87: Talking subscriptions and premium brands with David Hyman, CEO of Unagi Scooters

This week Oliver interviews David Hyman, CEO of Unagi Scooters about their new subscription service, Unagi All Access, as well as a wider discussion about the state of owned micromobility and the vehicles therein. It’s a great conversation - David’s got a great perspective on the industry, backed up with studies commissioned from the Haas Business School about the opportunity for scooters beyond just renting them via shared schemes like Lime and Bird. Hope you enjoy! Specifically, they dig into: - A quick review of Unagi scooters and their history as a premium ‘iPhone of scooters’ brand - Why Unagi has chosen to pursue a subscription model and who that will open them up to - What an end-to-end subscription needs to include - Why subscriptions may offer one of the cheapest daily transport options for most people - Why they have so many musicians and celebrities riding their scooters, and why Andrew Yang is a fan - Why David can’t wait to give Annie Hildago, mayor of Paris, a scooter (anyone know her and want to help?!) - Who David most respects in the Micromobility game Apologies about the audio - we had an issue and needed to go to backup. For those tuning in new, you might also enjoy this earlier conversation with David about the history of Unagi and premium scooters (Episode 45). Also, as mentioned in the news, Mina Nada and the Bolt Bikes (now Zooma) team have raised an $11m Series A. Check the interview we did with them out (number 66).