is designed to provide someone, everything they need to successfully own and operate an inexpensive reliable vehicle. And that vehicle is a motor scooter. 

Journey to Impact Intro: Welcome to the Journey to Impact podcast, where we show you how to turn your unique passion into a strategy to change the world. As we continue to feature different impact organizations, it's fascinating to discover the ways to make an impact on the world that you likely never would have thought of. Today, Ed sits down with Andy Nix and Meghan Klein from MyCityRides. Their organization provides an affordable motor scooter lease to own program so that the need for transportation is no longer a barrier for people to pursue the work and the lives they want. It's time to get off the bench. Let's do this. Here's your host, Ed Gillentine.

Ed Gillentine: Welcome to the Journey to Impact podcast. I'm your host, Ed Gillentine. I'm here with Andy Nix and Megan Klein with MyCityRides here in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. Welcome. 

Megan Klein: Thank you. 

Andy Nix: Thank you. 

Ed Gillentine: So I've been really excited about this conversation because I've been thinking more and more about transportation and how it impacts impact. Right? So let's just dive right in. Okay? And I want you guys to we'll start with you, Andy, and you can give us the Cliff Notes version of you, how you got here, then Megan you, and then y'all just jump into where MyCityRides came from and why it's important. And let's just dive in. I'll interrupt on occasion and ask some questions. I'll scribble some notes down, so to keep from interrupting, but let's dive in. 

Andy Nix: Alright, great. Well, number one, thank you very much for having us. We're really excited to be here for this conversation as well. And as far as my own personal journey here, I came to Memphis to go to school about a half a million years ago, went to Rhodes college, graduated and fell in love with Memphis and had never broken orbit.

After college, I worked at FedEx for about 15 years, the last several with, at the corporate holding company with a foot in finance and a foot in HR which kind of gave me a perspective on workforce and that type of thing. After FedEx, I started a business strategy consulting firm with a couple of colleagues and our focus was that an organization's people strategy as is, is as important as its financial strategy. 

Ed Gillentine: Couldn't agree more. 

Andy Nix: And that you've got to be intentional building it and tending to both of them. And basically from there, that is that's how I came to meet Jay Martin, who is our founder. And he is the brain child if you will, behind the MyCityRides concept. I was introduced to him and fell in love with him and his passion and his idea and he asked me to help him build it. And that's what I've been working on for the last several years. 

Ed Gillentine: That's awesome. That's awesome. Megan? 

Megan Klein: My road to MyCityRides started, I came to Memphis in 2007 and worked in marketing with Archer Malmo, and then moved into the nonprofit sphere. And Boys and Girls Clubs was the first non-profit that I worked for and Jay has been heavily invested in Boys and Girls Clubs for years. And his main focus at the time was the Technical Training Center, which was the first workforce development arm ever affiliated with Boys and Girls Clubs of America that started specifically here in Memphis. 

Ed Gillentine: That's pretty amazing. 

Megan Klein: Yeah, he was really tuned in to the importance of workforce development and the fact that not everyone is college bound; that trades and earning a livable wage are just as important and attainable for somebody who wants to move more immediately into the workforce. 

Ed Gillentine: Absolutely. 

Megan Klein: So, that was the focus of the Technical Training Center and they were having tremendous success training students up in logistics and culinary, IT, and automotive, areas that have jobs readily available in Memphis, but what they were finding was that as students got placed in these jobs, they couldn't maintain the employment because they couldn't get there reliably.

So he started a few different options for students. They tried an earn a car program. They partnered with Jake Harris and tried to make that work, but what they found was even with a used vehicle, the challenges for these students were a) that it might be one of the only vehicles that was readily available to the family, and so it became a shared family car. So then it wasn't available for the student when they needed it. Or, it was a used vehicle that was purchased for something that the student could afford, but then they couldn't maintain it. Because one big vehicular issue, and all of a sudden it became something that they couldn't fix and they couldn't get to work.

So that was an ongoing problem. And then I moved on to some other you know, opportunities in Memphis, but Jay and I kept in touch and he took me to coffee one day and he said, "I want to tell you about this thing that we're doing with scooters. I think you should come join." I was in a transition at that point and I was like, "That sounds really exciting. What would I be doing?" And he goes, "It doesn't matter. It's going to be great. You need to join the team." So, I met Andy because we'd actually been talking about helping students get to work. When I was working at STREETS Ministries, and we were having the same issue with employment and transportation.

Especially for students from that 38126 South City area, trying to get to places like the Hub or go out east and work or down in the warehouse distribution area. So I joined Andy and MyCityRides as kind of one of the first members of his team. He was still flying solo at that point, and that was a big lift, but he and I started thinking through how do we create a good funnel for applications for for not just students, but working Memphians who needed reliable transportation. And so that's where the MyCityRides team, there was another member of our team, Jason Williford, who joined us at the same time, a retired MPD officer with a passion for motorcycles and two wheel transportation brought a lot of expertise.

Although I hate to talk Jason up at any point. So if there's anything nice, 

Ed Gillentine: I understand. 

Megan Klein: I'll have to pull back from that pretty quickly. 

Ed Gillentine: We should pivot quickly. 

Megan Klein: We should, we should, but we just had a unique set of skills with me in marketing and development and Andy in people and investment and and culture development and innovation, really. And then Jason, with this expertise in the mechanics and technical part of two wheels. You have three people just trying to figure out how to make it work. 

Andy Nix: And it turns out three is the magic number. 

Ed Gillentine: There you go. Still rolling. That's awesome. Need two wheels, but three people, right? 

Andy Nix: That's right.

