PEOPLE
Masters to watch: Wesley & Harrison Dos Santos
Wesley and Harrison Dos Santos are the owners of Aqua Mobility. The company is the official and exclusive importer and distributor of the Schiller Pedal Bicycle in Western Europe: “Cycling on a Schiller Pedal Bicycle is a unique experience. You have little resistance, because the floats are really on the water. If you keep pedaling, you'll reach 15 km/h. You can use it for both recreational and sporting purposes.” Text: Bartjan Brouwer
Online editorial: Noa Verseveldt
Image: John van Helvert
Enterprise
Harrison: “Everyone thinks we are related, but Dos Santos is a bit like the Jansen of Cape Verde. Wesley and I know each other from the gym and Cape Verdean events. But the contact never went beyond 'how are you?'. A year ago I saw a post from Wesley on LinkedIn. He was on the radio program Stax&Toine about his book Do business like a boss to present. That guy wrote a book! I looked further on LinkedIn and saw that he had a sloop rental company in Rotterdam, iKapitein. I didn't know he was an entrepreneur like me. I sent him a message to meet up sometime. During our conversation, Wesley indicated that he wanted to take iKapitein to the next level. I have been doing business for a long time and always look at how I can optimize a company. I have two companies in England, but I cannot go there normally since corona. So I offered Wesley to help.”
Tight and sexy
Wesley: “Sloop rental is very seasonal, I prefer to spread my cash flow over the year. Almost nothing came in from October to March. I captured this by giving lectures about entrepreneurship at companies such as Unilever, institutions such as the province of South Holland and at schools.” Harrison: “We initially looked at whether we could make the boats convertible, so that you could also create rentals in bad weather. But then we came across pedal boats. They tackled some of the problems that iKapitein had. For example, you sit still in a sloop, while on a pedal boat you are in motion and you are less likely to get cold. We started looking into the brands and came across Schiller Waterbike from California. The crème de la crème in terms of technology, design and stability. Very instagrammable. Tight and sexy. The Lamborghini among pedal boats!” Harrison: “After we had arranged exclusivity for the Benelux and the Netherlands Antilles, we planned to set up a marketing plan, test it here and then roll it out to other countries. We didn't just want to become a sales company, but build partnerships with our customers. That's why we've designed a partner program: you buy the bikes from us, after which you can receive a reservation system and full marketing support free of charge. We advertise the product, service and our partners on social media. This is how we try to get customers to our central website. There they can choose from one of the rental parties, after which the consumer and the rental partner will automatically receive a message from us. The partner only needs to join our concept and not buy. The only thing that is paid for are the bicycles. And they remain their property. What we like most is that we create new entrepreneurs. But that's cool, I want to do that on my lake too. We have turned a product into a business.” Wesley: “Cycling on a Schiller pedal boat is a unique experience. You have little resistance, because the floats are really on the water. If you keep pedaling, you'll reach 15 km/h. You can use it for both recreational and sporting purposes. And the freedom is one step higher than in a sloop.” Harrison: “Then the solidity. It weighs only 53 kilos, but can hold 400 kilos. You can take someone in front. And you don't have to worry about it turning over; the catamaran design makes it super stable. It is even seaworthy.”
Innovative
Wesley: “In our collaboration I do more of the marketing side. I built the website, I'm concerned with visibility. In addition, I have a good network within various companies, the government and water recreation that I can tap into and I know influencers such as Jandino Asporaat and Soufiane Touzani.” Harrison: “I take care of purchasing and sales. Together we do the strategy and the conceptual.” Wesley: “We are both innovative and are constantly looking at how we can optimize things on the water bike. For example, we have raised the handlebars for a more comfortable sitting position, we are working on the subject of a 3D printed cargo bike on floats, a tandem and we have made the world's first Schiller e-water bike that we will unveil at MASTERS EXPO. If recreational users do not often take the water bike outside the season, boat rental companies and holiday parks ensure that the cash flow is spread: they usually do their shopping in the winter.” Harrison: “And don't forget that the Netherlands is our test case. The concept, our partner program, is starting to become a success here. Now we want to extend this to other countries, with different seasons. We have high expectations of the ABC islands.” Wesley: “Everything we do, we do to maximize our own perspective and that of others in the field of entrepreneurship and water recreation. And with these pedal boats we start where the road ends.”
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