Building Unique, Custom-made Motorcycles – Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: There entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Richard Worsham to the show. Richard is the co founder and lead designer at Janus Motorcycles, a motorcycle manufacturer building handmade classically styled lightweight motorcycles in Northern Indiana. And today I’m going to ask Richard a few questions about his entrepreneur journey and some of the strategies and tactics that he has used to start and grow his business.

So Richard, thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks. Really, really appreciate your time.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So very, very interesting, uh, product and business [00:01:00] that you have started. Um, maybe we can start off with a little bit about your background. Um, what was your kind of, uh, background?

Were you into motorcycles before starting this business? And what really kind of motivated you to start a motorcycle business?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Uh, good questions. Um, my background, uh, this is, uh, should be encouraging to, um, anyone if you don’t have a MBA that you can start a business. I have, uh, my background’s in literature.

Uh, and that’s an undergrad degree. And then, um, I went to school for a master’s degree in architecture right after that, and then four months after I graduated from there, I started Janus motorcycles. So, um, the kind of in between the lines on that is that, yes, I am, I have been interested in vehicles of all types since I was a child.

Um, I was lucky to [00:02:00] have parents that fostered that kind of, uh, appreciation with, um, They, they had, uh, some, um, vintage. Uh, you know, vintage vehicles growing up and took us to a lot of, uh, um, shows, one, a lot of shows, but my father would take us to vintage car races and stuff to kind of, um, experience that.

And that definitely hadn’t left a mark on me. Um, really appreciated it. And. It was really the design part of it that was appealed to me. I was drawing those and coming, you know, thinking about suspension systems and, um, the kind of aesthetics of the, of the vehicles, um, especially historic, uh, vehicles and then, um, kind of, uh, while I was in college and kind of.

Before I went to grad school, I got interested in small displacement. I wasn’t really into motorcycles. I never really saw myself riding them, but, uh, interested in [00:03:00] like vintage. mopeds, honestly, the little dorky 1970s, um, pedal mopeds. And the reason that I appreciated them was kind of, it’s very telling and kind of leads right into Janice.

Um, they were easy to work on, not intimidating, and they were fun to, to kind of community around. Repairing and maintaining and messing around with them was really active. Um, and I just really, really enjoyed that, that aspect of it. Um, while I was in school, I worked with a local shop out here in Indiana.

I moved to Indiana to go to Notre Dame, which is where my graduate degree is from. And, um, I, uh, met a guy out here who had a repair shop. And through hanging out there and then eventually kind of working over the summer messing around on restoring vintage bikes, we gradually over a number of years built up [00:04:00] a network of local crafts people that could do a lot of the stuff that we needed done, welding, all the different aspects that go into That would, we would later realize we’d go into manufacturing, um, for kind of performance and aftermarket parts and restorations.

We’ve, we’ve built this network up. And so, uh, graduated and shortly thereafter, um, We founded Janus. Um, and really the idea was that we had been working with these older products for a very long time and we kind of started taking them and I had started taking different models and like combining them together in these kind of Frankenstein, um, vehicles.

Um, and we were trying to kind of come up with this idea of what we wanted it to look like, but we couldn’t find that in the real world. And so eventually that Turned into kind of just a passion project of, of, uh, let’s build a run of [00:05:00] six of these bikes where we’re going to make the chassis. We’re going to make the fuel tanks.

We’re going to make it look exactly the way we want it to. And, um, that was before we founded Janice. We had no idea we were going to, uh, start a company. We were just doing it as a fun project for ourselves and friends. And that as well, building that. Also was part of the impetus for, we built one, we never built six, we only built one.

And, uh, local friends, entrepreneurs and the community were like, Hey, this is really cool. You should do something with this. And, um, and we were gullible enough to believe them and we did.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Well, did you ever pursue architecture? Like you were studying architecture? Yeah. Why not? Like, I mean, if you were very interested in like these.

Why not pursue like an engineering degree? Right. I probably

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: would have. [00:06:00] Um, yeah. Yeah. I’m, well, I guess to answer that question, there is a, there is an actual thread to that madness. Um, but it sounds like, uh, disparate, you know, things, but one of the, in retrospect, I look back at literature in my interest in architecture and it’s really, there’s a fascination with a figuring out how to, how craftsmanship works.

Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, uh, art and theory can, can continue in the face of change, shall we say, so I was studying traditional literature, some of which went back to, you know, 3000 years ago, like Gilgamesh or something up to 20th century. You know, the Wasteland or something, uh, T. S. Eliot, and then with architecture, what got me interested and what the really the reason I went there was to study theory and the theory was basically [00:07:00] how do we continue, um, a study of, uh, the, the, um, profession of architecture in the face of what some people might say is a kind of corrosive, um, recent addition to it, which, which is that it’s more kind of like architecture has to be this expression of, of the architect rather than just being a good building.

That’s in some way. And you really find that, that success in how we used to do it and in tradition. And so that was really the reason I went there. Not so much, Of course, I thought, well, I’ll go ahead and be, my father’s an architect. Uh, and I thought, well, I’ll, I’ll just do this too. Um, but that’s really what I got from that education was how do we study the past?

