BREAKFAST CLUB REDUX. Grant & Jordie dish on the Babes Ride, Paid Membership Tier, App & Surprises!

The Austin meetup that started 4 years ago with 4 friends who mostly wanted to eat breakfast, has uncovered a need in this sport to encourage newcomers with a warm welcome and a bit of structure. The proof is in the monthly attendance, which has reached 800 riders of all skill levels, as well as the thriving online community and expansion to other cities. What outwardly appears to be lightning in a bottle is actually attributed to bottomless dedication, strong leadership and vision. From the early days, Breakfast Club prioritized programming for women with the weekly “Babes Ride” which boasts a remarkable turnout, and sure enough female ridership over-indexes at all sponsored events. Another essential ingredient is the club’s network of volunteer ride leaders who proudly organize, fix flats and encourage newcomers up Austin’s unforgiving hills. The secret is in the good vibes and leadership’s ability to create an incredible brand with a lot of sacrifice and limited resources. If you haven’t heard Breakfast Club’s origin story, tune into Hill Climbers episode number one. Now enjoy a discussion of what has unfolded since our first interview, and the impressive developments for 2024.

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Theme Music: Summer Vibes by Rizik

Transcript

0:10

We got Jordi Ammons. Am I pronouncing that right? Ammons. Yeah. Ammons. Yeah. New name. New name. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you very much. Grant Rogers, the the first return guest back in on Hill Climbers, thank you so much for for coming back on. Yeah. I mean, it's, man, guys, it's been, what, 4 years since Breakfast Club has has launched. When when did you guys launch? It was August of was it August of 2020? Yeah. Late 2020. Late 2020. Okay. And we paused for a bit, and I feel like the real official start was, like, late 2021. Okay. Something like that. Yeah. Alright. So not quite 4 years, but but getting there. How does it feel to be 4 years into it? Is it does it still feel new or what what inning are we in? You know what? I would say this year, it's like last year we had perfect weather with the rain, no rain for any ride. And then this year is we've just not had that same luck. So there's a little bit of, I think just logistics that we have to deal with more this year than last year. So Yeah. Always learning. Yeah. There's less smooth sailing this year. Right. We're in the inning where we're having some competition from the weather. Okay. And and why don't we do this? Just for, those folks that are not initiated, can I I guess, Grant, why don't you give kind of high level just what what breakfast club is, and then, obviously, we will go be going into into detail moving forward? Yep. It's started as a weekly group ride, and it's kind of evolved into this team of 30 ride leaders who host, essentially, like, a grand fondo style ride every month, and it's once a month now. And, we have rides that can approach up to 800 people, we have, like, 4 or 5 PACE groups. We have police escorts. It's this crazy kind of, like, community event that everyone comes together for. So it's turned into, like, this small community to, like, this thing that everyone comes together for. And and the vibes are great, and, that's part of what makes it so special. Right? It's it's super inclusive, and, like you said, there's there's something for everyone. It's not just for the, the weekend warriors hammering hammering their bike. It's also for the the newcomers. Correct. Well, great. And, and, yeah, I guess we had we had introduced Grant and Jake Ritter, another Breakfast Club cofounder, on the first episode of Hill Climbers. So for folks that are, curious about kind of the full origin story, check out that episode. But for this show, now that we're almost 4 years in, we wanted to dig a little bit more into, a a third kind of partner, in Breakfast Club and and talk about what what Jordi has been up to, and and really focus on the the female rider demographic, with Breakfast Club and and maybe with Austin too a little bit. So, yeah, I guess, Jordy, what's your what's your story? How how'd you start riding bikes? Yeah. Yeah. How'd I get here? Yeah. Kind of one of one of my favorite questions. Yeah. So and it's a good question. So I've been riding bikes for about 11 years. I started I've been in Austin for about 12 years, started riding bikes, you know, from the gun. Had Who who got you in? Like, how how did that move out? Yeah. So good question. So I actually got into endurance sports, I guess, through marathoning. Mhmm. It did a couple of marathons, half marathons. And then, of course, next step is, like, this is so monotonous. I need to do a triathlon. So did, you know, a couple of half Ironmans. Yeah. And so that's kind of how I got into the whole biking aspect of it. But I mean, for me, it was not it was not such a warm welcome just because it's a very male dominated sport. It's a very egotistical sport. So I was actually I had lived in Dallas for a year and a half, and I got introduced kind of to, like, a group ride through my friend's dad. And as you know, like, men that have been riding bikes for 40 or 50 years, like, they're incredibly strong and powerful, and it was just, like, I had no business being there. They didn't want me there, but I kept showing up. I would get dropped. I didn't have all the fancy bike gear. And were you were you more or less the only woman in that group? Oh, only woman in, like, this is formative. Yeah. Junior junior by, like, 30 years. Wow. So I was in my early twenties and it's just, you know, it was the, like, kind of baptism by fire. Like, no one's gonna sit down and, like, tell me how to do this or tell me how to change a flat. You know, I YouTube did. I figured out myself. I figured out the etiquette on my own. So fast forward to, I guess, coming back to Austin. And set the stage. What year was it? This was I was back in Austin in 2015. Okay. Yeah. So I did a lot of riding around town, just on my own. I had gone to a couple of group rides in town. They weren't, like, super welcoming because they all race. There was nothing that is, like, a casual ride. There's a couple of older groups in Austin that are a little bit more tame, pace wise that, you know, it's just like, okay, this is so I did the majority of my riding solo Until, actually Justin Siegel, who's one of the other co founders, I run with him. I run I ran with him at Raw Running, one of the running groups in town. And he had I can't remember if he had texted me or posted it on Instagram or something, but that's that's how I got introduced. They hosted a ride. I showed up, met Grant. I think that was back when, like, I could do an 8 there was no 8 group. It was like we all rode together. One group. And then, yeah, it was like there was I forget it was you and So that so that's when you 2 first met, basically. