Alexander Grubar, passionate downhill, worked in bicycle repair shops as a student, and after graduating from university, he started working in a CNC machine shop. He kept bicycle repairs as an after-hours job, but when the electric bicycle euphoria hit the market, things got tougher. Physically harder. The bikes are heavy and the existing racks on the market are cumbersome and expensive. "€2,000 for a rack? I can do it better and cheaper..." he was convinced. Like a true engineer. Looking around, however, he could not hide the fact that the market for electric bikes is growing, and so will the need for servicing.
His friend Samo Dolinšek is an amateur electronics engineer. After the first conversation, they knew they would build this story together, they just needed someone to sell it. "Come on Jan Kolar ask'," my colleagues recalled instantly. He landed immediately.
This is how three machinists with different skills and interests started the DBDtools success story.
First prototype
They studied the competition, added more advanced features to existing solutions and used more durable materials. From then on, the weekends were dedicated to building a prototype electric bike repair stand.
After a solid prototype, the material for the first batch of 40 was ordered. "Who will make such small batches for you? Either it's not worth it for them or it would be too expensive for us. It would certainly take too long. Logically, everyone will give priority to the big regular order customers, not to us. So we had no choice but to do it ourselves." But they did.
At weekends, they rented a workshop with CNC machines and worked from 6am to 10pm, sometimes even longer. When they were finished, the machines were returned to their previous settings so that the workshop could operate normally on Monday morning. The following weekend, they repeated the story. And again and again.
All the pieces were taken to the garage at home and assembled on the firefighter's table. "We spent more time looking for the pieces than assembling them," Jan laughs, recalling those early days. "First we had to clean up the workshop before we could do anything at all." The simplicity of beginnings ...
They also made a real photoshooting. They cut the logo out of paper, found a banner, painted it black themselves and stuck on those white sheets in the shape of the logo. Pirate. The fact that half an hour before the photo was taken, the product was not even working, was just kept from the photographer. Yes, the cuteness of beginnings ...
First Eurobike Fair
In 2021, just one year after the idea was conceived, they have already opened the company, confident that sales will take off quickly. But the product was still being refined well into 2022, when they attended the Eurobike European Bicycle Fair for the first time. Unprepared.
"Eurobike - it's a story of its own." They rented a van and packed all the banners, two stands, a stand, bicycles... "We looked like Gypsies."
They set up a stand and enthusiastically welcomed every visitor. On the comment "oh, that's not so expensive, I thought it was at least 5,000 euros, not 2,500", they changed the price in a flash. The next comment "this is too expensive" was already lowered. From Wednesday to Thursday, they changed the price three times, but when there was no interest on Thursday, they lowered it considerably on Friday. Just like a market.
Today they laugh at these awkward beginnings, this unpreparedness. If it had ended there, it would have been a terrible story. But fortunately, it goes on ...
First serious sales
Although Jan was still employed elsewhere and only sold the stands in the afternoons, they managed to sell 20 units in Slovenia. But when they got their first serious distributor for the Benelux in 2023, Jan resigned and took a job at DBDtools.
After two months at home, he said, "I'm never going to work again. Entrepreneurship - that's for me!" My mother's comment at the time, "Well, wait a bit longer...", changed after a year: "Yes, now it makes perfect sense to me that you are doing it."
They got a Norwegian distributor, then a Danish distributor ... 80 % of sales are now made through distributors worldwide, the rest they sell themselves. In 2023 they generated a turnover of €70,000 and in 2024 they have sold more than 200 stands, so almost half a million euros in revenue.
Customer support
"I have learned from the CNC world how important it is to get servicing right away, because it is too big a waste to have a machine sitting for a day. That's why we offer immediate service here too, and they get the pieces they need by DHL the next day. We try to have the best possible direct contact with the customer. Our customers are bicycle repair shops, not end users, so they know how to grip the tools, logically. I just guide them remotely on what to do to fix it, translate it, show them the picture..." says Alexander.
"We are always thinking about how this product will make our customer, the bike repair shop, more competitive. They are essential. They need to see it as an advantage - so the product needs to save them effort, time and therefore money. It is from this perspective that we develop and improve our stands. With our product, you definitely get the most for the money," Jan adds.
Major challenges
As turnover increases, so does the amount of operational work, administration, ordering, planning, logistics... So, as probably every entrepreneur has at some point, there have been days when, "We've worked all day, but nothing concrete has been done."
This is the part they want outsoursati also in the City of Acrobats. They currently use the services of Katapult Metal, and order composition, logistics, administration and accounting from Katapult. This leaves them more time for key areas, while at the same time they do not need to recruit additional staff for these tasks, which would create additional fixed costs.
"What the City of Acrobats offers in terms of support services seems to me to be the best thing a start-up can get. Practically no other incubator does this," Jan repeatedly praises.
This leaves them time to focus on new products and continuously improve customer support.
How to proceed?
"We are already developing new products. The growth of our company should not be based on one product. When we started, there were only three manufacturers of such stands for electric bikes, now there are 15. As mechanical engineers, our strength is developing really good products. So we need to do that. This year we launched a brake pad breaker as our second main product."
They want to fill the bike servicing space with high value-added products that make it easier to service electric bikes in general. "We won't work Allen screws and by Schravfenciger," they point out. There is still a lot of manual work in this segment, so there is plenty of room to develop better devices to make the bike technicians' job easier and more automated.
They are in a growth industry with room for improvement.
Advice for beginners with a business idea
They have embarked on a business journey, stumbled into many beginner's challenges, and can now be counted among the success stories. What advice would you give to those who are still toying with a business idea or turning around their first prototype?
Jan points out, "The problem with most startups with a physical product is that they start selling too late. They take too long to finish the prototype instead of putting it on the market, because the market will tell if it would give money for it or if it would want something different. And one more thing..." he was scintillatingly honest: "Just say that you are basically at the beginning. In fact, that's a good thing. When you're still a nobody in business, people love to help you, even to do something for free and to promote you. They generally like to help a beginner who is trying. But once they see you're making good money, the turnaround comes quickly - Oops, we'll just charge. So - don't hide the fact that you're at the beginning."
After a moment's reflection, Alexander says: "Have something you can sell. Even if it doesn't sell in the end, you will learn a lot. Try anyway."
Today, the website highlights, among other things: Employee owned, Self financed, Made in EU (we regret that it does not say "Made in Slovenia" or even "Made in Zasavje"). Bravo!
Follow them on: dbd-tools.com