How do we do things? In the ways that have been proven to be successful, but not be [00:08:00] stuck in the past. You don’t want to be pretending like you’re in, um, 19th century Europe or, or 12th century Europe. Uh, you want to be, you know, we’re in, um, 2023 here in, I’m in Indiana, you’re in Canada. Uh, we, we are not in.

Some kind of golden age in the past. So anyway, that’s been and so when you start thinking about it that way, what we’re trying to do with Janice motorcycles is how do we do the same thing? How are we trying to recover what a good looking motorcycle actually is, um, in the face of, um, what I would say is, uh, 30, 40 years of, of, um, uh, downhill as far as motorcycle design.

And as far as really, as far as Um, car design as well. Um, and I think that’s one of the reasons we see as this huge rebirth in the last 20 years of so called retro movement in cars. I’m sure you’re familiar [00:09:00] with, you know, the Mini Coopers, the Volkswagens, the New bronco. Um, I think people are starting to kind of, you know, along those lines.

So that’s kind of my, my reasoning. But to answer your question, yes, I am. I did practice architecture for a couple of years. Um, kind of, kind of, this gets into the entrepreneurship really is, um, when we first started the company, we were not taking it. Paycheck. And so, uh, we were having to rely on, uh, alternative streams of in, of, uh, income.

And one of those for me was, uh, working in an architecture firm. Um, and since then I’ve also been able to continue that. I’m designing a a a a church right now here in, um, in Goshen. But that’s really, I’m on a side project, so I keep, uh, I keep, I keep thinking about it. Yeah. Very

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: nice. Very nice. So basically what you’re saying is, you know, initially when you know these.

Automobile technologies were new [00:10:00] when people were building them basically custom by hand, you know, there was a uniqueness to it. There was a different design aspect to it. But as you know, this has become more and more commercialized, right? Like to make it cost effective. There are trade offs on design.

There are trade offs on, you know, putting that personal touch into it and it becomes more of a Okay. A box or, you know, a cookie cutter item. Yes. And then you’re what you’re trying to do. What you’re trying to do is kind of bring that personal touch to it again.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Absolutely. Uh, really, I think it’s, it’s not so much that when, when it was first being done, it was, you know, I’m sure there are very, there are a lot of unsuccessful vehicles.

Well, we know there are a lot of unsuccessful vehicles and brands early on. It’s just that as the tendency has been, especially with, um, [00:11:00] technology has been that it, it’s, it’s. It automatically wants to become more efficient and more practical and more mass produced. Um, and so along with that mass production comes a loss of character.

So if you look at early vehicles, um, they, they didn’t focus so much on efficiency and practicality. They, they had this flair to them, um, and, and really in a way that they were almost Like the motorcycle, I think is a fantastic machine because it breaks the mold of every other machine. Every other machine is something that it’s just there for, to be used to affect a, say I got an efficient cause and it.

You know, it makes things or it does this and this and this. A motorcycle, on the other hand, is totally, at least the way we use them in the, in the developed, you know, in the U, let’s just say the U. S. It’s a leisure activity. Nobody [00:12:00] has to ride a motorcycle. Um, they, they, they choose to do it. Um, and so it, that, in that sense, the motorcycle never has the ability to, to dominate you.

It always is, uh, is something that we has to have style. It has to look good. And because it’s so lightweight and it only has two wheels, so much of it has to be exposed. So every part has to look good and function. That’s a really, it’s a marvelous thing. Motorcycles are, um, even if you don’t want to ride one there, there’s something worth.

Thinking about, um, and cars used to be like that, but the car, you know, people do need a car nowadays. We absolutely, you know, most cities are built such that we cannot, you cannot walk where you want to go. So a car is a necessity. And in that sense, it, it loses all of its character and originality unless you have like an old, a vintage car or something like that.

The modern car is completely, it’s a big box. Just like you said, it’s a box [00:13:00] that covers up a bunch of ugliness that it. Is there to you know, just get something done

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. I mean, I I guess You know elon musk is bringing a little bit more character back with his uh, what is it called?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Well, you have the all the the teslas and the new cyber truck and all these things but yeah unfortunately, I would absolutely put The, the Tesla in the category of an appliance, not, uh, it’s a, it’s a box that looks good on the outside, but the real purpose, if we all replace that with a train that takes you to, to, uh, your work, it’s just a more comfortable version and you, you don’t even get to drive it.

Whereas with a motorcycle, you have to be in charge of it. You have to be exposed. You have to be engaged with that, that experience. So unfortunately, I mean, I think. I, I, I, he’s got, it’s neat that he’s doing able to do these new things, [00:14:00] but it’s really just another car. Yeah. For

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: sure. So where do you, um, where do you see your product and business?

Is it, do you consider it more of a design business or do you consider it more of a, um, uh, I mean, I’m, I’m sure there’s. Specs and functionality in it, but, um, where does it fit in kind of like the whole ecosystem of all the different motorcycles brands out there, Honda and BMW and, you know, Husqvarna and all, all these other.

Brands, I mean, there are high end brands that are, you know, more utilitarian brands and so forth.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Right, right Yeah, that’s a great you you mentioned the word specs and I think that really is a great way of talking about that Um, we are very unique. I mean everybody wants to say that but we really are Um, it’s it’s a lot of people when they see a janus or when they see the price tag on a [00:15:00] janus Maybe they just don’t get it.

