The Pedal Car Failure

Why Podbike’s hybrid ride never found a market

Author

Nicolás Cerdeira
June 05, 2025

Hey — It’s Nico.

Welcome to another Failory edition. This issue takes 5 minutes to read.

If you only have one, here are the 5 most important things:

This issue is brought to you by dofollow.com.

Let’s get into it.

If AI can’t find you, your customers won’t either.AD

Backlinks are how Google—and now AI—decide who gets visibility.

If your SaaS site doesn’t have them, you’re invisible to the buyers who matter most.

That’s where dofollow.com comes in. We help SaaS companies earn editorial backlinks from high-authority, niche-relevant sites—so you finally rank where it counts.

Here’s what you get:

→ Backlinks from high-authority, niche-relevant sites

→ Real outreach in your vertical, no mass lists

→ Monitoring + free replacements if a link goes down

→ No long-term contracts—just results

This Week In Startups

🔗 Resources

More or Less: The three pricing strategies.

How Founders Can Land Their First Few Customers by Building a Roster of Advisors.

📰 News

Anthropic unveils custom AI models for U.S. national security customers.

TikTok launches ‘TikTok for Artists,’ a new music insights platform.

💸 Fundraising

Speedata, a chip startup competing with Nvidia, raises a $44M Series B.

Irish fintech Nomupay lands $40M at a $290M valuation.

Mubi hits $1B unicorn status with $100M Sequoia boost.

Fail(St)ory

The Bike-Car Hybrid

Two weeks ago, Podbike shut down. The Norwegian startup filed for bankruptcy and said goodbye to its dream of changing urban transport.

Their pitch? A four-wheeled, weatherproof, pedal-assisted electric bike that looked like a mini car and could legally ride in bike lanes. It was weird in a charming, sci-fi kind of way and launched with solid momentum — but somewhere between vision and execution, the wheels came off.

What Was Podbike:

Podbike launched with a simple goal: fix everything that sucks about commuting by bike.

You don’t want to get soaked in the rain. You don’t want to show up to work sweaty. You don’t want to deal with traffic or parking or gas. So Podbike built the Frikar — a strange-looking vehicle that tried to solve all that at once.

It had a fully enclosed cabin, optional windshield wipers, and room for groceries or a kid in the back. It looked like a small car but counted as a bike, so you didn’t need a license. You could ride it in the bike lane. If you got tired pedaling, the motor would kick in and take you the rest of the way — up to 80 kilometers on a charge.

It was built to be aerodynamic, like a racing bike with a roof. It used a belt instead of a chain to cut down on maintenance. And it could get software updates over the air, like a Tesla.

Podbike started showing off the Frikar in 2017 and launched in Norway and Germany around 2021. People were curious. A small but loyal group got on board. The vibe was kind of like an indie car startup for cyclists.

But behind the cool design and clever engineering, the business was shaky.

The Numbers:

  • 📅 Founded: 2017

  • 💸 Raised: $1.5M USD

  • 🌍 Sold in: Norway and Germany

  • 💸 Declared bankruptcy: May 2025

Reasons for Failure: 

  • Priced into a no-man’s land: The Frikar cost over €10,000 — sometimes closer to €13,000 with extras. That’s a steep price for something that’s technically an e-bike. Too expensive for most cyclists. Not fast or versatile enough to compete with motorcycles. And while it was cheaper than a car, it didn’t offer the comfort, speed, or range people expect from one. It ended up stuck between categories — not cheap enough to be an impulse buy, not useful enough to justify the cost.

  • Production costs were way too high:  The Frikar was not an off-the-shelf bike with a motor slapped on — it was a custom-built, fully enclosed, four-wheeled machine with advanced features like OTA software updates, a belt drive, windshield wipers, etc. That level of engineering is expensive. And they didn’t have the scale to bring costs down. So, margins were thin — or possibly nonexistent — from the start.

  • Underfunded from day one: Podbike raised around $1.5M. For a hardware startup building a vehicle from scratch, that’s almost nothing. They were trying to do Tesla-level engineering on a scooter budget. When costs climbed and they needed more capital, they couldn’t close a new round. Investors weren’t convinced. Without serious funding, scaling production was a non-starter — and eventually, they ran out of road.

