We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Stock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jonathan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

In 2016/17 I was introduced to the OneWheel. It was my first time riding anything electric. I was able to move quickly and how I wanted without all the wear and tear on my body. It was fun. I like fun. I was immediately hooked.

I come from a heavy skateboarding and snowboarding background. In the early 90s when I started, those 2 sports were extremely counter culture. Aside from a handful of companies there wasn’t a ton of support for what you wanted to do with it. Unless you were near a skateboard shop or a snowboard shop, everything was mail order and didn’t feel real. The first time I set foot in a skateshop I knew that is where I wanted to be.

So in 2017 when I was really getting into the OneWheel “scene” and back then we got to make it because we were early adopters. We would constantly talk about how OneWheel was taking the same progression path as skating and riding and god if we didn’t feel like the Lords of Dogtown or Bones Brigade. Everyone in the scene was crewing up and I immedately recognized what was happening and what needed to be done.

In my eyes the riders couldn’t progress without a shop to help. I equated riding a OneWheel as more akin to riding a motor vehicle than a board of any type. So my best comparison is “Nitro Circus”. Those guys are nuts on dirtbikes and they need really good mechanics if they’re gonna push limits. So my support to the OneWheel scene was simple to me: get and keep people on top of functioning boards so that the riding can progress as quicky as possible… if people are confident in the ability to fix, they can push the limits of themselves and the boards even more.

The manufacturer of the OneWheel is EXTREMELY uncooperative with our efforts. It would be like opening a car garage and trying to fix a Ford and having the CEO of Ford continuously try to shut you down or prevent you from repairing their vehicle because that customer needed to either drive to Michigan or mail it there. As the OneWheel grew in popularity and the company behind it was really stymying any attempt to help the community, the need for people who were dedicated to figuring out best practices and simplest and best solutions was absolutely necessary.

It wasn’t until about 2019 I really had anything close to a shop shop. Before this I was doing waterproofing between filling orders for an accessory I made for the OneWheel I though would have more commerical success than it did. So in reality I also needed the money to fill the gap I wasn’t able to make in the private PT world anymore and I was getting burnt out on it and wanted a change of scenery. So in late 2019 and into early 2020 I really dedicated myself to creating a more advertised brand.

It was also in late 2019 and early 2020 I took on becoming the head of a repair network. This was, at its height, well over 50 shops across the US mostly and in Europe, that all believed in the same… that the OneWheel scene of riders was the most important thing to foster and we did and still continue to do.

We have now heavily gotten into the manufacture and sales of OneWheel accessories under the MOB shop brand name. Its really exciting to see where it came from and where it can possibly go.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I repair, service, and tune all types of Light Electric Vehicles, otherwise known as Personal Electric Vehicles or PEV for short. I want the term “LEV” as in Light Electric Vehicles to begin to emerge as time goes on though as a “PEV” can also be a Tesla.

I was just an early adopter of the OneWheel, that came from a background of community support from my time in Skateboarding and Snowboarding where I used to help run Skate Brooklyn and also taught skateboarding and snowboarding lessons in Brooklyn before moving back to Colorado where I went to college and love.

I am so proud of the work I’ve been able to get done as a single owner operator over the last few years. It hasn’t been easy and my family has put forth alot of sacrifices in terms of my time and attention growing this.

I am a family man at my heart and soul. I love my wife, I love my kids. I do any and everything I can with and for them. They are my sun and moon really. Everything else in between is helping progress the movement of battery power through repair and education. The more people know, the less they will break for no reason. The more that there is reliable repair, the more adoption of these devices can happen.

Trains can only travel as far as their tracks. We are the tracks that move the train along in the Light Electric Vehicle world.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Complete transparency. I believe this is such a good thing to carry along the way. No matter what has ever happened in my life, hiding it or pretending to be someone I am not has not wound up with a positive result. Not that I am advocating for just saying whatever I want, whenever I want. I believe transparency has more to do with how you see and interact with the world. It is without ego and without expectation.

When I take the same tenet to my businesses, then everyone that steps through my doors understands that I would rather tell them the truth to accept (in my case, mostly broken things that need repair) and make a decision rather than lie to them about what was happening.

I do believe we buy more lies than truths on a regular basis though I would prefer not to peddle it.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The book “Thinking Fast and Slow” was such a good read and really made me consider the way I think about my approach to success, my goals in life, and the time I spend with my loved ones. Its a really good book.

While the book isn’t directly related to business, I believe it is a good way to look at what we do put under the microscope in business and what we let flow. In so many cases the things we believe are automated deserve our utmost attention and other times the things we cannot get past are our only roadblocks to success.

Its such a fascinating way to break down human behavior and emotion and just how emotional we can be and how this shapes our decision making (or not).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.owmob.shop
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onewheelmobshop/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/owmobshop
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcyrLAA6RSONT4khCyruZoQ