They don’t understand what we’re trying to do. Um, you know, we basically are Are for those of you who don’t You know, I’m not already familiar with Janice. We build handmade, extremely traditional and for what many Americans would consider who are used to, you know, big V twins underpowered, we think it’s appropriately powered, but, um, uh, motorcycles that are suitable, not for highway riding so much as two lane.

Uh, rambling, which is what the activity that we call it, which is just enjoying the activity of riding a motorcycle as a choice you make to do something that’s a leisure activity and not so much as it just like we were saying, a utilitarian function. Um, and so really, when we. Put ourself, you know, if you go to compare Janice with other brands, it’s, it’s difficult to do so.

Um, because we’re really at a price point, which is more [00:16:00] where most people expect, uh, those specifications to be performance specifications. And recently I was actually, we were talking, we were on a doing some sales training with our sales team. And we were talking about, you know, what are the objections that we get?

And one of our sales, uh, Mitch, our sales guy said, uh, you know, People want all the bells and whistles and we don’t have the bells and whistles that other bikes have. And I thought that’s the, that’s it, Mitch, that is perfect because the bells and whistles that people are looking for in this world of efficiency and practicality are, uh, like digital readouts, infotainment, um, more power to get to so that you can go like.

So for some reason, people think that on a motorcycle, you need, you need the ability to go 150 miles an hour or have more horsepower to weigh than your car. Don’t ask me why. Um, and so, and so I said, well, you know, the bells and whistles, we have our actual, [00:17:00] really what I think of a bell and whistle, it’s more like these beautiful hand formed fenders, leather, uh, accoutrements, um, you know, this, uh, Hand polished, hand machined, all this stuff that’s just, and when you see one in person, it’s just gonna, it just, there’s no comparison with, you could park with a line of, you know, much more expensive bikes next to it and it’ll take the show because it’s obviously, um, so intricately built by hand and it, and that shows, so yeah, we are basically are in terms of where we sit in the market.

We are kind of all by ourselves, both in the type of the product. And the scale that we’re doing it at we’re we are Um about 20 people make up this company. So we’re very small. Um, and We produce about right now about 300 bikes a year. So you mentioned honda or harley davidson. We’re nowhere near That that scale we’re in a little very small niche of um of bikes [00:18:00] and um, uh Yeah, it’s just, it’s, it’s, oh, and then the other thing I was going to say that also differentiates us is that we don’t have a dealer network.

We sell completely online. Um, now I say completely online, people come into the shop and pick up bikes or you can. Order one in here at the shop, but for the vast majority of Americans, they’re don’t live in Goshen, Indiana. So they’re going to be, um, ordering it online. We have an online configurator where you can spec it out.

You can call us, talk to us. I ended up talking to a lot of folks. Um, we try and have this very personal connection and, and then our, the product line reflects that in the sense that the number of options and upgrades and. Um, things you can do to the bike is, uh, to make it your own is almost infinite.

Very rarely do we see two identical bikes leave the shop.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow. So, so is your bike very modular so that where, you know, if somebody [00:19:00] wants to. You know, they, they bought your bike and then now they want to, let’s say, upgrade the engine or they want to do something to it. Like they’re able to do it very easily.

Is that kind of like the, one of the value propositions

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: or? Uh, well, they are modular, but they’re not modular in the, in the way that you just described. Um, they’re modular in the sense that they work internally. We can switch. We have all these different options and upgrades that can be. Easily, uh, essentially bolted on or um, they’re highly we bridge this gap between production and custom You know custom motorcycles people think that they think somebody’s chopped up the frame and made a new chopper or something like that Whereas on production they think it’s just mass produced and what we’re doing is Kind of combining those two, you know, every frame is identical.

Every fuel tank is identical Every saddlebag is identical, but we can we have so many different ways that it can be made [00:20:00] That are colors that can be painted or polished finishes. You can put on it that It can be customized to you As far as the ability to add a different engine modularity. No, they’re they’re designed for our engine and Yeah, we, we, we try and, you know, make sure that we’ve done a lot of testing on everything so that we know it works on our, our platform.

Um, yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: What have you learned about your customer? So you’re creating 300 bikes per year. Um, have you noticed any trend in the kind of customer who, who is interested in this product or this kind of a bike and are there, well, I’ll, I’ll ask about your competitors after, but. Yeah, maybe you can share a little bit about your, you know, what you’ve learned about your customer.

Are there any trends?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah, there’s, there’s absolutely trends that we’ve been [00:21:00] able to identify over. We’ve been doing this for going on 12 years, I guess now. Um, and you know, we definitely have. Folks that are interested in vintage things. That’s a, so you’re going to have folks that are interested in watches or, uh, you know, collecting things.

That’s, that’s one aspect. And that is also born out in the sense that a lot of our customers, this is not their only motorcycle. It’s not, it’s not their first bike. Some of them have had. Hundreds of motorcycles, some of them have had, you know, a dozen, some of them still have six other bikes in the garage and they want something that does something different or that is just really unique.

Um, and that’s, that’s certainly the case with our bikes. Um, that’s one trend. Um, that’s. That can be contrasted with the fact that our bikes are very, very lightweight and they’re because they’re lower powered. They’re very, [00:22:00] um, a very good option for beginner riders. So we do have more. We do have beginner riders that are buying these bikes ranging in age.