Ed Gillentine: Fantastic. So, talk about just a synopsis of what MyCityRides is and then more importantly the drive behind it. And when I watched the TED Talk, you had some really good statistics that you know, one of my big deals is asking the right questions, right? If you don't get the right question, you're probably not going to get the right answer. And so, yeah, talk about that for a minute and feel free to dive into some of the stats behind it and, and, and let us know how it came about. 

Andy Nix: Basically, MyCityRides as a program is designed to provide someone everything they need to successfully own and operate an inexpensive reliable vehicle.

And that vehicle is a motor scooter, 169 CC scooter, which that's the engine size, and basically that means it will travel 60 to 65 miles an hour. It's 89 miles to the gallon. 

Ed Gillentine: I like that. 

Andy Nix: So, yes. So, you know, this is a vehicle that empowers people with the autonomy and mobility, the same mobility as a car, which is really key for a large area like Memphis. Memphis you know, while it's kind of like a small town, we do have the statistical area does have about a million folks in it and is larger than New York City by geography.

Ed Gillentine: That's amazing. 

Andy Nix: In terms of footprint Memphis is huge, but with a fraction of the population, so people are spread out. Things are far away. It takes time and effort to get places. And basically what that means is that public transit infrastructure, because it did not really get built as the city was coming up, because the city was so automobile focused, putting that retrofitting that structure is incredibly expensive economically, politically, socially, it is. And there's some real smart folks working on that, but it's gonna be a minute before that before material gains can be made there. And so we wanted to put together a program that would help people today because recognizing transportation dictates how people live, right?

How they live their lives, where they, where they can live, where they can work, where they can shop, where they can learn, where they can play. Everything requires some level of transportation. So back to the program, we identified the scooter as an ideal vehicle for moving about the statistical area in the Metro area, and then identified all of the things that are necessary to help support somebody through a 36 month lease to own that starts with training and licensing,

basic insurance, maintenance, the vehicle itself, all of the gear, safety equipment, security equipment, that kind of thing, as well as a supportive community. We, we do group rides. We do commuter buddies where we help people acclimate to riding their scooter in the city environment. We'll volunteer and create opportunities for our program participants, who we call Flyers, to come together to, to, to learn from each other, to develop those relationships and also most importantly, to further our relationship with them, because a big part of the success of the program is developing a relationship with the program participants so that we've got open candid communication.

Cause three years can be an eternity. Basically, what we, what we did was we, we built a program that fixes the cost for every for someone. And that fixed cost is $90 a month. And at the end of 36 months, they own the vehicle and everything that came with it. And for those of you scoring at home, $90 a month is about $3 a day, which is actually the same price or cheaper than riding the bus on a round trip one way each day on a walk-up ticket. 

Ed Gillentine: Wow. And I'm also guessing, I'm thinking about my own car, 89 miles for a tank of gas, probably gets you a couple of weeks? 

Andy Nix: Well, and you wanted to, you know, you wanted to talk some numbers a little bit and AAA will tell you that the average cost of ownership for a basic four-door vehicle, like an old Toyota Camry, is north of 

Ed Gillentine: My personal favorite. Old Toyota Camry. 

Andy Nix: Very exciting, wonderful car, is north of 75 cents a mile. Okay. And the total cost of ownership for a scooter in our program is 14 cents a mile. So it is a fraction of the cost. To own and operate a car.

Ed Gillentine: That's amazing. And what's the Megan, you, you may know this, what's the, I guess the lifespan of a scooter? 

Megan Klein: Yeah. So we picked this model specifically because it's very mechanically sound. So our whole intention is that while a participant in the program is paying for the scooter over three years, that the scooter lives long beyond that three-year mark. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: So if somebody is maintaining it and doing the preventative maintenance, which is all included in the MyCityRides program, and then continues that we see these scooters lasting 10 years, plus. I mean, because they are very mechanically sound and they're pretty simple machines. So we picked it because it was a sturdy enough vehicle to be considered a serious workforce vehicle. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: And we have people that are riding them 30 miles a day, one way on their commutes. They're very comfortable to ride. They're very comfortable to ride in traffic. So when you think about Memphis' road infrastructure, you can get from the river out to Collierville and further east using secondary and tertiary roads, you don't have to take the interstate. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: And so when we've mapped it, cause you know, we all ride scooters and we ride them around town. It'll take you maybe 10 minutes longer if you're making a trip of that length, but if you're comparing, so if you're comparing it to a car, you've got 10 minutes, but think of the economy of gas and expense that you're saving. And if you're thinking about public transit, well, that's just a totally different game.

And it's mostly because Memphis' public transit system is designed for coverage, but not necessarily frequency. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: So if somebody was riding and they only had one bus that they had to catch, it can be relatively economical for someone to use the bus, but if you have to make a transfer and that bus line you're transferring to only has one bus every hour, all of a sudden this becomes an exponentially different situation where their average commute time can be two hours, two and a half hours or more.

And so when you're trying to get to some of those, when you're moving population, And so you're looking at where people live in the city in juxtaposition to where the jobs are and you radiate out from the river. And Andy, you need to check me on, on stats when you're looking at kind of the rings of employment from the river, moving east in the downtown core, we have... 

Andy Nix: The central business district has got about 11 to 12% of the jobs. Right. And that's right at the river, a few blocks east. Then you go to within the loop, you're, you're looking at the next 35 to 40% of the jobs are within that loop, which is a huge area. Then you've got 35% plus of the jobs are outside of the loop, which means that they are miles and miles and miles away from areas like Frasier or Binghampton or the 38126 South Memphis, or Smokey City, or there's so many, so many communities that are spread out.

