So, as you're capturing a customer and they're going from a casual customer to becoming a wahoo again looking, what's the decision- making matrix you use to assess whether a new product idea should actually come to market? Like, you know, I actually got in the post yesterday. It was good timing. I'm starting to do a bit more time trial and got my new Aero pedals. Haven't even cracked them out of the box yet. But, you know, when something like that comes into full production, how have you how have you stress tested it before to make sure this is in fact the correct next product in the Wahoo line? I I'll give two parts to that answer. One is the you asked me earlier about you bringing my experience to a company like Wahoo. You know, where's the value in that? Um, focus as I've learned over many years uh in industry is either a great strength or a great weakness if you have a lack of focus. And so when you're an innovationdriven company, typically the ideas outstrip the capacity to execute. And so for a business that's in the current state that we're in, one of our most challenging tasks is to stay focused because we have more ideas than we can execute on. Yeah. And so coming to this second part of the answer to get to your qu question specifically, which one of those ideas should find its way into development, production in the market versus what should die on the vine and just get put on the parking lot list is one of our most challenging tasks. Yeah, I would have thought so. So we rely heavily on a couple of things. One, our mission, which is building the better athlete. We we try and stay really true to that. Say like, is this something that will truly help an athlete become a better athlete and better is a relative term, right? So you could be a somebody who's starting from the couch and never done anything. Then you better is get onto a trainer, start to experience this world which is really cool, really beneficial, helps you become somebody who's living a healthier lifestyle or it's somebody who's performing, you know, in the top 10 as a as an amateur cyclist who participates in local crit races, for example, and you want to become a winner. We have the tools to do that, too. Um it's that spectrum of how do you become a better athlete that helps us answer that question. And to answer that you've got to rely on athletes, right? So what what does an athlete use? And we have two major advantages. One, our company is full of athletes. The people who work here tend to gravitate towards our mission. And so everything we design, develop, and test is tested by people who actually use the product. as the old say, we eat our own dog food. Um, and then we have a really good group of ambassadors out there. I mean, you mentioned some of them, uh, just as we were getting going, you know, Lachland as an example, Ian Bosle, who works for us, and many other pro athletes that we work with that help us validate and test whether the product really is credible and does provide that value to a consumer. So that when you take it to that whole spectrum of customers, we can actually legitimately say like this is a real credible product that's going to help you become a better athlete. Yeah. And hopefully in doing that, it also gives you a better experience. That's one of our primary objectives is like just make sure it's a good experience. When do you think it's time to call time on the GPS units? And by that I mean remember you got your iPhone at the start and you were like, "Oh my god, this is magic." Like there's a calculator on this you can. And then the next one came out and it's like you can take photos with this. The next one came out. It's like photos, music, I can do my email. At some point, I don't know when, like I'm on iPhone 15, 16, I don't know, at some point they just became indistinguishable. They all do basically the exact same thing. Unless you're the 1% of customers. My sister's boyfriend is always banging on to me about the new screen and the better resolution. I was like, I'm lost. Like unless it does something totally new, I'm just not going to buy another phone until this stops charging. I feel like I'm almost there with head units. It's like if you use the Wahoo Ace, it's amazing. If you use the Hammerhead Karu, it's amazing. If you use the Garmin 1050, it's amazing. I don't know where it goes in the next step that makes me not use my, you know, generation now computer to get the next generation computer. Yeah, I think there are two dimensions to that. One is, you know, what's the kind of forward-looking innovation that comes, but there's also a a technology legacy issue that we can't forget. Um, if you think about your iPhone that you just used an example, if you're on a 15 now, you're not on an iPhone 8. And there's a reason for that, cuz your iPhone 8 just doesn't work anymore.
Now the experience is that good that I find myself on certain occasions choosing indoor over outdoor because I just feel like that. Yeah. And depending on the session as well changes. Absolutely right. So so yeah if I'm doing a structured workout I hands down I'd rather do it indoors now because it's just it's it's a much easier and better experience. So I think we've moved the industry to a point where once you're engaged in the product, the experience is really good. What we need to work at now is how to make it easier for people to engage, especially if you're looking to bring new people into the product because there is still a little bit of friction when it comes to setup configuration and I would say becoming technically literate on the product. There's an exclusionary vocabulary we use, correct? which makes total sense to us. But when you talk, you just realize how ridiculous it is when you go to explain something like even the tour to France. I use this example all the time because I tried to explain the tour to France to a friend who wasn't into cycling at all and try do it. It's like, oh, it's a three-week race. Well, who wins? Oh, the guy who's the lowest cumulative time wins. Okay, why is this guy celebrating today? Oh, no, because there's there's a winner each day as well. And it's like, all right, and then there's a race to the top of the mountain, but there's other sprint points and it's like it's chaos. It's hard to explain. explain Formula 1. First guy across the line wins. That's right. And there's, you know, there's so many races a year and that's it. Uh, no, I I think that's exactly right. There's a uh there's a vocabulary that is, I think, restrictive because it's intimidating. Uh, you know, we talk about, you know, power profiles, you know, uh, cadence, heart rate zones, uh, power zones. Um, these are all things that that if you if you're trying to bring somebody new into the sport and you go straight to the sort of deeply technical components, it's overwhelming. Yeah. And there I come back to to the point you made about Pelaton. I think they did a really good job of just removing that friction. I I have respect for the yellow brick road we were talking about for how do you baby step them in here? Um, I mean, you mentioned it with, you know, you you talked about your girlfriend. Why can't I turn the bike over? These are things that are, let's say, in the sort of dieh hard parlance, they're taboo. Um, but the truth is that's what also restricts people from coming into the sport. So, I'm all about destigmatizing that. I think we really need to take that out of the sport and say, you know what, if you want to turn your bike upside down, go for it. Why not? You know, yeah, where's the rule book that says you can't? There's there's code that says you can't, but you we're keeping people out of the sport and and I think the way we grow it is by inviting people in. And so we if we can make it easier for people to engage in the product like one button click it I'm riding and I understand what I got to do that's where like that's the holy grail and then then you get those people taking it outdoors and we're using more computers more power pedals more you know and we really then help people train with insight and meaning and when you do that we unlock value. I mean, I'll give you a good example. Sorry to kind of wax lyrical about this, but uh this past winter season, I never rode outdoors from the 1st of November until the 31st of March once. Not once. All indoor training. And it's the first time I've I've basically abandoned outdoor training completely through the winter. And I frankly enjoyed it. I had a great training season. And the first rides I did, I'd gone to an event in Mayora. And the first ride I did was 125 kilometers with 6,000 foot of climbing. And that morning, I was thinking to myself, man, I don't know, maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew. And we were riding with some Sean Kelly was actually riding with us. So, I mean, there was there was a little bit of pressure to jump up, you know, and I really I was like, I don't know if this winter training worked worked out well enough, but we went, we rode. I was absolutely fine, fully prepared for the event and it was a true revelation for me that indoor training is now at a point where it can absolutely successfully prepare you for outdoor cycling. I agree with you from a physiological point of view, but I think the part that we can't separate from this is like the person with 50,000 Instagram followers, like we're socially connected digitally, but we're isolated and we're lonely. And for me, the antidote to loneliness is community. And I don't know if that extends to virtual community. There's nothing like meeting a friend in a coffee shop before a ride.