Um, uh, fewer, I would say young riders. And that’s just typical of the motor motorcycle industry in the sense that yeah. You know, the older generations have more disposable income. So just like me, I guess, you know, your first, my first bike is a used. 1980s old bike because that’s what I could afford. Um, but, uh, we do have younger riders.

We have, um, they fit female riders. So we have a contingent of female riders and, but probably even more common than that is we have, um, couples who instead of, um, You know, the wife riding on the back, they’ve said, Oh, we can both get a bike because we can both ride them. Um, they’re not intimidating. So we have several, um, many, uh, couples that own own bikes and that have bought them together and spec’d them [00:23:00] out together.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Are there other bike manufacturers like yourself? Um, in the United States, like, are, are there other brands like, you know, your brand where they’re creating like these custom bicycles that are more, you know, design oriented and has more of a romantic aspect to it rather than more functional aspect to it.

Um, and. I’m assuming they’re not even even if there are they’re not direct competitors because you’re bringing something very unique with your products, and they may be doing something very unique from their products.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah, really, there is not there is nothing like what we’re doing that I would say that the closest you’re going to find would be custom shops, and they, you know, they’re a shop that would be, you’d bring them a bike, a donor bike.

Or they would source one for you say, Hey, I want this for me and I want this, this, and [00:24:00] this, and those are typically very expensive and they’re done by an artist and that artist may be putting out anywhere from. One bike a year to I don’t know some of the really proficient guys are doing, you know, 10 or more But they’re very very limited.

Um as far as production Uh, there there really isn’t anything on our scale. Um at the moment And then as far as performance And, and kind of design oriented, there are the closest I would think would be like Royal Enfield, um, which is a, you know, an Indian company and they’re actually one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in the world.

So, they’re similar in the sense that they have this kind of, you know, retro, uh, aesthetic. Well, really, it’s not even retro. Royal Enfield has been making the same bikes for,

They’re just really old fashioned, um, and they’re doing a really great job here in the States. They’re, they’re, they’re neat bikes that are lower power. Um, [00:25:00] they’re mad, they’re mass produced on a scale that just is not even comparable to us. Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean India has a huge motorbiking culture, right? It does, yeah.

It’s like everybody, everybody, even if they have a car, they would have a motorcycle because that’s just an easier And they

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: are using them. Yeah, yeah. They are using them for practical utilitarian reasons in that sense. Yeah, which we don’t here in the States. We really, I mean, you’ll get people who say, well, I ride my Harley to work every day because I don’t have a car.

Well, I say, well, you chose to do that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, yeah. It’s interesting, you know, that some places have the culture around motorbicycles. Uh, of course, North America does not really, but I think in Europe, of course, in Asia, there, there’s a lot of, uh, I think, you know, One reason is, of course, not everybody can afford a car in those areas.

Yeah. Um, especially in Asia. So I think that, you know, motorcycle becomes a mode of transportation. Um, [00:26:00] and, you know, of course, the infrastructure, the roads are not great always there as well for like cars. So motorcycles become a more reasonable way to travel.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Absolutely. They’re, they’re far less expensive to maintain, um, and to operate.

Uh, they cost less to, to build. Uh, you know, they’re, it’s certainly Southeast Asia, um, India are, are places where they’re very popular. Um, unfortunately, you know, in, in some places they’re being outlawed, but at least with. External, you know, internal combustion engines because of the pollution that they’ve caused, um, uh, but yeah, in Europe, you’ll see more scooters, which are more practical kind of way of getting around.

They can get away with it because they can cover their clothes from rain or, or whatever, but not many people are interested in being that exposed, um, either to the weather or to traffic without, you know, a choice. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So of course, I mean, the product is great. It’s, you know, there’s a [00:27:00] story behind it.

Purpose behind this product. But of course, at the end of the day, you’re running a business. Um, I understand you have four co founders, um, and can you talk a little bit about, you know, when you started out, was there a business plan? I mean, you mentioned that there wasn’t really, I mean, you were doing it as a passion project, but at what point, at what point and who kind of decided that we want to make.

A business out of it. We want to go 100 percent and really perceive this as a business. And, you know, considering that, um, do you think that, you know, Do you have, you have the right strategy? Like, I mean, you’re focusing on a very niche market. Do you kind of just want to, as a business, focus on that and not become a mass market producer?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah. So, um, I really would, I would say looking back on our [00:28:00] trajectory that we’ve, we’ve kind of had almost two beginning, two startups. Um, one, uh, beginning when we started the company, it was just. Myself and one, uh, my co founder. Um, and we, we came from that moped background and both of us, um, kind of really self taught, uh, kind of more, kind of, we had more of the vision of what we wanted to do and less of the, um, less of the business acumen, um, and.

I still say that’s true. I’m, I’m, I, I’ve learned a lot over the years, but, but, uh, you know, I’m more on the design and kind of vision end of things. Um, then in 2015, we were joined by two other, um, uh, partners who brought, uh, marketing and sales And videography to the picture. And that’s really where we kind of changed the trajectory.

Well, really when we [00:29:00] started hiring employees and when we found our, our own voice with YouTube, um, and that, and YouTube, we can talk more about that, I’m sure in a bit, but that’s really been our, that is our dealership that’s allowed us to do what we do, um, is our extensive YouTube video library of everything from promotion, promoting the product.