Ed Gillentine: I've always been amazed at Memphians and maybe Mid-Southerners, how it's not a big deal to drive 45 minutes, one way to a job. And my dad did it and that's probably why I hate it because growing up, I was like, oh my goodness, another car ride. But when you think about, you know, like you said, time wasted that maybe not necessarily wasted, but that's a, that's a lot of driving. 

Megan Klein: Right.

Andy Nix: Well, it is, it is, it is a lot of driving or a lot of waiting and a lot of walking because one thing that is also a factor with regard to public transit, even though we do have good coverage, as far as access that that access sort of stretches the limits. I mean, you know, when you say easy access, you're talking about. up to a half mile walk for someone. 

Ed Gillentine: Versus New York city where I can go off the subway it feels like every 50 yards. 

Megan Klein: Right. 

Andy Nix: Exactly. 

Ed Gillentine: And so you can't, I feel like, I actually full disclosure. This has probably been four or five years ago. I thought, you know, I'm going to try 90 days to use public transportation because I live two minutes from the office and I thought, worst case, I'll just walk. Right? 

Andy Nix: Right. 

Ed Gillentine: If I got to get to a meeting. I went to the library and started looking through all that stuff and I panicked. And so I never actually did it, but I can't imagine how challenging that would be. And Megan, I don't know. It seems like maybe your responsibility or one of your many, I know y'all all wear lots of hats is, is the development. 

Megan Klein: Right.

Ed Gillentine: The selling of it. So talk about, I believe when I watched your TED Talk, maybe y'all had been a year in play and maybe 86 or 90 flyers. Where is it now? How do you get the word out? How's it going? 

Megan Klein: Well, first of all, I love that you even thought about taking that challenge on yourself because as we are starting to really dig into the world of transit in Memphis and to educate ourselves and to partner with other organizations that are working in this sphere, because there are some smart, smart folks in Memphis that are working on it.

You've got Sylvia Crum with Innovate Memphis and their commute options. You've got Dr. Hotz at Rhodes, who's thinking about health access and equity. You've got Dr. Rugless at the Church Health Center, and they're thinking about how can we make this more accessible for people to improve health access for, for folks needing to get to their appointments.

So there's lots of people working in that sphere, but basically what we're trying to do is connect the dots for the Memphis community. How do we communicate to people who have never lived without a personal vehicle, the importance and the life-changing aspect of having access to their own transportation.

So if some, if, if more Memphians were willing to say. Not even 90 days, take a week and just navigate the city, using public transit or a bike or a ride share. Look at what it costs you to do that. Think about how much you have to restructure your daily schedule like I'm dropping off kids in the morning and picking them up from summer camps and things right now. It's already a logistical mess for us and my husband and I, we moved to, we had a car that gave up the ghost in snowpocalypse. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: She'd been a good 1999 Jeep, but it was time. And so we said, you know what, we're going to do this. He has a motorcycle, I have a scooter, we have a vehicle that will transport our two kids.

So this is like, we can live this life for a while and see what this looks like. And it has been a logistical challenge to think through, "Okay, who has to have the car? Cause who's picking up kids? Who can ride the scooter or ride the motorcycle?" But it's navigatable, it's doable to have that, but we live our lives within 10 to 15 minute radius, 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: And so the city being spread out, what we're finding is, you know, if Memphis could think about how we can construct nodes within our city scape 15 minutes, if everyone could live within 15 minutes of education opportunities, healthy food options, their jobs, if that was affordable, then this could become a more livable, walkable, community that has friendlier transit options. But so this is what we get excited about. This is where we start to spread the word. And so what we've done in three years it, at the time of the TED Talk, like you said, we had about 75 to a hundred flyers on the road. We are now three years into our program and MyCityRides is the largest scooter fleet in the entire country. We're the only program of our kind in the entire country. And we're consulting with transit experts in New York and DC people that are looking at transit systems in the south, in our region, and around the nation. And what we're showing is the data that we're putting together is something that's just not being done anywhere else. So we're starting to make some waves, which is really encouraging for Memphis to be seen as this city, with this unique innovation. We've got more than 300 folks on the road now and the, MyCityRides program. 

Ed Gillentine: That's awesome. 

Megan Klein: Yeah. This year, they've traveled about 650,000 miles in three years because all of our scooters have a GPS device. So we're tracking mileage for everybody. 

Ed Gillentine: That's good data. 

Megan Klein: Yeah, exactly. We do it so that we have this data to learn from. We do it so that we can help the flier manage their maintenance. So we proactively send them notifications when they're due for maintenance to bring them in so that we can check in with them, see how things are going, make sure the machine is doing what it needs to do, because we're still learning about these scooters that we're putting together.

And then we do it too, so that we can help them secure their, their scooters so that we can recover a scooter if we need to which we've been really successful at, you know, it's Memphis, things go missing sometimes, but we've got a nearly 100% recovery rate on those. So it's, it's been a really interesting kind of arc for MyCityRides to look at how do we develop this program and make sure that it functions the way that it needs to, to missionally serve those that we're setting out to do. And then how are we working to shift culture? And so that's kind of the next iteration for MyCityRides. How can we be an asset to the transit community?

But what we're really excited about is where we're going physically. We've been working out of a very small storefront on Cleveland, and now we're moving to Summer. Do you want to talk about that?