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. My so there was 1 our 1st breakfast club ride happened, and I was not here for it. And so my 1st breakfast club ride was the 2nd ride, which is actually Jordy's first breakfast, the ride. So we've done as many rides together. Yes. Yeah. That was Yeah. And I love that you guys met through Breakfast Club. I I did not did not realize that. I didn't know. Yeah. We had, like, kind of decided that we probably met in college. We both went to UT. We had overlapping friend groups, so I think we crossed paths at some point, but, like, formally became like, started a friendship and, you know, at Breakfast Club. Yeah. All those you know, it's only been 4 years ago, but it was a little longer. It was a ride to, Buda, and we were sitting at that coffee shop in Buda, and we're like, oh, nice to meet you. And then brought all the way back in. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. That's happening. Awesome. I love it. Yeah. And and, yeah, I think, everyone listening should note that your entree into, you know, road riding was was not warm and fuzzy. No. And I think and and you had done a lot of riding, solo by yourself, which and and that same with me. Yeah. I think at this point, we we almost take, group riding and, like, breakfast club like groups for for granted. Mhmm. It it it was a little lonely. It's a lit it's a little bit weird when you're first getting started. It's such like a, you know, for me, like, I tried my hand at group rides in Austin. It was very clicky and I was just like, I'm better off just riding by myself. So, no, it wasn't warm and fuzzy. It was a lot of, like, self taught education, like, through, like, what do I do? How do I change a flight? What if my chain drops? I remember when I was in Dallas riding with those older guys, you know, I didn't realize there was a Shava segment coming up, and I'm pulling my heart out on the front of the group, and then they just bury me and left me for dead. And, like, I was just like mark drop ride. Yeah. Yeah. Very hard drop ride. Right. So, yeah, my my mom, like, when I got she saw me after the ride, and she was like, you look like you've been drugged behind a truck for the past 35 miles. And I go, I feel I feel that way. Right. Did you feel like the first breakfast of ride that, you know, that one that we were on, like, an immediate difference from, like, the other? Yeah. I yeah. Absolutely. Because, I mean well, and that's the other thing too is, like, you roll up to these rides and you immediately, like, start, like, checking out everyone's bikes and everyone has, like, the top of the line stuff. And I'm like, okay, my chain's rusty. Like, you know? But no, it was very manageable, which I think obviously that that's huge, you know, But those Not just for me. Yeah. Just for anybody that's, like, wanting something that's approachable. It's like, okay. This pace is manageable. It's not as intimidating. I don't have to train up to go to a group ride, which I've had, you know, that's how I felt, like, back Totally. My first group rides. It it's a bit of a ragtag group. Right? You you roll up and people have different different bikes, different gear. It's it's not it's not all super professional looking, and and that's totally fine. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a that's a great story. Thanks for sharing. So, I guess I I wanted to ask you about the start of the Braves ride and how, how that came about. And I guess maybe taking one more step back, your involvement with with Breakfast Club becoming a little bit more formalized, you know, in a leadership position. Yeah. So, Babes kind of culminated on its own. There was a smaller group of girls that I actually ran with and we all started meeting together, actually at Meteors. We have never left. We we left, I think, briefly, but we're we're back. But yeah. So there was a small group of my running friends that we started riding bikes together, and then it kind of just snowballed. And I think, to go way back, I think there was at least 1 or 2 from me not Kat. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Right. Another Austin favorite, especially for Yeah. A little bit far. Yeah. Yeah. So we started, kind of, you know, for they were new to it it was the kind of the same thing that I was trying to do, like, back when I first started riding. They're new to the sport. So they wanna I, you know, I kind of took them under my wing and said, okay. Like, I'll I'll ride with you. I know some of the routes in Austin. I can I can fix minor mechanicals, not anything, like, catastrophic, but, so kind of just rules of the road, how how to interact with each other on in a group? And so then from there, women's ride on the side and then we kind of just merged just, women's ride on the side, and then we kind of just merge just because there's absolutely a space for it. I think that it creates a softer entry point for women to come into Breakfast Club just because of the safe space. Yeah. And and men need a safe space too, but but a safe space for women. Yeah. Well, and it's also like you don't feel like you're being mansplained something. Like, if somebody, you know, like, this is how you like, you know, coaching that you didn't ask for. Amen. Yeah. So I for me, it was, like, creating a safe space. You can ask questions. You're here to also build community. That's what our whole thing is, is like we just want to make new friends and be a part of the community and it not in it being a welcoming environment. Right. So it kind of just picked up steam. You know, we had tossed around the idea of once breakfast club scaled back to once a month, should we scale babes back to once a month just because it's a heavy lift to lead a ride once a week, especially whenever there's fewer women than there is men. But I think the value of the women's ride is, like, hugely important. And also, like, the women's ride leaders that we have are like, I couldn't do it without them. They're they're phenomenal. They're the reason why it's so successful. Just because they've also created that kind of same ethos of, like, creating a safe space and making it warm and welcoming. Right. Mhmm. And so it is still weekly? Mhmm. And and what day and and what Wednesday nights at 6 PM from meteor still. So unless it's raining, then we will also cancel. So I've noticed, this was recently. This was a couple months ago, road past you all, And it was it was a pretty sizable group. So how how is it sort of grown