Selling the product to maintaining the product is taken care of on YouTube. So we brought those, uh, folks in and, um, over the years since then, we have learned more about what we’re doing, you know, in retrospect, um, you know, it really was the, the, the first beginning was there was no market research. It was completely a passion project in the sense that this is what we want.

And in a lot of ways, I think that did us really well. That served us extremely well [00:30:00] because it is a product that is, um, very little competition. Um, and, and it’s a small niche too, but that’s a really good place to be doing what we do. Um, as we’ve grown, we’ve done more, you know, research and put more business thought and experience into it.

We’ve added a lot of. Very experienced business partners over the years in a board of directors and investment. But, um, one of the things we started to learn about ourselves is that we are, while we’re not an atelier in the sense of like an art workshop where we’re just producing one or two pieces, that that is where we find the best return for what we’re doing.

Um, now as we grow, our goal is to expand our production. Um, you know, we account for Less a fraction of a percent of the U. S. motorcycle market. So there’s a massive amount of room for growth But [00:31:00] everyone here can do really well very well Um and grow the company we could be producing thousands of units Uh and still be a very small handmade company and that’s really where we see the the value of janice.

It’s not in In, in competing with Honda. So that’s really never been our goal. And probably we never will be. Um, we’re going to be trying to do hand pinstriping and machining. Um, that’s where we find the value and where our customers do. Do

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you, I’m, I’m assuming that the investors that you brought on, they were kind of aligned with your vision because many times, like when you have investors, you know, they may want, if they have a different vision, they’re like, You know, maybe you should change this and go after a bigger market because that’s where the growth is Have you ever had any any of that kind of discussions with your investors?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Um, not really, no. We’ve been very, um, both fortunate [00:32:00] and, um, and I, and I would say probably, um, you know, we’ve chosen well, uh, the, the investors that we have brought on. We have, uh, for the most part, uh, until recently, um, had a very local investment group, um, within this County and the next County over. Um, folks who successful manufacturing entrepreneurs who really want to do something different and it’s exciting and they’ve really given us the reins with that.

Um, uh, and that’s great. Um, over the last year, we’ve kind of expanded that a little bit. Um, and we brought in some more expertise, but at this point, I think when, when we pitched the company, we’re very careful to do so letting people know what. What the story is. And, you know, if you want to get in, this is what we’re doing.

We’re not, we’re not trying to, um, and it’s readily apparent when you walk in the shop, when you visit, when you start watching some of our YouTube [00:33:00] videos, what the value of Janice is. It’s, it’s not in, um, trying to be Harley Davidson or, uh, or, or Honda. So no, it’s not

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: a challenge. Okay. Can you talk a little bit about your manufacturing?

So, um, I see on your website, you. I kind of very transparent with, you know, where the different parts of your motorcycle comes from. Yeah. Yeah. And so how does it work? Like, do you build these motorbikes made to order? So somebody goes on your website, of course, I see there’s a lot of customization. Uh, options.

So you have build and order functionality. Somebody selects what they want in the motorcycle. And then is there like a base version that’s, you know, you have like hundreds of them there, and then you can quickly customize those, or do you kind of, once you get the order, then you’ll start the, the build process.

How long does it take to, to build a motorcycle from scratch? [00:34:00]

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah. Um, So we’ve kind of gone from, from a really one off, uh, process in the beginning days to where we are now, which is, um, we, I kind of mentioned that our bikes are modular in the sense that they’re modular internally. So when we have a, let’s say a Halcyon, which is our most popular model, Halcyon 250, for example, um, we’ve just sold over a thousand of those as of a month ago, um, the chassis is, is identical.

On every single model. Mm-Hmm. And so we have a, um, a system in place, um, a lean manufacturing system where we have bin bins that are circulating from our different manufacturing processes. Um, and, and in our case, because we, we have local craftsmen doing a lot of the work for us here in the county, they’re actually being driven around in a van around the county, these bins.

And so, [00:35:00] let’s say for example, let’s continue with the chassis. The chassis will weld it up. It’s sandblasted, it’s powder coated because all the chassis are the same color, then it comes back to us and it goes and sits on a shelf. Um, but we’re not ordering big batches of those. We’re ordering them. This constant trickle is going through the system.

And we just kind of know how many based on experience that we’re going to need. Um, and the system, it will actually, it’s this lean system that regulates itself, uh, essentially. And same thing is true of a fuel tank, for example, even though the fuel tanks are different colors, we have raw ones sitting, you know, just enough sitting on a shelf ready so that we send that out then for whatever color the customer picks and then it comes back and it’ll be pinstriped.

So the total time from when you order a bike is about. Eight weeks right now, let’s say six to eight weeks, which is really the sweet spot for us. Um, the customer wants to, our kind of customer [00:36:00] wants to wait a little bit. They want to know it’s being built specifically for them. Um, and eight to six, you know, six to eight weeks gives us enough time to kind of make sure everything is done on time.

So it’s a, it’s a sweet spot. Um, that said, you know, most of that is. The stuff that happens before the bike gets built, the bike actually gets built in about 10 hours in the final assembly. Um, but there’s a lot of lead up to that before it, before it’s built. I should mention that, um, you know, another thing that makes us really unique is that we don’t do everything in house.