Andy Nix: Sure. We are. As just as Megan said, you know, we, we started operations about three years ago with the goal of proof of concept. That was that was how Jay wanted to approach things. And that initial goal was let's get a hundred scooters on the road and figure out a) what does it take to get them out there? b) what does it take to keep people in the program with the scooters rolling. We did that with a hundred scooters. And then we did it with 200 scooters. And once we turned the corner on 200 scooters, the board became convinced yes, we all became convinced that this is working, and this is scalable. This is a, this, this is a serious solution, a viable option for a large spectrum of, of the community and we need to, in order to get the full impact, we need to scale it. 

Ed Gillentine: Let me interject for a second. Number one, what's the market penetration that you guys estimate if to use a business term, but number two, is this a viable either interim or even long-term solution for across the south?

We don't have big cities and public transportation seems terrible across the south versus the concentrated Bostons, New York City, all those. Is it a solution for that? Because you were talking earlier the cost of putting in convenient, consistent public transportation has got to be astronomical 

Megan Klein: Tens of millions.

Andy Nix: Absolutely. Yes. 

Ed Gillentine: And we're not even talking about subways, we're just talking about buses, right? Yeah. So how does this fit into that? 

Andy Nix: Absolutely, absolutely. What we see is we want the MyCityRides playbook right here in Memphis. We started in Memphis. We love Memphis. This is a Memphis is an ideal environment for the program for a number of reasons, the city size and layout, like we've talked about, the workforce, the type of workforce that we've got, the distribution of employers, the weather.

It is a rear round rideable climate which makes this a serious viable option for folks all the time, or as we like to say nearly all the time. This is, you know, there are certainly conditions when getting on a, getting on a scooter is, is less than ideal. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Andy Nix: The monsoonal rain that we get occasionally in Memphis and that kind of thing. And the way that we look at that is that MyCityRides is a fantastic option A for people. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Andy Nix: They can always do what they were doing before, or and you know, ride share, Uber, Lyft or public transit. 

Ed Gillentine: Take some pressure off of that. 

Andy Nix: Absolutely. Those are much more viable solutions when they're not the go-to, but it is on an ad hoc basis. So we definitely, we definitely see this expanding and the first step in that expansion is moving from our current storefront. Our current 2000 square feet to a new facility on Summer Avenue, right in the heart of Memphis, where Binghampton, The Heights and Berclair all come together. 

Ed Gillentine: It's a great spot. 

Andy Nix: Yes. We're very excited. We're going to be moving into what was the, what was Al's Honda, which, you know, as a Memphian, that's sort of iconic in the, in the two wheel community. So we're really pleased to be moving in there. That facility will allow us to conduct every aspect of our operation, which includes classroom, maintenance shop, administrative offices, show room, warehouse, and training range. You know, an acre and a half short of pavement where we can where we can teach people how to safely operate these machines. Moving from this 2000 square foot operation, where we are now over the next year into 20,000 plus square feet and a couple of acres is going to is going to allow us to go from serving hundreds of folks in the community to serving thousands. 

Ed Gillentine: Get a little breathing room too. 

Andy Nix: Exactly. Get a little breathing room, give us the ability to scale and to, to do that in a, in a comfortable way. And then you were, you would ask about another, remind me that the first question? 

Ed Gillentine: How many scooters do you think Memphis can handle? 

Andy Nix: Exactly, okay. Right. Market share the way that we break that down is, you know, they're the domestic scooter market is not very large right now.

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Andy Nix: It's a drop in the bucket globally. We're actually becoming a significant player in the domestic scooter market, which is fantastic. But basically, what we use is motorcycle data as a proxy because that's, that's as close as we can get. And industry studies will, will tell you that 8% of the population is inclined to have a motorcycle in the driveway or in the, in the garage.

What we are finding is that, so 8% is a reasonable proxy, right. Then what we're finding is over 90% of the folks that come into our program have never been on motorized two wheels. Many of them have never been on a bicycle before. So what we've, what we've got here is you know an 8% general bogey with the vehicle that we're using is actually far more approachable. 

Ed Gillentine: It's not as terrifying. Although my buddy had one years ago, he did a scooter thing and I remember he was like, "Here, come try this." I never could quite get used to my feet being in front of me. So I looked like a crazy person going down through there, but it is not nearly as terrifying as the Harley Davidson. You know, that, that, you know, he feels like an earthquake going by.

Megan Klein: Right. Exactly. 

Ed Gillentine: As cool as that is. 

Megan Klein: It's a gateway vehicle, really. 

Andy Nix: Yeah, Scooters are, they can be. 

Ed Gillentine: Harley Davidson needs to be supporting this cause it's going to lead to more sales for them. 

Megan Klein: We're still fundraising. 

Ed Gillentine: Send us that big check. 

Andy Nix: We're we're making more motorcycle buyers as well as more car buyers because what we are finding is a big part of our function is to help people at a certain level of stability, improve the quality of their life and grow to another level of stability that empowers them to live a higher quality of life, which, you know, includes, can include the purchase of a vehicle and that type of thing. 

Ed Gillentine: And I think you, get at the heart of it, right? It's not about scooters or motorcycles or cars. It's about a quality of life. It's about raising people from out of poverty. It's about the flourishing of the city. And I think that's the heart of the issue.

Andy Nix: I think, you know, it is, it is all about empowerment and providing folks the opportunity to be successful.

Ed Gillentine: Yeah. So you guys have mentioned like 85,000 things that I'd love to chase down, so maybe you can come back and do another podcast. You talked about being data-driven, that's a big deal to me. I love that you're not reinventing the wheel. That was a really good pun wasn't it, but I didn't realize that that it was a pun until it was out of my mouth. So if somebody else has already made the wheel, can we just not make it better? Let's not start from scratch. I want to talk about, I want to talk about the paradigm shift and I think part of that has to do with the model of the organization. So whichever one of y'all wants to take that question.

