Tim Tim from pensy is just ripping on the pedals and you're going to Steak and Shake downtown to pick up the Indie 500 Champion I just sllep at the store I was like that's badass and that's the stuff you do when you're in a startup what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana God I don't know if it's hidden or not um from South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between this is get in the show focused on the hoer state and the incredible stories happening here today I'm Nate spangle founder of G Indiana and I will be your host for today's com ation Steven Lindsay
is the co-owner of The Handlebar and the hanger Indie he is also a uh60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Army National Guard he's a graduate of Michigan College of Engineering he started his career at Edwards Air Force Base in California before joining the team at Rolls-Royce and starting The Handlebar this was back in 2012 over the last decade this has evolved from just the pedal bar bike tours to a full-blown hub for Unique experiences in downtown Indianapolis on today's show we're going to learn some more about the brothers behind the brand innovating on entertainment and what makes the Indie community so special and why they
decided to build here Steve welcome to get in thanks man thanks for having me dude of course I'm so pumped uh as I was you know doing my my research I'm a little bit of an internet stalker when it comes to to preparing for uh for podcast episodes so yeah uncovered a fun amount of of things and some info about you and Brian your brother um you guys are from Western Michigan like that that general area I if you want to get a mitten for the camera here you want to show them like is that what Michigan ERS do let's see aha you take uh
Meridian North turns into 31 yep 31 dead ends in my hometown lington so it's about 6 hours direct north of here no way all right so I'm from like just up 31 uh just south the South Bend the Plymouth exit I'm not from Plymouth but I'm from right in that area yeah that's gets me about halfway oh there we go so you have it's it's an awesome time I've been up to like South Haven and those areas up there and it's it's a good little spot up there yeah it's a good spot to grow up yeah so so talk to me about grew up in
Michigan your parents were super entrepreneurial right like ran a furniture store I believe for over 40 years they did so so talk to me about that growing up in an entrepreneurial household and then your decision to to stray off of that path and go become an engineer yeah I grew up in lington my parents originally from Detroit they had other jobs down in Detroit and then kind of my dad got connected with a A friend of his that wanted to just move to a better area and start a business so there's no experience in you know s in furniture they just like Dove off the
deep end and moved to a beautiful location and figure out how to make it work so for 43 years they ran that uh small mom and pop furniture store in lington and my brother and I had the chance of you know basically working for them at a young age just delivering Furniture have you talked to your dad about that like about the experience of just being like you know what I don't know what it is but I just want to go start a business like I don't know anything about furniture but we're going to figure out how to make it work yeah we you know
we try and drag stuff out of him he's he's kind of a quiet guy so he won't you know brag about what he did but you know it's like Dad hey what' you really do and he'll tell you some stories like hey in the early days I wasn't paying for an apartment cuz we were selling mattresses so I just slept at the store I was like that's badass no way yeah I mean that's the stuff you do when you're in a startup you don't have money so you just figure out a way to make it work so absolutely it's like that Scrappy startup just like
it's I feel like some people either have it in their blood or you don't like I feel like it's a tough thing to teach and it's like you've either seen it modeled by like your parents or other role models for you uh but it's always like that like I mean Elon Musk like sleeping on the floor of the Tesla plant right it's like sleeping on the mattresses like keeping the plastic cover on those so he can still sell it right yep and so we got obviously we kind of lived that with our parents and we saw kind of the struggles obviously and our parents they
really didn't want us to do that kind of thing so they really pushed us to go get you know college degrees in their eyes that was kind of success so we all went the college route we got college degrees both my brother and I in engineering as you go through college others are kind of defining what success is for you at least that's how I felt it's like all right what's next like all right got to get good grades now uh I got to get an internship that's why I went out to California and worked for the Air Force for a little bit then it's
like that next step and it just kind of like guides you towards Corporate America which is where we ended up and um you know that was all good it brought me to Indianapolis but after a few years of that both my brother and I were both kind of looking for something different which is how we kind of got into um our own business yeah I I just want before we dive into what you guys were doing as you started with the handlebar I'd love to know right entrepreneurial parents ran that furniture store for over 40 years what lessons did you learn from them that still
apply to you today with what you guys are doing the biggest one just hard work they didn't have a day off they worked seven days a week the whole time I was growing up so to see that it helped us understand where that can take you if you work hard and you don't give up then you can't you can't fail what was what was you and Brian's uh first exposure like when were what were you I'm sure you were helping out around the furniture store what were you guys doing delivering Furniture yeah oh the movers I mean man I got here third grade I ripped
my hand open delivering Furniture of my dad so I know it was at least then holy cats I mean and I mean it's you and your brother and I think I saw somewhere you have a sister right so it's like the moving crew like that's nice for Mom and Dad to have two big strapping boys out there like oh the boys will bring it over later throw it on the back of the truck and get it out there yeah Staffing was wasn't too hard for them that's funny that's like uh I grew up in rural Northern Indiana and it's like you see all these families
that have just like met like 10 kids like the old Catholic families you why yeah cuz they need to have more help on the farm employes man um so your path does seem a little uncommon right like you go from the engineering like University of Michigan which is not an easy school to get into by any means it does help right being in a michigander and like having that but like that's that's a difficult school so like having this I mean great degree then you go out and is that do you go from Michigan to uh Rolls-Royce yep so first job at Rolls-Royce down here
in Indie exactly where were your thoughts first day you showed up in Indie I came down for an interview and rolls did a really good job of uh you know pampering and making it feel like this place is awesome which you know now that I'm here I realize it is but I I won't forget getting off the airplane they they put us in a limo which is just ridiculous so I'm like this 23-year-old riding to limo going to Rolls-Royce I'm like man this is sick and I'm you know going in on 70 and I'm looking around I'm like man what is this place you know