So we have this network of local craftsmen that I mentioned. Um, we’re in Northeastern Indiana, Elkhart County, which is the, um, the capital of the RV. The recreational vehicle industry. And so we are blessed with a just incredibly diverse and. Loaded, uh, manufacturing [00:37:00] economy with lots of small job shops.

So we have a shop that we, it’s not our shop. It’s actually a, uh, external shop that makes our two 50 chassis. We have an external shop that does our sandblasting. We have an external shop that does our powder coating. Um, and so we’re working with a lot of local people. It also happens that we’re in a area with a lot of Amish, um, uh, Large Amish community.

So most of the bike, the parts that we have made are processed locally, are Amish made. So our 250 chassis is actually welded up. In an Amish shop off the grid on a generator, which makes us even weirder.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: But they don’t, they don’t, they don’t drive your motorbikes, right? Because they don’t, they don’t, they don’t.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah. Um, now some parts we do manufacture in house. We’re starting to kind of, to use a, you know, jargon or vertically integrating, um, with our 450 chassis. And we’re headed that way with more, more parts. [00:38:00] That’s one side of the manufacturing. The other side is that we’re, we use a global supply chain. We have our, our engines coming in from China.

Our shock absorbers coming in from Australia are, you know, speedometer tachometers coming in from Germany. Um, The list goes on with, uh, lighting coming in from a different spike breaks from Italy. Um, so it is this very strange combination of hyper, what I call hyper-local manufacturing, mixed with traditional kind of global supply chain.

Mm-Hmm. Um, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a different way of doing things than most people, uh, are familiar with.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, if it’s if it’s cost effective then yeah for sure.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Um, yes, it’s cost effective at this niche level, you know We’re not again trying to make the cheapest motorcycle

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, you mentioned that you have 20 Team members right now and you also mentioned that you have a sales [00:39:00] team um What is the sales process like I mean?

Of course there’s the online component to it so people can go look at the bike, um mm-Hmm. select the options and things like that. Is there, is there a sale? I mean, it is a, it is a, you know, the price point of course is, um, uh, is where people would want to talk to someone or, you know, they would want to try Yeah.

Driving it or something. Um, sorry, my

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: background looks like it’s your YouTube channel. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, let me,

I’m trying out a new setup.

I should have paused my thing. Sorry. Just give me one sec. [00:40:00] You’re

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: good. We can edit it out, right?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, for sure.

Hopefully it does. Okay. And now

this is a new setup that I’m trying. Uh, the, the video, the YouTube channel was, it was playing and then I, I guess it encountered an ad, but now I’ve paused it. So hopefully it should be okay. Okay. So let me, let me ask you the question again. Yeah. Go ahead. So, you know, you mentioned that you do have a sales team.

And, you know, given that it is a direct to consumer product, people can go on your website and, you know, select the options and, and things like that. Um, is there a need, like it does every sales process does require [00:41:00] the sales involvement, people kind of talking to the customer, uh, answering questions, or, uh, are most of the sales really just people selecting the options and then checking out

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: basically.

Um, we do get some folks that are that are, uh, you know, you’ll wake up in the morning and there’s a bike sold. Typically, that’s not the case. You know that, um, while, while, while the modern customer is much more familiar with purchasing online, um, typically with, as you mentioned, with a price point like this and with, you know, with this level of customization and really the way that we kind of celebrate the involvement of the customer.

We, we, we um, Really prefer if they call in at least, um, so that we can walk them through their build and it’s a pretty long purchasing cycle. So we usually have a lot, a lot, a lot of interchange going back and forth with the customer as they build their bike. And that’s really part of the experience. Um, not only the ordering of the bike, but then the, when we build the bike, you know, we’re [00:42:00] updating them with photographs of what.

You know how the bike’s coming along and it is a more involved process, but a lot of folks will find us on social media, um, where we do a lot of our advertising, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and then they’ll think about it for a while, um, give us a call and then we can walk them through how the configurator works so they can visualize their bike exactly as the way it’s going to be made and then they’ll, um, they can go through the financing process with us if they need to and, um, purchase the bike.

And we can handle all the registration, uh, work for them. And then of course build and they’ll either pick up the bike in person, which we love when people do that, or we can ship the bike to their doorstep.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: If, if you are shipping the bike, like, are you charging shipping fees? Like, uh, I would assume that would require,

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: uh, Yeah, we have a flat rate for most of the country.

Um, if it’s closer, we can usually do it for less. Um, and we try and handle that [00:43:00] either ourselves or with a handful of select motorcycle transporters that we work with. Um, we don’t do LTL. We do a real kind of white glove service.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And your market right now is really just the U. S. or are you shipping internationally

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: as well?

Um, we we can ship international. I mean, we can deliver to a U. S. Port of your choice. But we are, uh, you know, the automotive industry is heavily controlled by emissions and highway safety for for good reason. And so we have not reached beyond our borders in terms of emissions regulations or say, you know, highway safety.

So E. P. A. California A. R. B. Um, and we’re working on Canada right now because you are your emissions regulations. And highway safety are so similar to the US we can do that What was

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: the I mean you you said that? You did not really have a business background and you had to learn a lot of things and but you have brought on some A lot of experts, uh [00:44:00] business experts with different expertise and so forth.