I want you to have freedom. When you say paradigm shift, like, you, I'm assuming you can go a million different ways. Part of the paradigm shift is for me, the 2003 Sequoia driver to be aware of the scooter driver on the road. Right? That's a paradigm shift, especially in the south. Well, there's a paradigm shift that, "Oh, I can. I can drive this thing." So I know there's a bunch of different paradigm shifts. So, yeah, y'all, y'all go with it. Don't let me got it too much. 

Megan Klein: I think we've talked a lot about the culture shift for transportation, but MyCityRides is actually set up as a unique form of nonprofit. We prefer to call ourselves a social entrepreneurship. 

Ed Gillentine: Yeah, chase that down cause I'm fascinated with that. 

Megan Klein: So the way that a social entrepreneurship essentially works, and I think that the way that we define it essentially, cause there's a, there's a few different definitions, but we are essentially in business to do good.

We are a very purpose driven business. And so we are a nonprofit and that's caused a lot of confusion because we also are a motorcycle dealership. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: So we have a motorcycle dealership license. We are licensed salespeople. But we are a non-profit because we are putting every scooter on the road at a loss to the organization because every scooter, when it's paid in full by that Flyer, is paid at retail or at this point slightly less than retail to maintain that $90 a month fee. So we're essentially leasing to own these vehicles, interest free, to these individuals while providing their training, their maintenance and their equipment, so that this whole package costs about $1,500 more than what the individual is paying, but because they are paying something back, we're giving them a microloan essentially for transportation. So they're paying that back in. And when we get to that model, that Andy was talking about kind of that tipping point of a thousand scooters on the road, what we're going to see is the income from the people paying off their scooters in that three-year program is going to be enough to underwrite the purchase of the new scooters needed annually. So there's a bit of sustainability in our model and skin in the game for the people that are participating in and benefiting from the program, they are paying part of that back.

So they have ownership, they have theirs, they're riding with dignity and and riding their own ride. And so they're, they're allowing others to participate by paying off their micro loan. So that we can perpetuate that, but there will always be an element of fundraising and development. So I have job security.

Ed Gillentine: Let me chase that down for just a second. This idea of a catalyst where, you know, the sum of its parts is greater or the end is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Megan Klein: Right. 

Ed Gillentine: And so if you can have a loss, I think if you will, financially, and you can underwrite certain aspects of a program, but it frees up billions of dollars economically, socially, then that seems to be a really good idea. And if you along the way can make it more sustainable, not a hundred percent sustainable. 

Megan Klein: Right. 

Ed Gillentine: But I know I would love to give $15, right? For a hundred dollars worth of impact. I also love the idea that there is skin in the game, there is something innate about skin in the game. All those things really resonate with me. 

Andy Nix: Well, you know, there's another aspect of sustainability that I think is worth, worth, including in the, in the conversation at this point. And, and that is we are growing the market. Right? 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Andy Nix: As we, you know, first year we put a hundred bikes on the road next year, 150, and then we had the pandemic here and we were down to about 60, but we'll be back up to again and we are three years in now.

So our first class of flyers, or program participants, are graduating this year. They are paying off their vehicles. We are giving them the title and they are riding off, but they're not necessarily riding off into the sunset. What we've done over the last three years is build relationships with these people. We provided excellent customer service and maintained their vehicles and that sort of thing. And we expect, we anticipate and expect a very large percentage of them to come back for regular maintenance and that type of thing on a very reasonable fee for service basis, which is an additional revenue stream to help with that sustainability.

Ed Gillentine: Higher profit margin too, if you think about sustainability. 

Andy Nix: Well, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. 

Ed Gillentine: Talk about, talk about a guy like Jay Martin. Okay. And the paradigm shift on the funding side. Right. You got a guy like that. That's, that's challenging the way we've done it for the past hundred years. Just "let's just keep throwing money" and it's not working.

Megan Klein: Yeah. 

Andy Nix: And you know, there are a couple of ways and for those out there that know Jay there's definitely passion. 

Ed Gillentine: Right.

Andy Nix: Right. But then there's also math. You know, and 

Ed Gillentine: Amazing. 

Andy Nix: Yeah, I know, right? Science's big brother. But basically what what we're, what we're finding is, you know, the, the economic impact of opportunity youth. Right. And we'll take a segment of opportunity youth. Memphis has a large population of opportunity youth. One segment are those folks aged 21 to 24 who were not working and not in school, right. There are 20,000 plus of those individuals in this community. And the 

Ed Gillentine: Can you say that again? 18 to 24? 

Andy Nix: 21 to 24.

Ed Gillentine: 21, 24.

Andy Nix: Not working, not in school. 

Ed Gillentine: And that's the group that you would like to think is about to become a really productive member of society, but somehow they're sidelined. 

Andy Nix: Exactly. And that group, the economic headwind, our taxpayer support for each individual, in that situation works out to about $14,000 a year. Okay. So when you think about a program like my city rides, then the conversation for Jay or other investors are, "Hey Ed, help us put 10 people to work in Memphis for three years, right? That's 30 work years. Right? 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Andy Nix: Okay. And let's think about the economic impact of that. If we take that $14,000 and just make it neutral. Don't even move it out, you know, into the black, just make the red go away. 30 times $14,000 

Ed Gillentine: Is a lot of money. 

Andy Nix: Is a lot of money and that's a $30 to $40,000 investment for a 10 fold return. 