I do nothing about Indianapolis but they put us up at the Conrad so obviously that's badass the guy shining my shoes and was like I made it man Indianapolis is sweet um yes that's awesome but then I moved here and I think one of the first things I realiz first you know the buildings everything it seems so big to me like Indianapolis from an outsider perspective seemed massive which I wasn't super into being from a small town um so that was kind of offputting at the beginning but then I quickly realized it like it's actually a really small town which I love and still love
that's you know a big reason why I'm still here I mean we talk about so often on the show like so many like the people are special like it is a it's a big city with a small town feel like there's just like x amount of of cliches about it but it's so true like you're coming from Michigan you show up in this big city and it's like that's kind of I felt like you show up and it's like holy smokes this thing is this place is massive yeah um what was kind of like that first feeling of like like what put it in perspective
to you they're like oh it actually isn't that big what was that first moment I was living up at Broad Ripple at the time you know back then broad rle was a good next step for me I did a couple you know extra laps in college enjoyed myself I was definitly afraid of you know ending my life doing a 40-year career so broad her was a good step for me I get to Indie and I think I probably did something stupid at the bar and I was like ah whatever I'm never going to see that person again like the next day at LA Fitness I'm
like oh my god there he is I'm like not as big of a town as I thought yeah right reel it in yeah yeah that's fair but it's I mean that's hilarious yeah so true it's like you'll see someone out and then it's like the next day you'll see them like at the gym or like at church or like wherever you're at and it's like yeah yeah like it's like or the people that you maybe don't know their name yet and it's like I've seen you everywhere like I feel like we should be friends um okay so background from Michigan went to University of Michigan
engineering degree you are working at Rolls-Royce and how does this crazy idea to to buy a bicycle bar and start pedaling around the streets of Indiana or Indianapolis how does that come about totally random like in life certain things are luck certain things you know are a result of just preparation this one just total luck I was in Milwaukee and lucky enough to be at a stoplight saw one of these bikes go by took a picture with my Razor phone sent it to my brother I'm like I don't know exactly what this is but it looks like an awesome time we're doing this and he
responded he said I'm in and then like the next day we're looking out figure out how to get this thing so you know within the next month it was what is this thing researching it figuring out where to buy one which actually come I wonder what that first Google search was like bicycle bike 16 seater you know I'm saying like how do you find like what do you even type in cuz I feel like a lot of times people come from small towns or places that are like here in India we're accustomed to it and for people who don't know it's the handlebar right it's
like the 16-seater bicycle tours but I feel like people come in from out of town they've never seen before and they're like you're just like a like you're in a still yeah I'm amazed I thought after a few months people wouldn't even be looking at them anymore but it's still the case so yeah we uh researched it found out where to buy them and then the tough part was figuring out the legality because as you might imagine there's not really a buttoned up law that says how you can operate a 16p person mobile bar so um having zero money having put every penny and then
some into this bike there really wasn't anything left for a lawyer yeah you didn't have a legal department what so uh good opportunity for us to just kind of get our hands dirty and really understand what was going on so we weren't ever able to get somebody within you know ATC or somewhere else to say like yes that's 100% legal and they wouldn't give us any sort of documentation which we wanted if you're going to put your life into something didn't quite get there so we just kind of sent it anyways and so you're having these conversation you're talking to like people in government law
all all these things of like hey is this quite legal and you don't get like a concrete yes this is legal correct and you yet you still decide to I think I did the research one of those bikes is 35 Grand yeah at the time how how old were you at the time 25 you're 25 years old you and your brother decide to put 35 Grand into this thing that may or may not be legal like how did you feel like like what was like the final Domino that you're like we've got to do this man I felt that way from day one I I
mean I had nightmares like repeatedly until we actually got on the street that someone was going to beat us to it I was just absolutely confident it would work and it you know if you look at other cities it did work like in almost every other City and Indianapolis is positioned well better than other cities that's working with you know the the alcohol laws being allowed to you know walk around with alcohol and that kind of thing so I was absolutely certain however after you pull the trigger and you wait 2 months to get a bike from Amsterdam whole lot of Doubt enters your mind
because you know remember I met Rolls-Royce with a lot of people that have really stable careers and that was success to them and so they're very they're really questioning what you're doing and when I explained to them that I'm putting all my money into this the engineer on average is rather conservative he's like man what about your 401k what about your Roth I'm like I don't even know what that is I put it in a bike yes and they're like uh that's not a good idea did you already buy it I'm like yes can you get your money back exactly so for two months that
that was the real hard part it's like oh my God is this just so much doubt so many people questioning what you're doing well let's talk about like those conversations right you're going to get that from the people at work the engineers they're more conservative brand but on the other side right you and Brian have your parents that have been entrepreneurs for I mean at the time probably 30 something years and was that a difficult conversation to have with Mom and Dad to say hey I know you're really proud of your sons that went and got these engineering degrees and are working at Rolls-Royce and
your brother's working at Toyota and it's like I know you think we've made it but we've got this idea yeah yeah exactly uh they were apprehensive as well like I said to them success was making sure their kids had stable jobs cuz for them there was never that guaranteed income there was that job was never guaranteed to them as entrepreneurs and so they wanted our us to have that guaranteed solid job because they never really had that and so when we came to them and said hey look what we're doing uh yeah there was this like M here they go you know and we've done