over the last three and a half years? Yeah. So I mean, I think we started with like maybe 5 or 6 girls. And now, you know, whenever the weather's nice, we'll have out, you know, 40. I think we posted a couple Saturday rides where we've had like a 100, 120 women come out. Wow. Which is great. I told Grant, I was like, we need our own police escort. This is getting out of control. But I think, you know, I think there's something to be said that it's a casual you know, we're not trying to tear each other's legs off. We're just like we go at Mount Bonnell. That's our big climb, and then we come back and drink wine afterward. So I I think I'll I'll throw a caveat in there. I there are probably points where you guys do get a little competitive. Right? Yeah. We rate it. Not drop, but, you still there's still some really fast women that are edging out others. Yeah. We we we we ride hard up Mount Bunnell, but after that, we're we're we're chilling. And that's the breakfast of the way. Yeah. Ride hills, ride them hard, regroup. Or if you don't wanna ride the hills at all, like, just chill. We'll meet you at the top. Yeah. So I would like to, like, call out, like, how amazing it is, like, watching that from the outside because it's kind of like how breakfast was started. We didn't start it to become this huge thing. It just happened. And Jordi didn't start that women's ride to create this huge thing. It just happened. And so it's kind of amazing to, like, see, like, how what has happened on the bigger club level has just happened in a bit more, like, of an intimate way within the women's community as well. So But but let's categorize intimate because when I was riding past you you all, it was that was a big group. It's a big group. For a 40 person group ride in another city is the the size of the whole group ride. Mhmm. You know what I mean? We're we're we're talking about just just women. So I think, like, I that's not something I'm gonna forget. Like, I really, was super impressed and thought it was it was so cool. I mean, really big accomplishment for for you all and for Yeah. And for the city. Mhmm. How many women do you think were at the first rides that we were on the Butyride? Oh, the Butyride? Yeah. Maybe like 3. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really amazing to see, like, how it's grown. I think, too, something that, like, I feel very proud of is when you roll when you do roll into the Big Breakfast Club ride, it is almost a 5050 split male female. Yeah. Maybe not quite, but it is it's it's it's close. It's not your typical, like, 1 to 20 ratio that you get at normal rides. It it is, very apparent how how well represented women are at at most breakfast club events. And and yeah. So if we're talking about 4 100, 500 people showing up on a on a Saturday, maybe a couple 100 of those are are women. Yeah. Absolutely. Just awesome. Well, thank you for for diving into that. Yeah. Beyond consistent sort of weekly rides, anything else planned for babes or or just kinda keeping it? Yeah. I think we're gonna continue we'll continue to keep it steady. One of the things that is nice about the Babe Drive is it's it's geared towards beginners. So we do ride the same route just because not everyone has the fancy bike computer. So it's like if you do it enough times, you're familiar, you know what's coming, it's predictable. That said too though is you get the women that are past the beginner stage, and they kind of they've been matriculating out. And so, you know, Grant and I have talked about different ways of, like, continuing to keep the group. Yeah. Continuing to bring them back. And so, you know, I think we're gonna do some kind of faster, longer routes just so they can continue to be a part of that same community. You know, I would love to take, like we've talked about this too. One of our other ride leaders, Bianca, is just like a babe's trip, like an outright type trip, but only for women. So that will require more planning. Yeah. But it but it sounds like a great idea and only a matter of time. Yeah. Yeah. So no, but I mean, just consistency. I mean, also, you know, there's always been this I found that the women in Austin that have been riding for years, like, they ride to race. They all ride to race. And we don't necessarily do that, which is why I think we've been successful in, like, in the growing aspect. But, you know, there are women because there are also women that are new to the sport that do wanna race. And so also creating a space for them to kind of make that jump, you know, whether they wanna do the driveway or they wanna do, you know, or some, like, road race or a gravel race, like, making sure that everyone's needs are being met. Yeah. You know, if they wanna ride casual, cool. If you wanna go race, we we can get help you get that way too. And I think that's a really great point, and I can speak from from personal experience. Like, that onboarding ramp from casual sort of indoctrination, getting up to speed, no pun intended on on how the bike works, on, where you can go race and, upcoming events and and support around that, I think is really valuable because in other in other clubs and other cities that it's not that's not offered. Right. Right. But I mean, I think we just have, like, a we have a lot of we have we just have volume no matter what we do. And so I think we have to be able to cater to that, which is it's a hard thing to balance. But, you know, if that's what people and women are wanting to do, like, I wanna be able to fully support them in that. I think one of the, like, tools or, like, one of the things that Breakfast club has used to, like, help foster what has what the community has become is, like, progression. It's like, you can show up in d group and, like, see, like, c group, p group, a group, and, like, oh, I have all this growth, and you can learn and you can work your way up. And I think that, like, if babes, right, can, like, lean into that progression too, it's like then you can not just have that beginner level, but you can have an a and b group. You can have an a, b, c, or Yeah. Or you can have these varied rides that lean into that, like, progression aspect and really do, like, help you grow as a cyclist. And you're doing it in real time with other with other cyclists, with with, you know, making friends and and having a a a support group of a team. Absolutely. Well, great. So another important development, recently this year is the The Breakfast Club, membership. Mhmm. And, that is a a paid, membership kind of subscription annual, I guess, you could say, which I've I've opted in for and already benefited from. So, yeah, I guess for folks that that are not familiar with it, can you lay out what that is and and