258: From a Successful Exit to Closing a Company… & Biking His Way Back on Top | The Story of Mike Peregudov of Whizz

Subscribe on AppleSubscribe on AndroidLeave a ReviewGoogle PodcastsShare Listen in a New WindowDownloadSoundCloudStitcherSubscribe via RSSAndroidSpotifyPlayer Embed
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST

Background on Mike Peregudov of Whizz:

Mike Peregudov is the CEO and Co-Founder of Whizz, an E-bike rental service company for delivery riders. Mike has had diverse work experience, holding several high-level positions in the past. Prior to Whizz, Mike was a General Partner at S16VC starting in 2020. And from 2014 to 2020, he founded and served as the CEO of Yandex Chef, which was later acquired by Yandex. Additionally, he was the CEO of Pivot from April 2021 to November 2022. Pivot was the second company he created before Whizz but it was not able to grow and succeed.

Mike obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Organizational Leadership from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 2021. Prior to this, he pursued his Master of Engineering (MEng) degree in Information Technology at Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University “LETI” from 2002 to 2008.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

  • [1:12] Mike Peregudov, the CEO and Co-Founder of Whizz, which rents out electric bikes to delivery riders in New York.
  • [3:10] More discussion on the advantage of renting electric bikes for deliveries.
  • [4:16] The idea of Whizz came from his Co-Founder, who ran a similar business in Russia.
  • [5:34] Initially, Mike was just an investor and advisor of Whizz but after a few months he decided to get more involved and became the CEO.
  • [10:10] After a few meetings, conversations, and a trip to Miami, Mike invested about $75,000.
  • [12:15] Whizz rents out their bike on a monthly basis. They use a subscription-based model and offer free maintenance of the bikes.
  • [16:11] Currently, they have about 1,000 e-bikes with about $3 million annual recurring revenue.
  • [20:44] Their goal is to operate 50 thousand e-bikes by the end of 2027.
  • [22:54] Mike believes that New York is the best place in the world to run this type of business.
  • [23:55] This year, their main focus is New York but they also plan to expand to other cities in the coming years.
  • [26:17] The delivery business will eventually shift to a more compact 3-wheel or 2-wheel electric vehicles, according to Mike.
  • [28:48] In 1985, Mike was born in a country that doesn’t exist anymore.
  • [29:38] When Mike grew up, his first job was in a tech startup. He grew close to the founder of the company, and it was a great learning experience for him.
  • [34:48] Marketing and a lot of business and communication skills are what Mike learned in his first startup job in Moscow.
  • [41:24] Mike emphasizes the advantage of joining a startup in its earliest phase to have a chance to get close with the founder.
  • [42:23] While he was training for a marathon, it occurred to Mike that he wanted to start his own company. He talks about how his food delivery business started.
  • [46:04] When Mike launched his first food delivery company, he did not have a website.
  • [48:54] Mike describes his product for his first food delivery business and how it works.
  • [52:30] The food business started in 2014 with 5 employees and Mike sold it in 2018 with 250 employees.
  • [53:07] For Mike, there is not much difference between owning a business in Russia and in the US, but the US market is much easier to understand.
  • [56:09] Everything in Mike’s life changed after his company was sold to a bigger and popular company in Russia.
  • [59:03] After he left Yandex, Mike wanted to build something new in another country and he decided to move to New York.
  • [1:01:14] Mike also tried his hand on being a Venture Capital investor.
  • [1:03:14] Building a new company in another place is a way for Mike to change his personality and boost his self-development.
  • [1:04:25] The second company that Mike started in the US did not become successful. The company name was Pivot, which is an online education company.
  • [1:08:41] Mike discusses more about his second company, Pivot.
  • [1:10:03] The lesson he learned from Pivot is that the education space can be very hard and tricky to work out.
  • [1:11:13] Shutting down and failing in his second company was one of the hardest periods of his life.
  • [1:12:12] Mike was able to shut down Pivot before he lost all his money. He re-invested the remaining money to start Whizz.
  • [1:15:25] One last piece of advice from Mike.

Mike Peregudov Interview is Sponsored By:

  • [13:39] Pearl Diver is a cutting edge platform that provides in-depth visitor identification, enabling you to uncover valuable insight about your website visitors. By uncovering names, emails, company details, and more, Pearl Diver empowers you to turn anonymous traffic into high quality leads. To learn more, visit: millionaire-interviews.com/pearldiver
  • [37:33] Jon Ostenson, Founder of FranBridge Consulting and Top 1% US Franchise Consultant is here to help you explore the world of non-food franchising opportunities today. Jon and his team are part of the largest brokerage in the US and have vetted the market thoroughly. FranBridge is hands down the premier source of the best opportunities in the non-food franchising world. You can hear more of Jon’s story and how he started FranBridge Consulting on Episode 250 of our podcast. Sign up for a free consultation call with Jon today at millionaire-interviews.com/franbridgeconsulting and receive a FREE copy of his new book Non-Food Franchising.
  • [1:06:09] Light Years Ahead is a woman-owned national PR firm focusing on emerging brands, exports, and services in the consumer lifestyle space. Based around the US, they specialize in maximizing media exposure for brands and exports, which can then create more sales, brand awareness, and influence buying decisions. The first five listeners of this show that schedule a call with Light Years Ahead to develop a PR campaign will receive $500 off their first month of services. You can email Megan at [email protected], go to their Instagram @LYAPR or check them out at: millionaire-interviews.com/lightyearsahead

The Fabulous 4 Questions:

  1. 📖📚 Favorite Books?

    2. Bltzscaling – Reid Hoffman, The hard thing about hard things – Ben Horowitz, Anna Karenina – L. Tolstoi, The Financier / The Titan / The Stoic – T. Dreiser

  2. 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com Purchase?

    3. My Tennis Racket

  3. 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business?

    4. Expandi.io which helped me work on my LinkedIn systemically, plus Notion, Telegram, ChatGPT

  4. 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING?

    5. Attracting enough capital, both dilutable and non-dilutable

Key Point from Our Episode with Mike Peregudov:

  • “If you’re not a Mark Zuckerberg or something, you did not invent Facebook when you were 20, I recommend to go and work for a startup for a few years. And to be as close to founders as possible because working with them helps you learn a lot.”

Resources Mentioned:

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST
Want More? Join Our Membership on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!
Tweet
Pin
Share
Share