that kind of crap our whole lives so this is kind of like another thing that we're doing but we didn't what do you mean by that like what other what other kind of uh things have you guys done that they were like oh here they go again oh like when we were little there was this bike that used to come through town this like you know four or 500 person bike race that come through West Michigan we'd go buy Gatorade from the store and then go over there with a wagon and sell it you know just just that stupid just the early Hustlers though so
this was just another thing that we were kind of trying out um do you have advice for let's say anyone that's listening that might be an aspiring entrepreneur that maybe isn't that St I mean we have Eli Lily here in town we have a ton of like big stable very very like on the outward looking and successful jobs but that want to like go and start that business what advice would you say to them on how to navigate those conversations at work and how to navigate those conversations with their family that like maybe in a similar spot as you like want them to be successful
by the like paper means of it you know you hear so often about like all the success cuz people that fail don't often want to share that so I could talk about like everything that went well I could also talk about some of the failures and hardships I would say like we kept our day jobs and I think if someone has a day job now some stable income it depends on what your idea is and how Allin you're wanting to go but if you can kind of bite the bullet and have a few hard years where you're kind of burning the candle at both ends
this is what we did we just kept our J jobs and life was tough for a few years where you're just working nights and weekends and during the day but it allowed us to reinvest everything back into the business cash flows everything so we didn't pay ourselves so we could reinvest and that gave us a longer Runway to get the idea off the ground now I know friends that just were fed up with their day jobs and went all in on something which is pretty cool too because man then you got to make it you got to figure it out yeah it's like if one
day like where you guys were it's like if the bikes aren't rented for a weekend it's like no one's losing their house on this right it's like it's a side it's a side thing right but it's like I I would love to dive in one I want to go give us the overview of the business for anyone that's listening at home that might not know I feel like everyone should know but if they don't know give us the overview of your business and then we'll go from there sure yeah so The Handlebar started as the 16 person p Bal Pub basically it's a it's a
tour that you would take through Indianapolis people rent it online you can book individual seats or as a group and you'll load up on this mobile pedal bar and pedal through downtown you'll stop at you know the circle we get group group picture we can stop at bars um parks that kind of thing it's a way to see Indianapolis in a different way we started that because when I got down here I felt like man all I was doing is going to the bars and restaurants like every weekend and I really like being outdoors and doing those kinds of things so we're trying to create
new unique ways to get out outside in Indie and explore and see Indie in a different way so when we saw the bike that was like a perfect marriage of what we identified as a gap so that's the handle our business in general we went from one bike in 2013 to then eight bikes I don't know three or four years after that um and now you're still running eight bikes here in Indie yeah still eight bikes uhhuh and and what's the more like National footprint there or International footprint actually as well cuz you have eight here in India you have some in Michigan and some
yep so then um in 2015 that was when we've been doing this for 3 years we're both still have our day jobs working at Rolls-Royce I had cut down to four days a week at that time but it was still kind of you know is a lot probably should have quit earlier um but being the conservative engineer that I am uh hey what's this game plan like we' got to have enough rods in the fire to make sure that when we jump off and quit the day jobs something's going to stick and that's another recommendation if you have an idea who knows if that one
idea is going to work but usually it won't usually it won't usually it's like a some iteration and twist and mold and then then you find it right and just keep a pulse on what's working and what's not and adjust when you need to so our plan was hey let's try out the handlebar in Scottdale Arizona Detroit Toledo and a city in Australia and if one of those four work then we can justify having made the jump and so that's what we did in September 2015 it was like no more Rolls-Royce let's try and make this happen so over the next year we opened up
in Scottdale Detroit Delo and Australia holy one year but you're still based you're here in Indie and your brother's in Detroit Y and you're now operating in four cities yeah um taking me back to there right we talked about everyone wants to talk about the wins I mean teaser Scottsdale is not still operational for you right right um I don't know about I'm not sure if too is or not so talk to us about like that real raw you quit your job you open up four loc expand to three more locations and you're in your late 20s early 30s must have been uh like 27
2 27 28 and now you're operating in international business yeah take me back to there yeah we didn't expect them all to work and like you said Scott still end up we decided not to do that so tons of Lessons Learned I mean we probably tried to grow way too fast um stretch ourselves Way Too Thin and didn't really need to do that in Scottsdale that one was unique because I I almost didn't even want to do Scottdale but there was a regulation in their laws that said basically you can't unless you're a licensed manufacturer of motor vehicles which pisses me off when someone says
you can't do something I'm like game on we're going to figure out how to do this and the reason that was in that law is because there was a manufacturer of pedal pubs in Arizona and he had somehow lobbied to get their laws to say you have to be a manufacturer of vehicles so he became a manufacturer vles no okay wait tell me about that that's just like a like a a spite like okay you told me I can't do this I'm I'm going to make it happen yeah so how did you become a manufacturer in Arizona um you kind of just work backwards with
the problem like you go to their very engineering of you yeah problem solve like hey this is where we want to get to so let's start with that person and then when when they tell us no tell them why and then they tell you who you got to get approval from for them to say yes and you just kind of work backward from there and you get to this point where well we got to become a licensed manufacturer so we can put a v number on this bike so then we did put the VIN on designed and made a motor to go on the bike
cuz it had to have a motor to be down there so my boss at Rolls-Royce helped me he was welding up stuff and we put a motor on it and then drove it down to Scottdale and you know did some tours and then we decided that juice wasn't worth the squeeze down there well and why is that cuz on paper when you think of Scott's Bachelorette Bachelor parties warm all year round like it it's Oldtown is like similar to downtown Indianapolis like it seems like on paper it would work and it would be on paper it would be better because it's 12 months out of