what the value is? And we can Yeah. Dive in. Yeah. I guess, first of all, just kinda, like, set the stage of, like, we we were working we work with brands a lot, and we get a lot of questions on, like, you know, when we ask for support, it's like, what do they get in return, or how big is breakfast cover? Like, how many people do we can we, like, touch base with? And so we launched a membership free and paid to just say, hey. Here's, like, are you a breakfast club member? Do you wanna say that you're a part of this club? And then we can and on our side, like, hey. Our club, you know, sure, we have rides up to 800 people. We have an Instagram following of this. It's like, here's actually, like, how big our club is. So that was, like, our goal in launching this membership. How many opted in for the the freemium? Yeah. So we have, like, 600 Wow. Free, and we have a 100 paid. So After sales. Just launched a few months ago. Yeah. Yeah. So and and it's kinda cool to see that because it makes sense. Like, our rides can be 7 to 800 people at times. That's our biggest, and it's like, okay. That's about how many say they're in our club, which is cool because, you know, our Slack is almost 2,000, but that's just, you know, grunt through word-of-mouth. So it's nice to see that, like, the numbers do kinda make sense. Yeah. And by by the way, sorry. Shout out to the Slack community if you're not on there. Go And and how do do people need an invitation or Yeah. It's all been grown through word-of-mouth. Right? Yeah. You can, be added just if, like, if somebody is already in there, just giving that person your email address, they can add you. Right. Or if you DM Breakfast Club, I'll add it. Yeah. It's yeah. Yeah. DM DM Breakfast Club. There you go. Grant Grant will add you, into the Slack community, but it's it's thriving like I've I've never seen. I mean, it it, and there are various channels. The most exciting one is the gear swap one where Yeah. A lot of product changes hands regularly, but then, the community is really active, promoting just casual rides, formal rides, races, anything bike related in Austin. It's Sometimes it's not even bike related. Sometimes people are trying to, like, foster dogs and, you know Good point. Yeah. Get a roommate. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. Sorry, Grant. I know you're off. No. You know? But yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's part of the amazing thing. And so, like, this membership was just launched to kind of tie all of that together because we had all these kind of avenues or, like, hey. How do we bring all of our community in one place to connect us with them and our partners? And so, we did wanna launch, a limited paid option as well, simply because we wanted to be able to, like, stand on our own 2 legs in a way. It's like we are a completely free ride. You can just show up to everything we do. But with that, we have costs. And so it's like, hey. You know, we have, sometimes up to 6 vehicle escorts at a ride. That's not free. We have to absorb that or our partners do. So up to this point up until this year, it was kind of a sponsorship model. It's right. Hey. We work with these brands. They're amazing amazing. They're a part of our community, but, like, we're asking for funds to do what we do. We wanted to kind of create that on our own by working with our partners and saying, hey. How can we tie all of these, like, loose ends and be like, hey. Here's what you can directly provide our our community. Here's what we can provide you. And then we kind of, like, put that together into what we call our, like, our our paid subscription, like, annual model. I mean, yeah, you're a member. You know, like, we we have the media in there. It's like, hey. If you're a if you're a member, you get free free coffee a day. You get always half air price. You get a free bike couple free bike wash ups or tune ups a year. And shout out to the meteor, expanding rapidly into Bentonville, already open. Dallas already open. Yep. Fayetteville is opening soon ish. Mhmm. And if you're a breakfast club member, the membership extends to those locations as well. Thing. Yeah. Like, we would kinda joke. It's like, you could not even ride a bike and just like coffee, and the membership would be worth it, and just free coffee a day, literally, which is awesome, and we're very thankful for that. But, that was kind of, like, the thing this year was, like, we wanted to open a 100 of these paid slots and just see how it does and make sure that we can actually do it right. And we don't have you know, say we opened up way more and we have, like, 500 people going to the meteor to get bike washes washes or tune ups. It's like, we wanna make sure that we can do it right. And so, yeah, a couple months in, we've filled up all the slots, and we're just trying to really nail it. Awesome. One thing I think that was very powerful and are, like we had asked the people that were paid members, why did you buy this? Is it the value that we're providing you? Like, do you think it's beneficial and that's why you wanna buy it? And I would say, like, 90% of the people said, we just wanna support what you guys are doing. That's what I said. Yeah. Yeah. And it was just, like, it gave me, like, goosebumps because I was like, damn. Like, that's our minds. We're like, we're over here, like, scratching our brain, like, okay. We have to provide more value. Like, we have to make this, like, financially beneficial for our members. That way, they wanna buy it. But they're like, no. We just wanna we're just happy with what you guys do, and we wanna support. I'm like Wow. Which I think is so incredible. Powerful. Yes. Really powerful. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. And and, yeah, I guess that that is exactly I think that was the first comment I made in that in that questionnaire, and it's it's true. It's, and I've said this on the show before, but my wife and I moved here three and a half years ago, and so much of our friend group and community was was built from, you know, breakfast club and and the the Yeah. Tangentially. So it's it's something that, is in in a way priceless. And and I think, we're so proud to be living in Austin and and part of the community and and seen and, like, perpetuating that. I think especially with Austin having such a massive influx of folks like us from from the outside, like, we we want it to be special forever. And part of part of that is is Breakfast Club and things like it. Right. Well, thank you. Yeah. It's it is very special, and that's, like, an amazing thing that Jordi said about, like, how it's like, what we created is truly just, like, a little part of the bigger thing that everyone, like, wants to be and, like, wants to feel special, to be a part of. So And and that also, just from a business perspective, converting, I don't know what percentage a hun 1 in sixes, but converting a 100 or yeah. So with 600 just the freemium Yeah. I think we have about over 600. Okay. And then and then a 100 is either part of that or on top of that. That's a really good percentage to to get people opting in. Yeah. Yeah. So so back to the, we we we did the the warm and fuzzy part back to the value for the membership. We talked about the meteor. What what else is included? Yeah. So we partner with Specializ Austin. You know, they depending on if you're paid or free membership. So paid membership, I mean, do you get, what, 15% off of a bike? If you buy a bike from them, you get free tires. Yep. I can't remember what 20% off equipment. 