Every job is a stepping stone to the next job. Life isn't always rosey as people think but it sounds like your keeeping your head above water . Grat vid and loving the content 👌
Dang mate! I live in rural western Colorado and just took on Ubco as a brand of bikes I carry in my bike shop (we have similar geography here)... I recently just fixed the one you demoed on your farm after it fell out of a truck and I see now both the strengths and weaknesses in the bikes, but overall, I like them enough to try them on and see if local mountain ranchers here want them. Covid definitely hurt the economy and the bike industry as a whole is feeling that - I dont' know about motorcycles so much as bicycles, but the bicycle market is in trouble. The way I see it , eBikes and electric motorcycles are here to stay, and Ubco bikes are simple enough that - say - in five or ten years, a much better, and more environmentally friendly power source is developed for eBikes, these old things can be retrofitted and keep going. I appreciate your insights as someone who was employed with the company, but it's already too late for me - I should be receiving the bikes this week!! We'll see how it goes!
They're an interesting machine. I won't say too much here. Just keep on top of the maintenance servicing for the motors. Hopefully soon they actually release a different model rather than the 5+ year old current design.
Sorry to hear this happened to you, sudden layoffs are always terrible. It happened to me too in early 2020, just as Covid hit and I was out of a job for some time after that. Btw. I was just at a local dealer this morning and there were discounted Ubco bikes in the hall. Manufacturer's rebate $2000 off, but even then it's still $5k. I think ultimately price remains the core issue with electric motorcycles. It's comparable to a 125 at best, but costs nearly twice. I could live with low top speed and short range, but not for this much money.
Yeah it’s been a few years of lay offs when you think about it. I was lucky to escape anything till late 2022. I think you’re right, the price point vs. Usability isn’t quite there with many brands. At the moment a lot of bikes are just toys for those with disposable wealth. But I genuinely think prices will come down in the long run. While it’s only scooters - the Taiwanese company GoGoro has a great example of what mass used electric bikes can be.
Well if you look at say an e mountain bike with just front suspension and a 60 km range from a reputable brand like giant you'll be paying around $4500 Nz so maybe the price for the ubco isn't so bad ?@@kaleb7105
Hmmm... I'm reading between the lines and I think we have the same opinion of the events and the way they took place. I focused on the cake analogy and agree. There needs to be a decision making process that understands the direction required and a distinction of the focus, tech or product? Use the tools and staff you have in the right areas and if you have a specialist in a particular field involve them and listen, they generally have a better understanding of the target market. If your developing a new toaster with a new technologically advanced heating element you are not a heating element company, no point babbling on about your new element to the toaster guys, they want toaster info, fact based from a toaster guy. All the best for the rest of 2023. Keep up the good work!
Been watching UBCO for years and the last few years the money seems to have been spent on building the image of the dream rather than building the dream itself. Seen nothing new for a number of years now.
I got made redundant from my pilots role in Queenstown in late 2021. Pretty devastating given how long it took me to get a job in aviation. But thanks to my prior life with cars, only 45 min after leaving the meeting I had secured another job. It wasn’t a great job, but at least I was worry free which was all you can ask for in such a moment. Fast forward a year and I managed to get a job in a big Qtown based tech/manufacturing company, and it has been life changing, it pays better and I get to use my hands on skills, and I’m just as happy as I was when flying. It’s funny how life can kick you round, but great things can cone from the disruption, and send you down paths you never considered.
I'm curious how you landed the job in the first place and what was your work like? (Probably taked about it in some previous video which I didn't see) Anyway, I've been there. Got laid off at the start of Covid, also from a "tech startup" style company. Not exactly tech, but it had similarities (ran on hype, excentric cult-ish owner, financed by venture capital..). Salary was good, much better than regular boring stable companies. But what I gained in high salary, I lost in long period of unemployment. That's how it is, as soon as cheap money dries up, these are first to sink. I saw lot of bullshit work, hiring expensive quality workers, but then sabotaging them if they weren't a complete spineless yes men.... blowing money on lavish luxuries for outside appearances, but neglecting basics for employees.. intense gaslighting by the CEO so we wasn't sure what's reality and what's sweet-talk for investors. Oh wait, this isn't Glassdoor? Hhaha
I just saw it was available, and local - which for the kind of role I had wasn't expected. They usually happen in bigger cities. Started doing anything that needed to be done, and then picked up some training stuff. By the end I was working on different forms of digital content.
I have been layed off many times in the US. If it's through no fault of their own and a normal mass layoff, the US employees should get unemployment insurance payments. The weekly payment amount usually works out to about half of previous weeks wages. The employer would have had to have been contributing to it along with their income taxes; if it's a foreign company, they may not have been paying it.
That’s interesting to note. New Zealand has no clause for a redundancy or lay off payments as standard - other than paying your holiday entitlements that are unused. It’s usually up to the company itself whether they will pay extra or not. Thanks for the comment!
A big part of the large of this situation with tech and ‘ growth ‘ companies is I’m afraid that with interest rates increasing so rapidly ( to fight inflation) those ‘growth’ companies that are still burning cash and have yet to make profit struggle as the forward valuations of income to come that were justified with almost zero rates are hard to justify now with rates around 4%. Who’s going to throw more cash into them to keep them going till profits come? . My sympathies on Ewing made redundant , I’ve been there before and am also going* through it again , its sucks, but chin up and just go for a ride and feel better mate!
Unfortunate. I think the price point is pretty bad. Maybe in some countries, the price is justified but in America where there's literally hundreds of gas powered alternates that are super efficient and potentially way more practical with ability to keep up with side-road speed limits, in the USA, I find the price point to be quite awful and a failure.
Yeah the price is a tough one. It will be interesting to see how things go for them in the next 12 months or so. Nearly all of the team I worked with is gone now. Either laid off or they've resigned. The old product manager has aligned with another ex employee to make their own electric motorbike brand too. Safe to say electric bikes provide an interesting industry.
Pretty full on that companies will just ditch people like that. It's a sad commentary on the dog eat dog world we live in. Onwards and upwards to better things!
The children in the African cobalt and lithium mines let out a collective sigh of relief , one less company to supply.. Hope you find another job soon mate
Can confirm. I'm a child in Africa and I'm typing this from my mining job. I want to go work at an oil refinery instead, but my boss says I can't, because rich people in western countries keep buying EVs instead of V8 trucks. Don't they have any compassion? :(