the Year yep so why didn't it work um a number of reasons I mean one we're kind of late to the market down there there's already a couple operators that are well known we don't know anybody we don't know borrow owners we don't you know to develop that Network to get plugged in we were just this Outsider that knew nobody um so we're relying on that Google ads which becomes expensive um and then we had a short season because we were utilizing an Indianapolis bike the idea was hey these bikes are sitting in the winter time here if this works we can take bikes down
there for that short season but the season was too short as well Transportation cost yada y so so one season in Scottsdale that was it okay all right and then you also then opened up uh Detroit and Toledo and somewhere in Australia yeah Adelaide Adelaide tell me about that going and and how you end up with an international you like we're in Indie we're a local you know Local Company here we're going to spread out to the Midwest we're going to go to Arizon and then we're also going to do Australia yeah Australia happened because U one of my best friends Jason who also was
an engineer at Rolls-Royce um as a side gig just decided to start you know doing some driving for us on the handlebar in Indie and identified an opportunity in Australia and said hey man these don't exist down there anywhere let's find a city and make it happen so Adelaide is a similar size to Indianapolis and the reason we did Adelaide is because the city was willing to work with us you know you get to a certain size that all the red tape and crap they're not really will willing to entertain a new Venture which is awesome about Indie like I'll say the same thing about
the government in Indie for us in my experience has been very good for us compared to other cities so Adelaide was the one that basically said yes and so we moved down there and got a bike going so you you are you still using the same manufacturer out of you said New Amsterdam Amsterdam um and then and then you I'm assuming get it shipped to somewhere in Australia do you like show up and assemble this bike does it come assemble like tell me about that process and like like take me back to like that time like what you're thinking as you're purchasing a plane ticket
maybe to go to Australia yep so we Jason and I kind of you know swapped back and forth time down there he went down originally to find a property then came back I went down to hopefully accept the bike that we had ordered get you know utilities electric that kind of stuff set up find a place for us to live so in the time I was living in a hostel trying to find an apartment had to get an Australian driver's license so it looked like I lived there um yeah it was weird Electric the electric thing Australia is very difficult to start a business in
okay the government's extremely difficult even in a smaller City like Adelaide so we you know we lease this dirt lot to put our bikes on it doesn't have electric we're like no problem we'll just turn that on they're like no no no no it's going to cost like 20 grand so we're like we don't have that what do we do you know so we knock on our neighbor's door luckily this dude runs an electric company and we're like hey can we like tap in somehow he's like H yeah no worries mate I'll just pop a hole through the wall so he broke a hole through
his wall and that's who we've used our elector from since then so stop how many how many bikes do you have in Australia now six six and what's this guy's name Osman Mr Osman it's just like in his Australian accent just drills all as well says yo you're all good man oh yeah I'm good mate I love that those are like the fun stories of Entrepreneurship right where it's just like you're you're young you're over there you're in Australia you're in another continent not just country continent figuring it out of how to like will this thing into real life yeah just don't don't let somebody
tell you no hey everyone quick pause in the action to introduce you to flutter Von re a true Hidden Gem in Indiana especially for all you watch afficianados out there founded by an Indiana State graduate from Batesville this family-owned brand has Deep hoer Roots dating back to the 1830s they are even proud members of the Society of Indiana Pioneers which I didn't know existed but is a sweet organization they are based in India and are redefining luxury watches meticulously crafted in Co by a certified watchmaker and his Apprentice the designs blend classic Elegance with a modern twist plus they offer exclusive limited editions and a
rolling out and exciting watch toober Fest promotion this fall don't miss their Chase Brisco race day VIP experience giveaway an incredible opportunity for race fans Chase is an awesome NASCAR driver from Mitchell Indiana you're going to be learning more about him soon follow flutter Von Reese to explore their stunning Collections and join their journey to Greatness but you did say earlier it's like you don't want to talk about just all the successes like that's awesome to grow up six bikes in Australia like I'm sure there's so many lessons about like managing different time zones and just being an operational leader there but I'd love to
talk to like as you're growing through this like what were some of those struggles as a young entrepreneur like getting this off the ground and like what lessons did you learn that people in the audience like hey maybe if you share this like they won't make the same mistakes exactly that's really what I want to talk about I'm probably learning more right now than I did back then to be honest because we open up the hanger the brick and mortar space and operating bar restaurant experience base with a bigger staff is like just huge learning career for me so I want to talk about a
little bit of those cuz I think those might be more applicable to some of your listeners but back in the day I think a big mistake that both my brother and I made was just how much we value our time you know we're allowed to do-it-yourselfers and so it took us both probably too many Lessons Learned to learn that we need to offload responsibility delegate to others and Trust others to do a good job and then is that hard yeah was say is that hard as you guys built this thing from from the ground up and just like kind of take your hands off the
wheel and say like hey I'm going to trust you to do this exactly man like you got everything in this business and so you know it's kind of like my parents like if this fails you got nothing else so it's got to work so you got to you got to make sure that you get good people on your team and then it all comes back to that like having good people on your team is in my opinion the only way you're going to make it work and then once you have good people um trusting them to do a good job and make sure making sure
you're communicating your vision and what you believe in and finding like-minded people that believe in what you believe in and then the rest kind of figures itself out and I think that's interesting so a lot of our listeners we've had you know from tech companies to um I mean just a a plethora of different entrepreneurs here but I think yours is a truly interesting model where it's like one you've got to have like good operational people to help like run the entire business you know like you your brother like see sweet and I know doesn't go by that but like that like executive level yeah