Ed Gillentine: Don't let me forget to come back to wrap up sort of the investor donor driver, but when I was listening to your TED Talk, you said something that's really important to me, and I want you to elaborate. You said something to the effect that most people want an opportunity to be productive and to work. Can you talk about that? 

Andy Nix: Absolutely. And that is a, you know, that is a fundamental belief and a fundamental belief of Jay's and of mine and of Megan's, and everybody on our team is that people want a high quality of life. And they want a high quality of life for themselves and their loved ones, and they are willing and eager to, to do what it takes to get that. Where things sometimes get derailed is when they don't have the opportunity or the pathways to get to do that. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Andy Nix: And you know, I firmly believe that the greatest potential for folks is to provide them opportunities to be successful. It needs to be a little challenging, but not impossible. 

Ed Gillentine: Exactly. I love the way you put it, challenging is great, impossible is debilitating. 

Andy Nix: Exactly. 

Megan Klein: And we a real prime example of that during the pandemic, when people were getting furloughed and hours were getting changed. We looked at how can we help at MyCityRides? We know that the people that we're helping right now, their job status may be changing. Things may be going on. So we put in place a scholarship program. So if somebody got furloughed, or you know, for whatever reason their job status changed; they could contact us, provide that documentation, and we would make sure that their scooter payment was covered by that scholarship.

What we found was that a very small fraction of our population took advantage of that because they were still able to get to work. They weren't worried about riding on public transit, where the capacity diminished to 10 people per bus. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: You know, they weren't having that trouble. They were still able to get to work. A lot of them moved into food delivery because that became such a primary way of getting around. So all of a sudden these folks had the mobility to shift and hustle, and that's really what we reward is that resiliency and that hustle that's present in this population to say like, we're going to do what it takes, we're going to adapt. And so we used a very small amount of our scholarship money, because people just didn't need it. They just kept working. 

Ed Gillentine: You know, I think about that as well, just financially the difference between say $500 a month, even if you have a inexpensive car, right? Versus a hundred dollars a month- 90, plus gas, which is not going to be like, you can, you can survive and you can be one of those people that said, you know what? I made it through. I cut back, but I made it through. I mentioned to you guys, we do a lot of work in Ethiopia and I get a little bit irritated when I hear Westerners talk about, "Well, Ethiopians or Africans in general across the continent, they just, they don't work that hard." And my experience when I go to Ethiopia and I see the 1978 Toyota Camry taxi that still runs, that's held together by duct tape.

I say that's a really hardworking, smart human. And I take that analogy back to Memphis. The potential in Memphis. We've mentioned some really smart people, but there's a lot of smart people, I'm gonna bet within those 20,000 young people that have a lot to give us, but somehow they've been sidelined not because they want to be sidelined, but because the system has made it hard. Whether it's transportation, and I'm not saying the system was intentional or anything like that. Cities grow, economic systems grow, but they often leave people behind. If I can take $1,500, if you will, over the course of three years and empower someone to get permanent I think you use the term, somebody used the term, advanceable, employment, dignity, all this stuff.

That seems like a pretty dang good investment to me. But you guys got to keep we on track here, even though I'm supposed to be interviewing you. Your Green Chair talk by the way, love that podcast, that interview format. She's killing it. So anybody that's curious, just Google it, search. You mentioned something that I really liked.

And you talked about intentionality. Every single interview I've done. That word has come up. So let's zoom out and this doesn't even have to be about MyCityRides. Talk about intentionality and why it's important. 

Megan Klein: I think that part of what attracted the team to MyCityRides is just how focused we are on this mission of being very practical in our approach to helping folks. Everything that we do from collecting data, to the technology that we're implementing, to the partnerships that we're seeking out, is very focused and mission driven.

And I think these conversations that we're having, collaborations that we're putting together with other like-minded innovative groups in Memphis, you know, that collaboration. There's just, there's a lot of work to be done and a limited number of hours in the day, and every day that Memphis, you know, is without better transportation, without this type of innovation, more people get left behind or get discouraged and get sidelined, like what you're talking about.

And so for us, it's a matter of, we have a finite number of hours in our day, how do we use them to productively help people better? And so there's a lot of things that could use our attention too. You know, we get the question about driver's licenses. Can you help people get driver's licenses? We can't right now, because that would be mission drift for us.

And we have a team of seven, seven talented, passionate, people helping 300 plus and a growing number of flyers and 24 plus employer partners and all of these things. Like we would love to be able to do that, but that just can't be what we're doing. And job placement, you know, we are at a position of knowing lots of different employers that are looking for jobs, but we can't be an employment agency, but we know Mid-South Employer Network is doing that, and so they're helping. We know that Adecco is helping and HopeWorks and Advance Memphis. There are lots of organizations in the city. Memphis has a huge number of nonprofits available. So we don't need to be doing the same work. 

Ed Gillentine: Right. 

Megan Klein: We need to be able to refer people and to educate ourselves. And I think that is a point of intentionality that Memphians can take on pretty easily just to educate themselves about who's doing what kind of work. If you throw a rock in Memphis are going to hit a nonprofit.

And the nonprofit community does a pretty good job of knowing who's doing valuable work and how you can go about connecting those resources, but a lot of Memphians don't know what's out there. And so I think something that people could just take a little bit of time and invest in is educating themselves on the non-profit landscape in Memphis, and then being a good connector.

I mean, that's why podcasts, like, you know, the Green Chair Conversations are so great that Hope's doing, is they connect people to these resources and give them a minute to just while you're on your commute, driving in your car, listen to a podcast about what's being done. I mean, the work that you're doing, showcasing groups like Sweet Lala's and, you know, just educate yourself and then you'll be better equipped to help make connections and investment in Memphis that will help our city move forward.