What is the most? Complex part of this business.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: That’s a good question. Most complex part of the business. I mean,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: what, what, yeah. What took the most, uh, most amount of time to kind of figure it out from like a business perspective,

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: I think, you know, figuring the motorcycles out. I mean, you’re, you’re, you’re literally building a vehicle from scratch with a.

A team, you know, you think about when Ford launches a new car, Honda brings out a new bike, it takes years of development time and a massive team and just incredible amount of resources. And we’re working with a very limited budget. Um, typically let’s say our most recent model really involved the input of about five people.

And mostly myself and our engineer working around the clock. And it took us about two years to launch, [00:45:00] um, really. A year to really do most of the engineering. Um, so that’s really challenging than figuring out the, the production processes that go into that. Um, very, very challenging. Now, of course, our, our marketing department’s going to tell you that, that, that that’s a real challenge.

Sales and marketing are, we’re constantly trying to do better at that and figure that out. But, um, yeah, we are, it is a motorcycle and that those are really challenging to, to not just bring from a rough idea to a product, but a rough idea to a product that. You don’t lose money on the warranty. Yeah, for sure.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, you mentioned marketing I’m assuming it’s not your marketing is not like paid advertising on google. Uh, because uh, Or is it like are people searching for you know, custom motorcycles and your your yeah A lot

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: of it actually is a lot of it is we do google. Uh, facebook Facebook is a [00:46:00] huge part of what we’re doing and instagram the whole meta suite.

Um Really, that’s in YouTube, um, the majority of our, of our marketing. Yeah, we’re trying to figure out new ways. We’re always doing new initiatives. We have, we’re putting bikes in airports. We’re, uh, doing more, um, we’re working. We’re starting off to work with maybe potentially work with some motorcycle rental companies to be able to, um, let people experience bikes around the country.

Um, an interesting model. No dealerships.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Yeah, because, um, I mean, you don’t, you don’t really have the, the, the capacity to, to deliver, uh, at, at that level. Right. And also like your, your customer base, because they’re so niche, like they’re, they’re, um, they fit a certain community, I guess. Like, do you, do you go out and, and kind of work with like different motorcycling?

Uh, communities either online [00:47:00] or like, you know, where they’re kind of, you know, aggregating their, their racing or, you know, uh, biking together and things like that.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Great question. Great question. Yeah. You would, you’d think we would. Um, however we don’t, um, it’s really, we’ve, our experience has been that in the motorcycling world, we’re so different.

That, um, certainly you’ll get a lot of interest and we’ll certainly make sales. Um, but, but really where we found, and I’ll get back to that idea of the category of rambling that I talked about earlier. It’s really people that are interested in this idea of, of, uh, enjoying, uh, the journey, not just getting to the destination.

And so we’ve found a lot of folks that let’s just, for example, at the top of my head would be, um, you know, um, mechanical watches. That community, it would be someone who’s very interested in what we’re doing. Um, because [00:48:00] you know, a mechanical watch your Apple watch is far better at keeping time and doing a host of activities that your mechanical watch can simply can’t even begin to do.

But that mechanical, the automatic watch or whatever you have is, um, so much more meaningful. And that’s very similar to what we do. Similar thing with sailboats. Um, or find wine, it’s a, and, and, and, and then again, a lot of older motorcyclists who’ve gotten past that understanding of like, Oh, I just need to go a hundred miles an hour.

They go, no, after riding for 50 years, I realized that I really just like riding a motorcycle that I get to experience shifting the gears and, um, the wind in my face in a different way. Um, so, uh, Yeah, we used to do a lot more shows than we do now, and we’re constantly experimenting where we’ll be. I’m going doing a show out in [00:49:00] the west coast in two weeks, but actually that show is not a motorcycle show.

It’s going to have motorcycles, but it’s really a collection of different kinds of. Things like we’re talking about, um, So it’s, it’s kind of like,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: um, Like an affinity group, right? So, you know, people who are interested in, you know, collectibles and these watches and things like this, I mean, they probably have the, the money to

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah, yeah, I don’t want to, I don’t want to come across as though it’s like a, uh, Exclusive or only for the hyper wealthy in that sense.

Um, cause you think of watches, you think, you know, 10, 000 items, um, our bikes are less expensive than most Harley Davidson’s, but, but it. Yeah. I think you said earlier something about like a romantic idea. And I think that does folks that are kind of interested in that, um, we have customers from that are, certainly we have wealthy customers and we absolutely have customers that finance their bike and [00:50:00] that it’s, it may be the nicest thing they have, um, but they’ve really, it’s something that really means a lot to them.

What

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: is the future vision for your business? Um, do you want to continue doing what you’re doing or do you have like, um, do you want to add more, more products? Do you want to like. From a business perspective, I mean, I’m assuming you, you would, you do want to grow your business, like you want to sell more bright bikes.

Um, yeah. So what

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: is it? Uh, so yeah, right now our goal really is, uh, 30 million by 2030. Um, we really want to grow from the scale we are right now to a much larger, um, company selling more bikes with more products. Um, that’s absolutely, you know, I talk all about all about this art and this, uh, philosophy, but even at the very beginning of the company, keep in mind that we weren’t.

I was not interested in custom bikes or art pieces. So [00:51:00] these are not, the goal is not here to be making one off hyper expensive things. It’s to build a production vehicle that we can sell at a, I hope an affordable price point. And to do that, we need to, we need to make more. Um, and that’s really what we’re focusing on now is expanding our marketing and sales.