but then you also have it goes all the way down to like waitresses bar handlers and like everything in between and like how you hire like an operations leader for like a a company with multiple locations is a little bit different than how you hire like a bar Handler so like what advice do you have for people that might be in similar scenarios where they're hiring different types of people and how do you keep everyone on the same page yeah so we're going through that right now we're hiring all different types of roles right now bartenders bar handlers um Communications managers a plethora but the
Common Thread that we require out of everybody is to have a desire to improve yourself because that's like our Focus now is not necessarily as much on yes it's on the customer but I'm sorry the customer is number two for us and that's not a unique thought like a lot of people talk about hey our employees are number one our customers are number two and you know the community's number three that's really what we believe in and that is the challenge right now is to make sure that stays in Focus so when we hire somebody we want to hire somebody that's got some drive that
is trying to improve themselves because we will have more to offer that person than somebody that's just looking to make some money yeah and that's your key differentiator right there it's like they could let's say it's a a waiter waitress like bartender they could go be a bartender or waitress at any place in town Absolut this is a Brand New Concept like within the last year so it's like they're almost taking a little bit of a leap because like are people going to show up and it's like and everyone says like well we we're going to invest in our people are people like when you're
a when you're a waiter or a waitress I'm assuming what what's really important to you at the end of the day is like am I going to make money and am I going to be able to support here and maybe the like self-improvement thing is a second like a secondary thought right but I feel like you make bring that to the top and making it your number one thing like finds the right people for you right exactly cuz what we're trying to do is not just give you a stable job which you know we we pay well we pay really well um for the right
people but we want you you to want more for yourself because when we when we bring in somebody that is an expert on financial advice and we we try and make sure that everybody has an understanding about you know what are credit cards 401K all those things financial literacy we want you to care about that because if you don't see value in that then you're not going to get value out the job as much it just becomes about the money and so that's one example but we're trying to just you know we understand you're not going to be with us for 20 years most likely
now a couple of guys might be a lot of a lot a lot of drivers have now become owners which is awesome love that or a lot of the guys will go off and start their own company our former GM moved down to Uruguay and has his own company down there now so it's like that kind of stuff's awesome more realistically when you start with us it's a it's a Hospitality job and so what we tell everybody is like hey we want you for like three years and in those three years you're going to learn some stuff about bar handling may or may not apply
later but we really want you to learn about life and becoming a better person and how to get involved in your community and you know financial literacy and all these other things that really aren't going to benefit us from a handlebar perspective they'll benefit the person I love that and I think that that's such a unique differentiator it's kind of when you're different it's like the right people will be attracted to that like you'll find your right people and it's like not everyone's going to be that exactly like some people just want to make like hey where am I going to make the most in
tips where am I going to bring home the most every night and it's like great but this like this idea of like that total compensation of like yes you're going to get money but you're also to get all these other like these other benefits of this job is what's going to set you apart I love that I love that dude and the best part is like we're also we also got a business right and our business is all about the experience and that person that you're interacting with either on The Handlebar bike or in the hanger that's a majority of your experience and so we
want people that are awesome at that and by hiring people that want to improve their character and enjoy serving others it just naturally takes care of itself with with the End customer I love that and you did mention like want to plug into the community I'd love to hear about like you're from Michigan right you spend some time out in California now you've laid down some roots in Indiana talk to me about about just one you talked about your experience when you got here but what kept you in Indiana and what makes this community so special you know during that expansion I was really pulled
from Indiana for a long time and then I joined the National Garden for like the last three years I've been outside of Indiana so you almost don't realize what you have until you don't have it kind of thing so have having being forced to be away for those 3 years man it was like I miss that so much I miss being able to just like go to needlers and run into my friends or go down massav to wherever and just like run into people that you know that part's huge um from a business perspective it's one of our long-term goals as a company is to
you know become kind of a model for other businesses and what we can do for the community and I think all this stuff kind of sounds like fluff but it is a goal of ours we're trying to do those things you know we do the handlebar hot laps anything that we do for the community we don't charge anything it's just a way we try and take our assets our bikes and use those to try and raise money for you know various philanthropic Endeavors so we really like to raise money for downtown Indie We Believe firmly that they're a huge advocate for downtown keeping the streets
safe clean all that stuff back on my feet is another organization that I absolutely love have you heard of them no I haven't okay so what they do is awesome they basically take homeless people that want to get back on their feet and they help them through that through physical activity so I know you're a runner that's one of the things that they do they they just hey show up and we're going to go on a running we're going to go run together and we're going to give you shoes and a shirt and everything so you look like just everybody else no way and that
phys activity Che this out oh yeah man it's absolutely awesome so like back on my feet yeah dude I love that that's a great Mission oh my God man cuz there people that want they just like when we hir employees if you want to better yourself hell yeah let's do that um so back of my another good one and there's so much just Community I mean I'm going to subtle plug the running Community right but the the running Community is there's something special about it and there's something special that like makes you feel powerful when you like lace on a new pair of shoes and
you're like oh I'm ready to go conquer the world today absolutely um I love that okay so what are ways that you specifically Steve how are you plugging into the Indie Community you talked about like you guys are you know using your bikes to raise money for philanthropy like what gets you pumped up about the Indie community and where are you pluging in that's like that's another benefit of the job to be honest like The Handlebar and the hanger afford me the ability to to do those kinds of things or to create new experiences that can raise money like The Handlebar hotlaps that one's an