  • Too weird to go mainstream: The Frikar turned heads — but that doesn’t always translate to sales. It looked like something between a bike, a car, and a lunar rover. Some people loved that. Most people weren’t sure what to make of it. It didn’t fit into anyone’s mental model of transportation. And when you’re asking someone to drop five figures on something, “unclear value” is a deal-breaker.

Why It Matters: 

  • Building something new is not enough — you also need to make sure people know where it fits in their lives. Podbike never nailed that.

  • Price positioning can kill a product before it even gets a chance. The Frikar was stuck in a range no one was shopping in.

  • If you’re doing hardware, raise more than you think you’ll need. Podbike tried to build a factory on a prototype budget.

Trend

AI Ads

A couple of days ago Meta made a big announcement that it wants to automate its entire advertising process by the end of 2026. If that sounds like a vague PR goal, don’t worry — they’ve already started rolling out the tools to make it happen.

But Meta isn’t alone. Netflix and Google are also moving fast in this direction, each with their own spin on what the future of advertising might look like. 

Let’s break it down.

Why It Matters:

  • Ads are about to get weird: AI-generated images, text, video — even personalized variations for different users — will become the norm.

  • This changes who can advertise: Small businesses without big budgets or agencies will soon get access to tools that rival the pros.

  • It redefines SEO and content marketing: With AI blending ads into search and shows, brands will need to rethink how they stand out.

Meta’s Take: Ads That Build Themselves

Meta wants to turn Facebook and Instagram into fully automated ad platforms — and soon. According to a recent report, their vision is simple: give the platform a product image, a goal, and a budget, and it’ll do the rest. That means generating the visuals, writing the copy, choosing the audience, and even optimizing the budget in real time.

In short: Meta is building an ad engine that runs itself.

It’s not just about automation — it’s also about personalization. The idea is that two people could see totally different versions of the same ad, tailored to their location, preferences, and behavior. Think geotargeted travel ads or video creatives that adapt based on time of day.

This could completely change the ad game. Instead of spending weeks creating campaigns and tweaking targeting settings, brands could launch entire strategies in minutes.

For Meta, the stakes are high. Mark Zuckerberg has called this a “redefinition” of advertising, and the company is investing heavily to make sure it delivers measurable performance at scale. The move could displace traditional ad agencies, or at least force them to evolve. On the flip side, it opens the door to millions of small businesses that previously couldn’t afford custom campaigns.

Netflix’s Take: Ads That Blend Into the Show

Netflix is approaching AI ads from a different angle: making them feel less like ads.

At a recent advertiser event, they revealed plans to start integrating AI-generated content into their streaming experience. That means if you’re watching Bridgerton, you might hit pause and see an AI-generated overlay promoting something that fits the mood of the show.

They’re calling this “pause ads,” and it’s a pretty clever way to make ads feel native to the content. These AI-generated breaks could include custom visuals or subtle calls to action — designed not to disrupt your experience too much.

It’s early days, but Netflix says we could see these formats roll out by the end of the year. The goal is to make ad-supported tiers more appealing while keeping the viewing experience smooth.

Google’s Take: AI Ads Meet Search

Meanwhile, Google is weaving AI ads directly into its core product: Search.

Their new “AI Overviews” — summaries powered by Gemini — are starting to show both Search and Shopping ads inside or alongside the generated content. These formats aren’t just text listings; they’re designed to visually blend into the page.

Google’s also testing deeper AI integration across the ad workflow. From text-to-video generation tools (like Veo) to AI agents that recommend new bidding strategies in Google Ads, they’re trying to automate not just what ads look like, but how they’re bought and optimized.

The Takeaway

What we’re seeing isn’t just a new set of tools, it’s a shift in what marketing is.

For years, good marketing meant having a team: designers, copywriters, media buyers. But with AI handling everything from asset creation to targeting, the playing field is leveling fast.

Suddenly, a solo founder can launch campaigns that would’ve taken an entire agency just a year ago.

This opens the door for smaller startups to compete with much bigger players — not by outspending them, but by moving faster and testing more. In that sense, AI isn’t just automating marketing; it’s democratizing it.

Help Me Improve Failory

How Was Today's Newsletter?

If this issue was a startup, how would you rate it?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

That's all of this edition.

Cheers,

Nico