20% off of equipment. I could pull it up. Up. We, work with Scratch Labs as well, and we do member orders at 25% off product. Panter Mall is our apparel partner. You get 25% off product through group orders there. Yeah. Eastside Movement Company in there now, and they're very much a part of our homegrown community. They've been there since day 1, and they're offering physical therapy to our members and trying to break down the barriers of that because, you know, it's something everyone will deal with if they have not already by riding a bike so much. But, essentially, like, trying to put all those pieces together, and, it's for a dollar a day was our model. So it's, like, for a dollar a day, right, from an annual subscription, you can get, you know, all of that. So I hadn't heard that tagline for the membership before. Yeah. It is. Yeah. And especially when coffee costs 3 and a half or $4. There's 4.50 at meteor. Yeah. So there you go. Like, so you just literally just drink you drink the membership and coffee. I know. I know. But if you buy a bike, I mean Yeah. It's crazy amount how how much money you can save just with, like Yeah. Through just the bike as specialized Austin aspect. And a set of tires that I've already picked up, you know, it's a they're a $100 for a set. Right? So there there you go. Yeah. Yeah. It adds up quickly if you're actually using it, which is what we wanted to do with that. We're like, hey. If, you know, you're a part of everything that we've built with our partners and you actually lean into us and our partners, it's an absolute no brainer. Is there you you and I talked about this a little bit the other day. Is there part of the membership, sponsors that you wanna keep local to to keep local Austin flavor and and your members interacting with entrepreneurs and and brands that are that are here in our backyard? Yeah. I, I think we intentionally kind of launched it to be like, if you're in Austin, this makes sense. Sure. We do have members in Dallas, and we have some members in Bentonville, and there are meteors there. But we wanted to be able to say, like, Austin is our home. Can we do it here? And then if we can, we would love to grow that and be like, alright. It also makes sense for a lot of people in Dallas or Bentonville or other cities to be a part of this because it breaks down barriers there too. Right? But we intentionally try to stay, like, very organic and local, which I think is what we've done, like, up until this point and everything. It's like, we haven't tried to, like, grow rapidly outside Austin. And I think too, like, our partners that we have partnered with, they've supported us from essentially day 1. You know, specialize, we they They're the Babes' Right? They can't yeah. They come to the Babes' Right every week. But, I mean, I take to the Babes' Right? They can't yeah. They come to the Babes' Right every week. But, I mean, they they've been showing up for us since day 1 without, like, us, like, formally asking them to do that. And so that, for me, like, for us, has gone a really long way just because it's like, okay. They're supporting us. They're they're in the community. They're actively in the community with us to help us achieve our goals. And so, I mean, I think it makes perfect sense. And, you know, kind of just all happened somewhat organically. Symbiotic. Yeah. Mhmm. So, we kinda covered Austin, and now you guys are doing rides in Dallas. You're doing rides in Bentonville as well? Or, can we talk about Breakfast Club expanding out outside of Austin and what what the latest news is with those developments? Yeah. I mean, a lot of it does stem from and is rooted in our partnership with the meteor because, they are kind of like our home outside of our big home of Central Machine Works, and they have cafes in Dallas and Bentonville and Fayetteville soon and soon to be other cities. And we would love to grow with them, and provide, like, that feel that we have in Austin in these other areas that might need that. You know, when we started Breakfast Club, there was a gap that we saw that could be filled and should be filled, and we did. And, obviously, we created a space that a lot of people feel, comfortable being in. And so, you know, are there spaces like that in Dallas or other areas where that we can go and actually connect people in amazing ways like we've done here? Great. And, can you talk a little bit more just specifically about what is, what you're offering in Dallas and and Bentonville? Mhmm. So right now, we have, what's it, 2 Dallas rides and 2 Bentonville rides this year. 4 so it's it's, like, 8 8 METEOR rides, 4 in Austin, 2 in Dallas, 2 in Bentonville. Mhmm. As they open more cafes, we will be doing rides out of those cafes as well. So, it kinda looks like, you know, everyone kinda goes up from Austin on a weekend and and joins the Dallas community. We actually just had Nick Weber, a ride leader who's been a part of our crew for a long time, just moved home to Dallas, and he's like, I'm so nice. Do more rides up there. And so it's just, you know, once again, just how, you know, it's just played out. And so it kinda makes sense now that we do Diaspora. Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, like, whenever, you know, we've through just cycling in general, we've met so many people in different cities like Chicago or on the East Coast, on the West Coast. So I think as we as Meteor continues to open up and we kind of follow in their footsteps just because it's a soft landing spot for us and they're a partner of ours, you know, we've we've identified, you know, the movers and shakers in those communities, where I think we could rinse and repeat what we've done here in Austin. Yeah. And that brings up a great question. Keeping keeping it real, keeping The Breakfast Club culture and vibe consistent throughout these different locations, what's the strategy there? How do you maintain it? We haven't done it yet. So that's a good question. Well, you know, I think it'll evolve. I mean, Grant, you could probably give your 2¢ on it. Yeah. Yeah. I think about that a lot because I'm like, should it feel the exact same way or should it feel, like, adapt to those places? Because, I mean, we know it tried and true here, but it's like it happened here. It's very much a part of Austin. It feels very Austin. Should it feel slightly different in Dallas, or should it feel slightly different in some other city? Because, you know, not all cities feel the same. And so yeah. I don't know. I think we'll kinda see what happens, and we'll see how Nick does it up in Dallas, and we'll see if it feels a bit different or or how it works. I mean, I don't think you can have 6 police escorts in every city, you know, that we would do rides in. So I just think that it will look and feel different. Yeah. But I thought yeah. It will always be rooted in that. Like, anyone can show up. And with that, you know, people in other cities are different, so you never know who's gonna show up and what that'll Or ethos. Yeah. Yeah. That that DNA, the the, inclusive DNA, I imagine, is probably the the most important part. Mhmm. And and, again, Jordy and I touched on this. It it's that is what's special and unique. A welcoming ride where, the the ride leaders are are lending a hand and not and not dropping everyone. Right. So so, yeah, that's that's really exciting. And then and then I wanted to check-in just on online on Instagram. Is is kind of the the following continuing to to grow there? Are are you getting messages, feedback from other geographies outside of of Austin, that want something like Breakfast Club in their town? Yeah. I mean, I think we draw I I I well, Grant has done a really phenomenal job of just, like, making her Instagram look really sexy so people like to follow it. But, no, I mean, I think there's people that what I think is unique, people that come in from Austin that travel into town will plan their trips around our rides. And so it's kind of this destination thing that they can do while they're in town. But as far as, like I don't know. You you're on the Instagram more than I am in the DMs. I Yeah. I answer them every once in a while, and I get overwhelmed. It it continues to grow socially, which is, I think, like a testament to just the the brand that we've created around what is a community and, like, a group ride. I was actually giving a a presentation on Breakfast Club last week at, like, a Pottermore Studios brand summit. And, like, they're like, what is it that y'all do, and why is it so big? And I think of yeah. I think, like, a big, part of why is because we've created this brand around an experience that that can translate outside of Austin, and people can, like yeah. As we, like, travel and meet other people, they're like, like, I feel part of it too. Like, I love breakfast. Stuff. I wanna wear a t shirt. And then it just kind of, like, grows from there. Creates a cult. We created a cult. That A cult like following. That's that's how you know you created a cult. If if the Panomol execs are are asking you what the secret sauce is Mhmm. That's that's some some pretty high praise. I feel like. Really cool. It was really amazing to be able to speak about it, and kind of, like, go from the beginning and, like, find these themes that have worked that can maybe translate to other cities that don't have a big community or looking to build community. I think one of the things to that is our ride leaders, they they're all of the same mindset and they are so like I feel like it's the people that make this thing what it is. You know, we truly couldn't do it without them. They are the ones that are taking time on their weekends and their Saturdays and stopping on the side of the road to fix mechanicals or, you know, helping, you know, they don't no one has to do that. Yeah. And so I think creating they've helped create that kind of, you know, warm feel. Whenever you come to a breakfast club, it's like, oh, like, this is not a threatening environment. Yeah. Which I think for us, I don't know. Will that be difficult when we move into other markets to find those people? I hope not. But, you know That's that's the question. It'll be yeah. It's a question mark. So I think you asked, like, earlier on is, like, how Jordi, like, then built the babes right and everything is because she just literally showed up every single day. She's like, I wanna help this thing. And that's how all of our ideas are. We all just show up to help this thing because we all get a lot back from it. And so I think that those people will just identify themselves. Mhmm. They're they're for me, there's not much more exciting than getting someone into cycling. My gosh. Yeah. I agree. It's the best. Right? It's the best. I've I've succeeded with a a few friends, and, it it makes me very happy, guys. Okay. Great. So we're like, now you've invested all this money you have to ride with. Well, yeah. The the first bike is all that's that's the hurdle Yeah. For people. Big period of entry. Yeah. Alright. Great. We're we're moving right along. So, yeah, I guess I guess as far as the, actually wanted to ask you this question. Being into it for for three and a half years, are there any recently, surprises? It can be something really, really positive and, it can be something negative, one of each. Trying to think the only negative thing I could think of this year is the damn weather. Yeah. Which which for Texas is not not usually raining as consistently. We had a very rainy spring. Yeah. I think what comes from, like, a a cool perspective on that is, like, now like, I used to think everything we did was so dependent on, like, in person connection and in person connection and in person rides, but we have now, like, the tools of social media or our Slack or whatever where even if we don't ride, like, our rides have arguably gotten, like, our third one is, like, we didn't even do it today, and our first two were kinda rained out. It doesn't really matter because the community still goes on, and everything we're doing still goes on. And so I think it's that, like, connection outside of the rides that is kinda like, okay. This is no longer dependent on riding in person, which has kind of been a really amazing thing to realize and kind of a relief as well because it's like we don't have to, stretch ourselves so thin on doing a ride every weekend per se because the connection's already there, and people will ride with others. We actually, going in this year, we have a new team team member. His name is Zolan, and he has built us an app. And we now have this app where we have, some cool things coming out that will