Expanding our production efforts and yeah, over the coming years, I would hope to launch more products. Um, and, and really like we’ve kind of talked about, you know, expand, but, but, but there’s lots of room to get 10 times as big as we are right now and still be a tiny speck on the, um, motorcycle, uh, horizon, so to speak.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. For sure. In every entrepreneur’s journey, there’s always mistakes made lessons learned. Failures. Has there been any kind of big failure or something where you, it was a. You know, big lesson learned where you, I [00:52:00] mean, you could have done without it. What, what did you learn from it? Uh, what can other entrepreneurs learn from your mistakes?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: It’s a good question. Um, yeah, we’ve, we’ve been pretty lucky. Um, we’ve made many small, you know, errors, but I wouldn’t really blame anybody for any massive, uh, mistakes. We did have to go through, um, uh, spying out a business partner, which was, um, really my co founder, which was, it can be. Challenging sometimes, um, and you have to kind of just keep the, the, the, the business, um, and, and, um, it’s benefit first and foremost, when you, when you go through something like that.

So obviously maybe, uh, selecting your, um, business partners carefully is important, but, but really it wouldn’t be who we are without having the team that we’ve always, we’ve had along the way. Um, maybe just, uh, not trusting my gut enough in some ways is probably the, uh, the worst error I’ve made. [00:53:00] I know that’s probably not the typical response, but no,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, I’ve definitely heard like, um, around the partnership aspect of things, you know, there’s, yeah, it’s, it’s challenging, you know, with partnerships it’s, it’s like, yeah, it’s like, yeah, when people’s vision kind of diverge from

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: each other, especially when you, when it’s like two very visionary people.

It can be, uh, it can, uh, be difficult, but, but yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s also a part of the growth, growth of a company sometimes I think, and certainly in our case, it’s, it’s, um, both it was necessary to have everyone, you know, everyone was a great contribution. And then again, it’s also necessary that sometimes you, you part ways.

So.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, for sure. Uh, now i’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment in this segment I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or two or a sentence Um, the first one is one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why? [00:54:00]

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Uh, my recommendation is actually one of our partners here, and it’s the best, uh, entrepreneurship book I’ve read this year, uh, Confessions of an Entrepreneur, A Simple Wisdom for Starting, Building, and Running a Business by, uh, Mark Zweig, who’s actually on our board and a partner, um, lifelong business, entrepreneur and motorcyclist.

Um, great book, whether you’re starting off in, uh, business or, or a seasoned entrepreneur. Awesome.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, an innovative product or idea on the current e commerce, retail, or tech landscape that you feel excited about? Hmm.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Innovative. Well, I don’t really follow tech that much. Um, I’ll say there’s a brand that I’ve been looking at.

We’ll see if I can, uh, answer with this. Um, called, uh, Laurier Watches. And they’ve kind of caught my attention. They’re doing something very similar to what we’re doing, where they’re [00:55:00] taking, uh, ideas from the past and applying them in new ways. Uh, small company, um, it’s sourcing some aspects of the process in sourcing some and really focusing on design.

Um, really neat company, um, L O R I E R

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: awesome. A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: I’m going to go real old school on this one and say, I use a notebook every day and I keep, uh, uh, try and one of the things that I’ve been doing over the last two years is, um, instead of taking notes on every single thing that I do, I, I just take notes on the things that I need to do.

So I have a priorities list and having it on paper, not on a digital format works for me. I’m sure other people are different, but it’s sure as nice when you can cross that off and move on. If I don’t finish it, I just roll it onto the [00:56:00] next week.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I, I enjoyed doing that as well. Very simple.

Yeah. Uh, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you. Oh,

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: that’s a good one, man. Right now it’s the same guy who wrote that book, Mark Zweig. He’s been a big part, big part of what I’m doing. And, uh, I, I get, I, cause he’s been in it for a long time. I learn a whole lot, learn a whole lot. Awesome. Um,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Yeah,

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: it’s hard to bake down, but just for, for this one, I’ll say, um, not over communication, communication. Um, one of the things I’ve learned is that the more you communicate with people around you, the more [00:57:00] friends you make. You know, really cultivate those friendships. It just, it’s exponential what it does for your business.

Um, absolutely incredible. So, you know, remember to write that thank you note, um, respond to that email and do it now, don’t do it later. I don’t do a good job at this, but when I do, it works. That’s,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: that’s so important. I think, uh, you know, that’s really kind of the long, long term. Value that you build.

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Uh, absolutely.

It’s it’s critical

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: for sure Uh, well, those were all the questions that I had Richard. Thank you so much for Sharing your time for sharing your story And you know sharing some strategies on how you kind of grew your business So yeah, thank you so much again for joining me today at trip talks And if somebody wants to check out your motorcycles, um, what is the best way to do that?

Richard Worsham of Janus Motorcycles: Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. Um, it’s been a pleasure. If you would like to learn more about Janus Motorcycles, you can visit our website, [00:58:00] janusmotorcycles.com. It’s J A N U S motorcycles. com. Um, or check us out on YouTube, which is where you’ll learn the most about us, barring of course, a visit to our headquarters in Goshen, Indiana, but it’s been a pleasure.

Thanks so much. And, um, look forward to hearing this.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Thank you so much again. Really appreciate it.