awesome one tell us about that that is an event we host every May with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in downtown Indie we use our bikes to race around the circle and we'll get 48 companies that are downtown to get 10 to 15 people together and compete so it is like the Ultimate Team builder for the city you know it's like the you know 40 of the biggest companies are coming down and you got CEOs on the bikes who won racing each other who won last year visit Indie visit Indie let's go who is the finals it was visit IND they gave us some money but
yeah oh yeah right it's for charity it's for charity you know it's like oh maybe maybe they add a little bit more their battery was turned up a little bit more um that's so awesome wait it's called handlebar hot Labs yeah we've been doing it since 2016 I think okay and so that comes up in May is it like early May yeah okay we'll make sure to get this out so people can can check it out to help promote you know you know the month of May obviously Let's Race absolutely I love that okay so you have the hanger we're going to dive into that
as we kind of wrap up the episode about everything you guys have doing there because it sounds incredible um but when you're not hanging out at The Hanger where are you spending your time at like what what do you do when you're not at your own place you know my wife and I marily we live in Holy Cross so okay for us we can walk to mass F we can walk anywhere so you know we love probably going to like Livery Union 50 when I'm going to see my boys Jason Shaw he's on the pi he's on the keys at Burnside in so I'm going
there yes okay wait why do I Jason Shaw yeah you probably know him I was say he's around yeah yeah yeah I feel like I've heard that name before he runs November project yes I've actually been on stage with him singing a Morgan wall song that I basically booed myself off the stage cuz no one else knew the words and he was playing guitar for I a lot of people probably have stories like that yeah amazing okay so Burnside in you're hanging out but Livery and you're going to Union 50 those are spectacular spots that's a good date night spot yeah if we're just going
to get a good meal carnesia Guan no I have no idea what this is authentic Mexican man where at this isn't like the $6 or $ seven taco place this is like you're going to get steak cilantro onion they got a shop just west of the White River in Washington and then they've got a nice spot up on like 38th Street yeah I'm not talking like Bakersfield NADA type stuff this is authentic Mexican a carnesia so it's a meat market and then a and then a store next to it so holy smokes okay we're we're going to have to do a little uh dive into
that that like real Mexican I would go there all right now let's talk about why we want to come check out uh your spot the hanger right so background for the listeners the started as what one bike to four bikes to eight bikes and you were kind of just floating around I know you guys had some Partnerships with some different breweries in different locations but in the past year you guys decided to open up your own handlebar hanger right tell us about what's going on there and why the it's not just a bar it's not just a brewery but it's all about building these experiences
exactly so that space we've been in this space operating out of the alley in front of this building for the last decade and luckily enough we've always been kind of a you know been able to start at a brewery originally it was toyard Brewery then it became Ellison Brewery both of those um went out of business and the space became available and we always wanted to kind of make that handlebar experience better and we felt we could we know nothing about owning a bar or restaurant we've never done that so if we're talking about mistakes huge mistake to not like try and find somebody that
is smarter than us that they could have kind of given us some insight because we kind of learn the hard way you know just like put your head down and smash through the brick walls uh could have been a better way to do that um but yeah we the reason that we're taking kind of that Hard Road and going into the brick and mortar space cuz to be honest The Handlebar is a pretty easy business to run you know we have very low overhead you basic have a driver only time you paying staff is when you have customers so operationally that business pretty simple why
go down this difficult Road get a brick and mortar take on food and beverage all those things because we truly believe downtown experiences can be better and so the hanger allows us to do that it's about 7,500 Square ft yes we have a full bar in a kitchen but that's not necessarily why our customers are going to come there you're going to come there because there's different experiences and so our whole goal as a company is is improve the lives of our employees and we get to do it in a really fun way so we're trying to come up with new unique experiences um to
be able to do that okay so what experiences are you so you have the handlebars that's like the the staple you've got the food Bev you the bar you know that's always you know what you're getting there what other experiences are you guys uh what what do you have the biggest changes right now is we're basically utilizing our bikes in different ways so one of the things that we'll be doing is Food Tours so it's kind of like a four course meal at as you tour the city locals like it because they get to sample a couple different restaurants they get to kind of see
the city do something unique visitors you know visit Indie says we get 29 million visitors a year Nashville gets like 14 million so what are those people doing when they come to town there's a lot of cool things to do down town we think that there could be more um and so that food tour experience where you get to kind of taste some of the best restaurants and see kind of the best sites so they're not just kind of stuck in that wholesale District going a couple blocks from their hotel get them up on massav get them over to Highland Park get them to areas
in Indianapolis that we all know as locals are badass and use the bikes to do that so the food tour is a way to do that the brunch tours is going to be another one so we'll do basically an hour tour through town ending at The Hanger with an all you can eat all you can drink Buck uh brunch party um sign me up holy smokes that sounds awesome that be fun yeah yeah and so the all you can eat all you can drink experience is kind of what we're leaning into we've tested out a number of different ways of um trying to create an
experience in the restaurant and this allinclusive party is where we've found a lot of traction so far so customers love to be able to come in pay a flat price and eat and drink whatever you want it's kind of like going to an all inclusive resort my wife and I just got married last week at one and congrat let's go that's awesome but it's awesome cuz you that pain point of paying is done in advance and then you just show up and you have a great time dude and then it's like you don't have to worry about like okay who's buying this round at the
bar who's getting the next one like yada yada y like all the different whatever headaches right it should just be fun and so when you want another drink you can just get that or you want a little bit more food you can just get that and so that's the model we're kind of Shifting towards and another reason is because it's it's different you know you there's not another place like that to doing that so when a visitor comes to Indie if we can provide something that's like just crazy different and unique maybe they're going back home and saying man Indianapolis was freaking awesome if they