allow people to, like, connect outside of our big rides on an m and e's in an even easier way. And so I think that's been a cool, like, realization this year was, like, you know, all of our rides could get rained out, and this thing still goes on. Yeah. Yeah. And thanks thanks for bringing up the app. That launched basically right in line with the with the the paid and sort of premium memberships. What can can you kinda outline the the features and what you have in plan for the for the product roadmap? Yeah. It's you know, we needed something as we're, like, connecting our partners with members. We needed something like a tool to do that. So when you show up to the meteor, you can redeem your coffee or you can connect with specialized Austin in a seamless way to, like, get a bike or get those tires. And so the app is our way of doing that 1st and foremost. It's like put something in on your phone in the hands of everyone that you you can show up to the media, like, scan this. I'm a breakfast club member. That was the first use case. The second use case was, like, have a centralized place for everyone to see what we're doing. You know, we can post on Instagram. We can put stuff on Slack, but, like or we can put stuff on Strava to have, like, our own home of, like, our events and what's going on is pretty special and powerful for us. There's a member list in there. So it's like, even, you know, free or paid, you can go in and see, who's the breakfast member? What's their favorite breakfast food? Kind of this funny thing just kind of, like, break down the barriers of who all is a part of it. And then we'll have a a new feature coming out called, like, rides or, like, the rides tab. And that's, like, pretty exciting, and Zolan's working really hard on that. And that's the kind of the ATX rides channel in Slack. We'll kinda move into app form, which is gonna be a a cool thing for us. Nice. And will that, is the plan to have just official breakfast club rides and and pop ups on there, or is there gonna be more features? So I, yeah, I don't wanna go into too much detail because Zolon is really working hard and is really excited about kind of surprising the world with this. Alright. But it's like, if you think about, you know, how we view Strava on the club level, we're trying to, like, allow people to do that on the person to person level. Very cool. Yeah. Alright. Well, that's exciting. And, again, for every everyone can download the app. Right? The or freemium is is free. Download it. Check it out. And and, yeah, I I I do wanna say it's been the the sponsorship integration is really, I I think, well thought out, well done. With Specializ, for example, you, within the app, are given a a text like, a phone number so you can text the Specializ support, and and people will get back to you immediately. And then like Grant said, you know, I I guess it's it's a integration with the POS at at the meteor. Mhmm. Very straightforward. Yeah. So it's become it's become a a breakfast club experience on, you know, on your phone. And and, and by the way, that probably wasn't the easiest thing to pull off. Yeah. Zolon. Zolen. Zolen. But he's made it it's, like, very gamified almost. Like, it's an a very interactive app, which he's just done a totally phenomenal job on it. With Bryant made custom little icons. You know, it feels breakfast club. It doesn't feel like this stale app. So Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. The the design is really fun. Mhmm. U UI, UX are great. Yeah. We, we have some, like, lofty goals for it too because, you know, it is in beta right now, so we wanted to take it out of beta eventually and have these kind of robust features be a part of it. And, you know, is there a way for us to see who attends our rides the most through this app? Is it like an in person QR code at some point that then you're like, hey. I went to all these breakfast little rides this year, and we can see that. Or you maybe you know, Straub has, like, a trophy case. Do we have our own little, like, I went to these officheralds. I went to these media rides, and we can see who are who Who's showing up. Yeah. Who's showing up. And and also, like, what kind of rides they're doing because we are more than just, like, the big breakfast club rides. We have gravel. We have other rides that we have loaded into the app now. And so I think it would help us for us and also it, like, helps us to go back to our partners and say, hey. This is these are very important metrics. Like, this is what who's showing up? This is what they're doing. This is what they're riding. Yeah. How can we better support them? I I love this. This is very, very exciting. Exciting all. Yeah. And and, not to get too creepy, but ge geofencing central market or central market central machine. Oh, Central Market. Yeah. For those that don't know, that's that's a a Texas grocery store, a supermarket. Yeah. Zolent jokes, you know, he says Breakfast Club is a tech company now. And I'm like, dude, you do your thing, but it's amazing what he's building for us. And it's just like a layer on top of everything that is, like, you know, the in person foundation. Yeah. And and, data is important these days for businesses trying to trying to grow and and monetize and and, like you said, keep keep sponsors around. So, that that's really exciting. And and, yeah. Hope so as far as, membership, I mean, do you do you do you think Breakfast Club is still growing? Do you see folks coming in, new new faces? Do you have a way to measure that? Or We do a raise of hands at the beginning of our ride. We always have a lot of hands that are are Yeah. Raised at the at that at a ride. But, I think that, you know, everything does seem to continue to just, like, grow. Obviously, we haven't had a good ride to really see how big we are this year. Yeah. But I bet we'll be just as big as last year, and I think, like, we're trying to diversify where not everyone shows up to a single ride. So just to see how many people do continue to show up across our gravel rides, our media rides, and our big rides just shows that, like, this thing is healthy and amazing. Mhmm. Yeah. So so looking into the future, what what lofty, you know, ambitions do you have for for the club? And and, we talked about the app, but events and and culture and where where are you guys taking this? We, we have a a an exciting, like, addition to kind of, like, our tool belt coming soon. We're working with one of our partners, Pon Armall, to bring a van to life for us. So Right. We, and we launched membership to help kind of fund this venture, and we think that this van will be able to give back to our community in a really, really cool way. And so in a few weeks, we will have a