Ed Gillentine: I love it. Yeah. 

Andy Nix: And just to build on that, as philanthropic as Memphis is as a community, and we've been recognized nationally for that, and we've got some really big hearted folks here, and thousands and thousands of nonprofits. I think 11,000 was the last count that I had heard. 

Ed Gillentine: A lot of administrative assistants. 

Andy Nix: A lot. There is a lot. 

Ed Gillentine: But that's another podcast. 

Andy Nix: Yes. There are a lot of people that are out there that are trying to help, and that are helping in a lot of key areas like food and shelter and clothing and that type of thing. What we don't see a lot of are transportation focused nonprofit initiatives.

Now, there are, there are some, but what we, what we see is there is a, there's a big gap and a reliance on public transit there, which is, it has the challenges that, that we discussed earlier. And there is particularly a gap in this kind of speaks to the intentionality of what we're focused on.

As you know, folks are probably aware of Birds and Limes and those sort of razor- like scooters that are, that have proliferated. And I said, scooter, and we don't consider them scooters. 

Ed Gillentine: For the record, I tried one of those for the first time in Washington, DC and tried to go across the Mall. If you haven't been to the Mall, it's gravel.

Andy Nix: Yep. Doesn't really work well. 

Ed Gillentine: It didn't end well, but my partner thought it was hilarious. 

Andy Nix: Well, and you know, those those vehicles are, they certainly serve a purpose, they've definitely proliferated, and they are, what they are good for they're first mile, last mile. Right? They're good for getting from Overton Square to Cooper Young or from North Main to South Main or things like that. What they're not designed for is getting to work 10 miles on a Tuesday morning. And what MyCityRides is focused on is, you know, those are the Birds and the Limes and those scooters as well as Explore Bike Share, and other initiatives are really micro transit, you know, in terms of very short distances of frequently recreational, that type of thing. Then you've got cars and buses and things that are massive transportation that can go between cities and cover long distances where MyCityRides is intentional and focused is on this area that we call Metro transit, which is transportation within the metropolitan area. And when you talk about a metropolitan area like Memphis, that's got such a big footprint that becomes even more important. And that is the area that we are focused on. Not only are we focused on transportation, but specifically that underserved slice of transportation. 

Ed Gillentine: Yeah. Going back to our 11,000 nonprofits I think we all have heard the saying the road to hell is paved with good intentions. What I like about you guys, what I like about a lot of impact organizations in Memphis, is when you can marry good intentions with intentionality. Right. That's a pretty powerful thing. So we need to land the plane. So, talk to us real quick about where you see, a synopsis, cause we've covered a lot of it, where you see my city rides over the next 3, 5, 10 years. Where where's it going?

Andy Nix: Sure, sure. Ed, we're going up. MyCityRides is going big baby. Right? We see ourselves over the next three to five years. We'll be over the next year we'll be preparing and moving into our new home, our new world headquarters, which will allow us to scale. 

Ed Gillentine: You got to have a world headquarters if you're going to take over the world. So I'm excited for you. 

Andy Nix: Exactly. And what that, what that facility will let us do is grow to putting out 2-300 plus scooters or Flyers per year here in Memphis, getting to a point where we have at least a thousand folks in the three-year program at any given time. 

Ed Gillentine: That's awesome. 

Andy Nix: Kind of on the, on the heels of that, what we also see as a very real opportunity. Is the ability to take this to other communities and to help similarly position in, you mentioned earlier among the south, if you think about the Sunbelt and particularly, you know, cities that developed a really grew after World War II are automobile focused, automobile centric so much so that we don't even think about it, you don't even see it. And those are the places where public transit is going to be most challenging because they're going to be spread out for cars. And so we see many, many, many opportunities for expansion and helping folks, not just in this community, but across the country.

Ed Gillentine: That's really amazing. You guys are doing really great work. Now I always wrap up these podcasts with what I call rapid fire questions. Okay. So we're going to, each of you gets a shot and so I'm going to go back and forth, like, so Andy, I'm going to start with your favorite ice cream, but the next one I'll give to you so that it's not, you're not always getting a chance to think about it. Okay. So we're just. 

Andy Nix: Rocky road. 

Ed Gillentine: Brian. 

Andy Nix: That's a really good question. And Blue Bell. 

Ed Gillentine: Okay. All right. Rocky road, Blue Bell. Megan, favorite ice cream. 

Megan Klein: Mint Chocolate Chip, Baskin Robbins. 

Ed Gillentine: Oh, wow. I like it. All right. Are you a non-alcoholic family? 

Megan Klein: No. 

Ed Gillentine: Bourbon, favorite bourbon? What's your favorite? Wine?

Megan Klein: White wine. 

Ed Gillentine: White wine. Favorite alcohol? 

Andy Nix: Ooh. Well, you mentioned, you mentioned bourbon and yes. 

Ed Gillentine: You look like a, you even sound like, a bourbon guy, so.

Andy Nix: Well, it's becoming very popular these days, right? And I would hate to limit myself to just one because there's so many fantastic options out there. But golly I really liked Michter's, which is sort of a little neat.

Ed Gillentine: Oh, that's good. Yeah. 

Megan Klein: We got to support our friends at Blue Note. 

Andy Nix: Blue note actually, and that's a fantastic. 

Ed Gillentine: They've become one of my favorites. 

Megan Klein: Yeah. And they are, and they're big MyCityRides fans. 

Ed Gillentine: Are they? Alright, shout out to them. 

Andy Nix: Absolutely. McCauley and all the guys down there. 

Ed Gillentine: I need to go down for the tour. 

