MO CRIST

I learned about the bicycle business in Urbana, Illinois. I was Paul Nicholson's first employee at his small bike shop in the 1970's. It was not a very conventional business. You could say Paul's Bike Shop was a throwback to a pre-corporate style of retail store, and at the same time he was definitely way ahead of his time... With just two of us working, and with both of us in graduate school, there were only so many customers that we could help each day. Therefore Paul established a rule: we were not to sell more than four bikes per week. Over twenty five years before bike fitting became the buzz word in bike stores nationwide, Paul wanted to make sure we had time to properly set up each Motobecane, Mercian and Austro-Daimler 10 speed that we sold. He insisted that the bike fit each customer to give them the most comfortable and efficient ride... At Microsoft, I sold "it" and recruited talented developers to create "it". At Intel, I managed the budget for "it" and procured materials..

Primary location: Seattle United States