Wesley and Harrison Dos Santos are the owners of Aqua Mobility. The company is the official and exclusive importer and distributor of the Schiller Water Bike in Western Europe: "Cycling on a Schiller water bike is a unique experience. You have little resistance because the floats are really on the water. If you keep pedaling, you can reach 15 km/h. You can use it both recreationally and athletically. "Text: Bart-Jan Brouwer
Online editing: Noa Verseveldt
Image: John van Helvert
Harrison: "Everyone thinks we are family, but Dos Santos is a little bit the Jansen of Cape Verde. Wesley and I know each other from the gym and Cape Verdean events. But the contact never went beyond 'what's up?' A year ago, I saw a post by Wesley on LinkedIn. He was on radio show Stax&Toine to present his book Entrepreneurship Like a Boss . The guy wrote a book! I looked further on LinkedIn and saw that he had a sloop rental business 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 an entrepreneur for a long time and always look at how to optimize a business. I have two businesses in England, but I can't go there normally since corona. So I offered Wesley to help."
Wesley: "Sloop rentals are very seasonal, I prefer to have my cash flow spread throughout the year. From October to March almost nothing came in. I caught that by giving lectures about entrepreneurship at companies like Unilever, institutions like the province of South Holland and at schools." Harrison: " At first we looked at whether we couldn't make the boats convertible, so you could also create rentals in worse weather. But then we came across pedal boats. Those tackled some of the problems iKapitein had. For example, in a sloop you sit still, on a paddleboat you are in motion and less likely to get cold. We delved into the brands and stumbled upon Schiller Waterbike from California. The crème de la crème in terms of technology, design and stability. Very instagrammable. Sleek and sexy. The Lamborghini among pedal boats!" Harrison: "After we arranged exclusivity for Benelux and the Netherlands Antilles, we had the plan to set up a marketing plan, test it here and then roll it out to other countries. We didn't want to become just a sales company, but establish partnerships with our customers. So we designed a partner program: you buy the bikes from us, then get a reservation system and full marketing support for free. On social media we advertise both the product, the service and our partners. This is how we try to get customers to our central website. There they can choose from one of the rental partners, on which the consumer and the rental partner automatically receive a message from us. The partner only has to join our concept and not buy in. The only thing they pay for are the bikes. And they remain their property. What we like best is that we create new entrepreneurs. But that's cool, I want to do that at my lake too. We've turned a product into a business." Wesley: "Riding a Schiller pedal boat is a unique experience. You have little resistance because the floats are really ón the water. If you keep pedaling, you can reach 15 km/h. You can use it both recreationally and athletically. And the freedom is one step higher than in a sloop." Harrison: "Then the solidity. It weighs only 53 pounds, but it can take 400 pounds. You can carry someone up front. And you don't have to worry about it flipping over/; the catamaran design makes it super stable. It's even seaworthy."
Wesley: "In our partnership, I do more of the marketing side. I built the website, deal with visibility. In addition, I have a good network within various businesses, government and water recreation that I can tap into and know influencers like Jandino Asporaat and Soufiane Touzani." Harrison: "I take care of purchasing and sales. Together we do the strategy and conceptual." Wesley: " We are both innovative and are constantly looking at how we can optimize things on the pedal boat. For example, we have raised the handlebars for a finer sitting position, we are working on the subject of a 3D printed cargo bike on floats, a tandem and we have created the world's first Schiller-e waterbike which we will unveil at MASTERS EXPO. Should off-season recreationists not often take the water bike anyway, boat rental companies and vacation parks provide a spread of cash flow: 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 be a success here. Now we want to carry that through to other countries, with other seasons. For example, we have high hopes for the ABC islands." Wesley: "Everything we do, we do to maximize our own perspective and that of others in terms of entrepreneurship and water recreation. And with these pedal boats, we start where the road ends."
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