go to a chain restaurant that's downtown that's there's nothing uniquely Indie about that we missed an opportunity for that person to really experience Indie so are you guys partnering then with like the local like the more local restaurants or brunch plot or like whatever you guys are doing like the bars that you hit too it's like obviously there's like the staple bars that like you know there's a Brothers everywhere there's a killo everywhere in the mest know which are fun like I'm not doging those I have good times at those places but it's always fun to explore like the more local like it's like not
everyone can afford to go to St Elmo like whenever anyone visit Indie they're like let's go to St Elmos and it's like okay if you want to drop an absolute bag you can do that but there's also all these other great spots that are local to Indie and are special that like highlighting that on like a a food tour could be awesome 100% like that's exactly what we're trying to do any visitor come to Indie like the SOS they're great places but they're going to be on their radar and I think a lot of people want to get to a city and be like hey
man where do I really go where do you guys where do you actually go like right and so by taking them those places that they wouldn't have otherwise heard dude everyone wants to feel like a local like I think there's like a whole that's a whole like side project side question I feel like there's this whole brand about like everyone wants to feel like a local when you're in a new place you want to you don't want to be the tourist you want to be a local exactly where do the locals hang exactly we went to Rome and I was like I am just totally
sucked into the tourist trap right now like get me I'm just going to take that alley and see where it takes me cuz I do not want to go look at the cine Chapel or whatever it is I'm like no yes I love that okay we're going to wrap this up I want to talk about a couple more things cuz there are some other experiences that you have between like crafting golf simulators uh and the works that are that are at The Hanger so give us just like the the one minute I know you you're very humble and I really appreciate that but if we
wanted like a one minute elevator pitch of what's going on with the hanger what's going on with the handlebar and why we need to come check it out for sure man so what we're trying to do like I said not just a bar restaurant like you got to have food and drink I'm not going somewhere where I just have to you know sit you want to have some experience right so yeah we have indoor golf simulators that you can rent out we offer crafting classes like workshops not really like the wine and painting kind of thing where it's like an instructor-led deal it's more of
an interactive have a drink and your six friends can kind of do it yourself while you're making a craft we're opening up a candle bar with a c candle bar yes wait is this a is this a moving no no no we're going to we're going to be stationary but um that's like another one of the crafting options we'll be coming up with um cuz we just we recognize that people want to do an activity while they're eating and drinking and that's been a a ton of success for us with like the corporate groups having these other options it's like make a candle like it's
not all just focused around the drink like you can do these other things too I think that's like just a way for like more corporate parties to come in there and it's like hey it's not focused around the drinking it's focused around this oh exactly I had a lady I was talking to the other day and um she you know she wanted to do their couple hundred person event I was like hey that's great and by the way how are you going to get there like oh we'll arrange some Transportation I'm like would you like to use a mobile bar and she's like oh The
Handlebar well yeah but that's too much drinking I'm like it doesn't have to be like we can provide two drinks per person on the bikes and she's like well that's great let's do that so now this pain point for them of like how do we get everybody there where do we park all that it's like your experience starts at your office front door on these Mobile bikes that you can see the city on your way to and from the actual event that's so and it's like right it's back to that Rolls-Royce comment from the beginning it's you you're getting picked up in a limo you're
like this is special people roll up on a handlebar like great let's go to the company outing like it doesn't start when we get out of the car it starts right now that's awesome okay what else do you have going on at The Hanger all so we covered the crafting um the golf simulators we have tandem ebikes so a little bit different you know it's not the onep person bike you can actually get somebody on the back there which I took merily out uh last year on it we put a picnic basket on front with some drinks and stuff so you can go have a
picnic at Highland Park another way getting people out you know that was last year that was pre-wedding so he was like out there working right I love that okay we were engaged I didn't even have to do that absolutely There You Go lessons gentlemen lessons exactly yeah so rent a tanam bike and take the girl you're trying toess out cuz uh it's impressive yeah it comes with like the traditional like wicker picnic basket the red and white blanket where's the spot where where did you go oh Highland Park oh yes okay Absolut tany bike to for any of my single fellas that are looking to
make a great first impression it's the move yes I love that okay so then we're going to be doing cocktail making classes pizza making classes and uh we've got some other awesome ideas that we're going to play around with over the next year but that's like the goal we got a 5year lease option to extend to 10 so we got some Runway to see what we can do in Indie dude let the boys play let the boys and girls play yes let Indie play exact come on all right we're going to wrap it out I have two final sections here one is just some fun
questions about handlebar kind of quick lighthearted I mean I'm just trying to to hear a little bit more about like the experience like you drove do you still drive tours yeah occasionally occasionally but not as like in the early days like for the first like 3 six months year like it was just you right right okay so let's let's talk about what what's the top speed of a handlebar I think the record is like 12 and a half miles an hour and the reason I know this is because Car and Driver magazine came down and did like a like a calibration on the bike as
an article stop and so they did all these like legit like metrics like top speed turn radius weight you know all that crap so I think we got up to about 12 a half miles an hour that's so awesome let's go uh 12 12 miles per hour dep yeah I mean and depending on who you got on there right you got to get get those legs pumping y um who's the most famous person to ride a handlebar I know for me personally it was Juan Pablo Montoya the night he won the Indie 500 the night he won okay I heard a little bit about the