Megan Klein: Yeah, it's wonderful.

Ed Gillentine: That's really awesome. 

Andy Nix: It's fantastic. 

Ed Gillentine: We'll definitely do that. I like it. All right. Favorite donut? 

Megan Klein: Oh, favorite donut Gibsons. 

Andy Nix: Is there any other choice? 

Ed Gillentine: You know, I have to tell I'm not going to name names, but I asked somebody recently I went into their bakery and I said, and I got a cinnamon roll. And I said, how does this compare to Gibsons?

And the baker said this to me. He said "Never been to the Gibsons." I said, "Well, don't you need to do a little market research?" He said, "Well, we're good enough. We don't have to." And I was with my little girl and I looked at her after he left us and I said, "Not the same, Gibson's has got it." 

Andy Nix: That reminds me of a, of, of a saying that that has always been important to me. And that is good enough. Isn't. 

Ed Gillentine: That's exactly right. And until you produce a donut, like Gibsons, that I can literally hammer a dozen before I know what happened. Yeah. That's legit. Okay. One quote that you would leave people with that's kind of been important to you. 

Andy Nix: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Ed Gillentine: Wow. Is that a religion or with you? Pardon me? Well, that's all, I, I like that one I can see you sipping you bourbon sharing Ralph Waldo, Waldo, Emerson quotes. I like that. 

Andy Nix: And it, you know, it's, it's, it's all about that to me is, is all about innovation and reliance and yeah. It's it's just really has always resonated with me.

Ed Gillentine: Stephen and I were talking about foolish consistency this morning. We just didn't realize that was what we were talking about. Quote. 

Megan Klein: "The difference between the right word and the wrong word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning bolt." And that's Mark Twain. 

Ed Gillentine: Wow. That's, you know, that's connected to journalism and marketing as well. I like that. 

Megan Klein: Plus he's a Missourian, so. 

Ed Gillentine: Man, y'all are going to have y'all are making me think. Favorite book or a book you're reading now that you're like everybody needs to read this?

Andy Nix: One of my favorite books that has been really meaningful to me as well as to our team in MyCityRides has been Toxic Charity. And that book is, is, is all about helping, you know, giving a hand up rather than giving a hand out and how the traditional nonprofits charitable activities can actually b e undermining and not empowering. 

Ed Gillentine: I love that book. I tell people if you're going to do work in nonprofit and you don't read that book, you're not serious. I don't know any other way to put it. Megan? 

Megan Klein: It is the along those same veins because you took mine Thirst by Scott Harrison. Yes. It's wonderful. And I love I love all things Charity Water. Andy will tell you I'm a bit obsessed, but I love how they went to the root source of the problem, they stopped addressing symptoms and they started addressing the, the factor of clean water.

That's so easily understandable, universal and addresses all of those economic issues and health issues. So I, I love everything about Charity Water. 

Ed Gillentine: That's fantastic. When we were getting started in Africa, we looked at pure water well drilling first and we within a year or two realized it was the most corrupt sector. And so what they're doing at least from my perspective is pretty remarkable because they're wells seemed to be hanging around. 10 years ago, the statistic was 80% of them are, are not functioning in two years. So their, their wells seem to continue to function. 

Megan Klein: That's because they train local people to maintain them. They don't just dig a well and move on. They train local help that then buy in and they have the community invest and they're investing in that technology to make other water capture forms and sanitation possible, which innovation and technology. 

Ed Gillentine: Great book, Thirst. So our listeners just Google that cause I can't remember, Scott. Scott Harrison is the author. 

Megan Klein: Toxic Charity by Richard Luptin, too. 

Ed Gillentine: Both of those are fantastic books. Really enjoyed it. As we wrap up, how can our listeners get involved, touch base with you guys? What's the best way to do that? 

Megan Klein: There's a couple of ways. So you can sign up for our newsletter at mycityrides.org. If they go to mycityrides.org they're also going to find some videos from our Flyers so they can get to meet some of the folks that we're helping in the program. 

Ed Gillentine: Y'all should put GoPros on a few people just a day in the life. That'd be awesome.

Megan Klein: Yeah, MyCityRides is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn a little bit on Twitter. We're working on that. And then if somebody wants to help and invest in what we're doing you can donate online and you can either give a monthly gift, which helps us support the fleet in general, we call it the 901 Fund.

And you can put that decimal anywhere you want to in 901. We're good with that. And then there's also our capital campaign. We have a $400,000 goal by the end of this year to reach our $3 million total for our capital campaign. 

Ed Gillentine: Okay. 

Megan Klein: So $400,000 left in that campaign and we have a $250,000 matching challenge in effect right now from the Assisi Foundation. So if somebody wants to give to that campaign, they can donate online and that gift will be matched dollar for dollar. 

Ed Gillentine: And I want to be careful saying this when it comes to raising money, but a good sign is when the Assisi Foundation supports an organization because they are very rigorous and how they vet a program. So, yeah. Well thanks again for coming. Andy Nicks. Megan, thank you so much. You can learn more about Journey to Impact at edgillentine.com. It's a great resource for articles, white papers, website links, all that stuff. There'll be a link to MyCityRides. You also purchase Journey to Impact printed or on any major digital platform through our website or at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

And imagine this, I saw it on target.com the other day. So I must be becoming a pretty big deal. Yeah. That's a big deal when you're at Target. You can also listen to this podcast and a bunch of others by going to the website or just putting in the search field there in your podcast app, Journey to Impact. As always, please leave a review. We listen to those and it helps guide us on who we talk to, who we interview, the things that we talk about. And until next time, all the best.