breakfast club van around town, our support van. It's gonna be really special. It'll it's gonna be awesome. It'll look cool, but it's also gonna be not only just like a presence for us anywhere we go. You know? It'll be on the top of climbs during a ride. It'll be, you know, following our c group or our d group in case anyone mechanicals or needs to be picked up. It'll allow us to really kind of lean in more, I think, in Austin and outside of Austin. So that is, like, a goal we've had for a long time. It's like, can we have our own mobile thing, permanent thing? And so that's our first kinda Got a pop up cafe right there. I know. Well, I think too, it's like as we do go into other markets, like, we have our branding associated with the rides that are taking place in those areas. Because right now, it's like, okay, we'll put our kits on. But to have something that's a little bit of a bigger splash, I think will will be awesome. We did toss around the idea of doing, like, a brick and mortar, and it's like, we we're gonna be on the road. Like But talk about our little permanent thing we're building, Essential. Oh, yeah. So we are we're building out a container. It's like a pop up shop at Central Machine Works. Oh, wow. So any new merch or anything that we come out with or specialize, we'll have, you know, things where you can buy at Central Machine Works from breakfast. That is so exciting. It's just, like, fully finished shipping container that has a garage door that opens and you can, like, walk inside. It has power. And, you know, say you show up and you flat during the ride and you need a a 2 or you forgot your bottles or something. It'll kinda be this, like, permanent place for us there. They're like, Will Bryant's gonna paint the outside. It's gonna look and feel like Breakfast Club, and it'll kinda be this, like, we have a home at central now going forward, and it's gonna be, like, really nice. And when when does that arrive? When It's it's at sojournemouth. There? Okay. We're just slowly building it out. Yeah. That is so exciting. I have a construction team. It's Jake McKnight. Yeah. Shout out to Shane, one of the OG ride leaders. And I guess Jack of Jack of all trades. Yeah. Exactly. Wow. That that's so exciting. And and Jordy mentioned to have the the van, to have the actual brick and mortar location established, those are huge steps for Breakfast Club. I think from a from a brand and and just seeing a Breakfast Club van all over Austin, the club is gonna get outside of just just the cyclists, just Instagram. It's gonna be a brand that you can you can see, everywhere in in the city, and and beyond wherever you guys travel. Right. I I think that's a that's a leap. Mhmm. Yeah, it's big. We're really excited about it. Yeah. And then and then all of the possibilities for content with with the van and and going places with the the location at Central Machine. Yeah. Maybe next time we'll do the podcast in the in the container. We'll do it there. If there's if there's sufficient air conditioning Yeah. There's a fan. Okay. Alright. Maybe it's not not. Air conditioning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I I just think, from from me, being a being a member and seeing the growth, like, these are these are a couple things I'm super excited about for for you all and for everyone. And I think it's exciting for, yeah, for everyone. Because, like, we couldn't do this without having launch membership and having people support that. Like, truly, this would be nothing without, like, what Jerry said, the people. So it's, like, truly, like, we're just trying to, like, put everything back in in pretty cool ways that we haven't been able to do up until this point. Yeah. And and just to hammer home what we talked about as far as as support, members in in year 2, you know, go go for the go for the paid version so we can keep having these these incredible Mhmm. Experiences built building memories with make you know, with friends, making new friends. Mhmm. We gotta gotta keep it going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think we're excited too about the membership for next year. We capped it at a 100 this year just because we'd never done it before. We didn't wanna mess up in a really big grand way. So if we were to mess up. So who knows what the potential is with that? We sold out, what, last month? Mhmm. Yeah. We sold out last month, so it had only been out for 2 months, and we sold out. So hopefully next year Yeah. Word gets around about the value and And I just too late to be Yeah. The word gets out about the value and also we know what we're doing on our end a little bit more now to make it more beneficial for everybody. But, yeah, we're I mean, big things ahead for us. Because it is, like, it's fun, but, like, we none of us do this full time. So this adds a layer of we're more on the hook now to do stuff and provide value, accountability. And yeah. You know? It's like taking that on is a risk. It's it's rewarding, but it's like, you know, we don't have all the time in the world to devote to this. We do have other bikes. Grant would love to work at breakfast club full time. I'm the best unpaid intern right now. I I think that's a really important point for people that aren't as familiar with Breakfast Club and and you guys. This this is not Mhmm. A full time yeah. Yeah. You you you've got your your day jobs, and and this is something that is being pieced together, you know, mornings mornings, nights, weekends. Yeah. So, yeah, let's not let's let's not take it for granted. We appreciate it. Cool to, like, look back maybe, like, in 10 years and be like, oh, look at our little cute container. Like, look how dinky it is. Let's see. We'll see what happens. That'll be the time capsule. I know. You're gonna bury a huge container somewhere. Yeah. Like, how Jeff Bezos was at his garage with Amazon. Like, that'll be, like, us with our little container. Totally. Well, it sound it sounds like, we're in we're in the early innings here. Right? Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. The rainy innings, but we're there early. Well, they're damn. This this I'm not yeah. I'm not I'm not concerned. I think the sun will sun will shine in Texas soon enough. We're Yeah. We'll be praying for rain actually in, like, a month. So Take us back to Yeah. Where we can see. Yeah. Exactly. Well, this has all been so so exciting to hear about these these new developments and and really leaps from, I I think, the last couple years. So thank you for coming on the show. Thank thank you for sharing everything. And, yeah, I guess let's let's meet again, in another year or so and and, check back in. Yeah. Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. Yeah. Absolutely.