story we have to like kind of dive just a little bit into it right he comes he wins the nd500 wins and then he's like calling you guys up tell me about that story yeah so the day starts of course at 4:00 a.m. obviously it's the n500 yeah so we go to the snake pit of course back in the day I think I was 6 or 27 oh dude I hung it up a while ago and I'm I just turned 27 and I hung it up a couple years ago good for you oh I'm definitely the guy that people like you still supposed to be
here uh whatever uh yeah so we did the 500 experience come back to City way downtown we're just kind of like decompressing chilling about to go to bed right it's like 700 p.m. or whatever I'm like that's enough for today and uh we get the call from the president of Pensky and he's like hey do you guys have a bike we're like yes yes we do where are we where are we picking you up what's going on he's like well we'll meet at toyard the brewery at the time and then we will pedal over to Steak and Shake where Juan Pablo montoo is having his
victory meal I'm like okay let's go so we picked him up at Steak and Shake with the president of pensy yep like it's you driving this thing our boy Tim Tim from Pensky is just ripping on the pedals and you're going to Steak and Shake downtown to pick up the Indie 500 Champion yes and we did and then uh it was his family it was super cool I mean just they're humans you know they're just people so he was like super pumped his family was all excited for him cuz they knew how much that meant right and we just cruised Indie and it would like
the streets are dead you know that that Sunday night cuz everyone's just like cashed so the streets are dead I'm like hey the city's your man where do you want to go and uh he's like wild Beaver wild Beaver did he get on stage I didn't go in I had to stay out with the bike it was kind of their own little thing in there that's fair that's fair it was wild we went to the wild Beaver he had a great time came back out on the bike I'm like all right you want you want to Drive he's like no no no I'm no good
at that I'm like all right so we just Cru around he I'm no good at that he's just enjoying himself but then I'm like all right where else can we take you want to go up massav where do you he's like let's go back to Wild Beaver so we went back to Wild Beaver three different times three times the wild Beaver let's go so that for me that was probably the best uh celebrity experience I mean that's like an unbeatable story like you you were the Chau for of the Indie 500 driver all and he wanted to go to the wild Beaver three times Amazing
okay the most stressful handlebar situation I'm talking like flat tire breakdown like give me it's like a boom got it um yeah pouring rain flat tire scenario not on my bike but on another guy's bike we pride ourselves in getting our tours off on time right so you've got about 15 minutes between tours I get my bike back my other buddy Mike damiano's got a bike and he's got a flat there so at this time we had two locations and because I'm not a good planner we didn't have spare Parts at both so in the middle of this rainstorm we got 15 minutes and uh
it's a flat tire so I ran to the other location for five blocks away at City Way grabbed the tire tire jack all that stuff got it replaced and got them off on time uh good times good times the absolute psychos that still go in the pouring down rain I love it I love it too you know what they always have a blast CU you're like a kid cuz we're actually kids we're all just kids at heart yes I love that all right that's fun I mean from Indie 500 victories uh to Flat tires in the rain like a classic stressful story we're gonna wrap
up this is what I ask every guest we're going to do our lightning round sure as we wrap up I have three questions for you okay quick off the top of your head quick as you can go got it got it what is Indiana known for racing racing absolutely they are Absolut I mean from the guy who spent time with the n500 champion I would say we are known for racing in Adelaide South Australia you know what I see down there what do you say Indianapolis 500 shirts no way yes I like see Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls and Indie 500 let's go that's sick it's
I mean IMS worldwide and we're coming up on May I can't wait yes what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana Indiana Dune State Park you ever been up there oh we've had a several we've had several recommendations yes it's it's amazing oh the beach up there I mean you get you get there spend a Saturday there it's awesome that's why I asked my wife to you know marry me I love the beaches I grew up on the beach in Lake Michigan it's a place to go heck yeah and we have this this Mexican restaurant carneia Guan I'm never going to be able to pronounce that
but we're going to do our research we call it carne G's Carney G yes absolutely that place sounds like a Hidden Gem and I'm now if I go there and it's super busy I'm going to be pissed I told you it's going to be we're going to blow that place up yeah it's good it's it's great all right and final question for you who is someone we need to keep on our radar someone who is doing big things two guys Jason Shaw okay tell me about Jason Shaw okay Jason Shaw so runs November project which is a free Fitness class every Wednesday and Friday he
runs that at the war memorial downtown he grind he makes no money from that he's been doing it for like seven eight years the dude's just loves his community he also has Day One Fitness so that's yes the gym so they opened up that gym that's a very community-minded gym and they've been doing great so they're uh at the Circle City industrial complex they've been growing like crazy over the last two years very community-minded so if you're there's thousand gyms out there right that one you're going to go meet more people in your community the other person Matt Whiteside owns Circle beverage you heard of
that Circle City kombucha oh yeah yeah yeah i' I've heard of them I don't know him well but I've heard of them yeah not a big kombucha not a big b guy but I respect it yeah so he's uh he also worked at Rolls-Royce kind of left we lived together at City way he's doing the entrepreneurial thing and his company's been growing a lot so he's he's doing good things here heck yeah this was awesome thank you so much for sharing a little bit about your story your background but also some of the ways that that you've learned as an entrepreneur the ways you've struggled
I think that just like having that perspective because it's easy to see the bikes and think that you know life's all fun when you're in the entertainment industry and a lot of it is I'm sure but I think that what the lessons you share today are just incredible and uh the audience is going to love that we appreciate you love all you guys are doing at with handlebar and with the hanger I'm super excited to hop over there and check it out I think I have a a plan to come out there in the next month or so and and check some things out there
right huh thanks I really appreciate it thank you for listening to this episode of get get in if you liked what you heard make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast this show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater whether you're trying to start your own podcast or looking to take your show to the next level make sure you check out sweetwater.com for all your creator needs if you want exclusive behind the scenes content on all things Indiana make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @nate spangle thank you for being part of what makes the hooer
state so amazing we'll see you next week here on get in
