About Sobi
SoBi's industrial designers, engineers, and software developers are working together to build the world's first bicycle with an on-board computer, mobile communications, and an integrated GPS-enabled lock. This disruptive product and the supporting mobile and web applications will create a flexible, scalable, and affordable bike sharing system.
Our solution will be approximately 1/4th the cost of station-based bike sharing, allowing systems to be deployed in a wide range of settings.
The Team
Ryan Rzepecki
Founder
Ryan has a B.S. in Marketing from Penn State University and a Masters in Urban Planning from Hunter College. The bicycle has been his primary mode of transportation for the last four years, and bicycle advocacy has been both his passion and profession. Prior to developing SoBi, Ryan worked for the NYC Department of Transportation in the bicycle program. At the DOT, he sited bike racks, edited the bike map, conducted field research on bike facilities, and organized cycling promotions.
Ted Ullrich
Industrial Designer
Ted is a cyclist and urban density advocate who uses technology towards connecting people and improving the built environment!
Ted is the founder of Tomorrow Lab, a consultancy and creative testing ground of ideas and products for a better tomorrow. He has degrees in Inventive Design Engineering from Purdue University and Industrial Design from Georgia Tech's College of Architecture, where he was a studio instructor.
Mike Hill
Software Engineer
Mike is the founder and CEO of PrimoSpot, a mobile app and website that maps parking regulations and bicycle racks. He was a partner at StudioVR/Atomicfridge from 1997-2001 and director of Product Development for Lighthouse International for 5 years. Mike has worked for many fortune 500 companies, including Dell, 3M, Nokia, and Boeing and several high-profile clients as a freelancer, including Trump.com and NBC interactive.
Mike Castleman
Software Engineer
Mike Castleman runs Roasted Vermicelli, where for the last few years he has been primarily building web applications with Ruby on Rails, with a particular focus on location-aware applications and metadata management solutions for video archivists. He was previously the staff hacker at Democracy Now!
Jon Pettingill
Hardware Engineer
Jon Pettingill is lead designer at RUSHdesign. He has been building, designing, and improving things since his early childhood. Jon enjoys making a ruggedized radio device work in the hot sun, driving rain, and freezing cold, or making something as mundane as an automotive transmission part have its own unique visual identity. Making functional and beautiful devices is his mission.
Andrew Baker
Hardware Engineer
Andrew Baker runs Kontraptioneering where he has been building cool things for cool people in Brooklyn since 2005. He makes everything from aircraft parts to jewelry, industrial robots to chicken coops, custom electronics to cookie cutters. Andy gets to work on something different every day and his clients are too numerous to list or brag about.
Matt Stevenson
Communications Engineer
Andy Gillette & Ashley Quinn
Web and App Designers
Andy Gillette and Ashley Quinn are better known as the co-founders of Brooklyn-based design studio We <3. They share a passion for design that is functional and beautiful.
Anish Patel
Software Engineer
Nick Foley
Industrial Designer
Nick is a designer and bike mechanic who loves how bicycles make life more efficient.
He studied industrial design at Pratt Institute where he experimented with bicycles that were optimized for 'non-cyclist' commuters. Nick gets excited about using design to make urban infrastructure more sustainable, and creating objects that return a sense of wonder to everyday activities.
Tim Johnson
Software Engineer
Tim has a Masters in mathematics from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and twenty years of experience as a software consultant. His current client focus is the Linux operating system, real-time and embedded solutions, ARM and Nios processors, C, C++ and Verilog languages, and Altera FPGAs.
Matt Hagan
Mechanical Engineer
Matt has worked for the US Air Force on the F-22 Raptor and for Rutgers University designing virtual worlds. He is a member of FUBAR labs, a hacker space in New Jersey, and his personal projects range from bartending robots to Tesla coils.