CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 07, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zagster, the nation’s leading provider of public and public/private bike share systems, today announced it has bolstered its senior leadership team with the addition of experienced professionals in corporate strategy, marketing, legal, and human resources. The new additions include Rebecca Castoldi (General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources), Adrian Albus (Director of Growth Strategy) and Ryan Hoppe (Vice President of Marketing), a group that carries wide-ranging experience as leaders of high-growth companies, publicly-traded enterprises and iconic brands including Zipcar, Spotify and Brightcove.
“While we still consider ourselves very much a startup, we’ve reached an inflection point where the time is right to add significant experience to our senior leadership team,” said Zagster CEO Timothy Ericson. “As we’re on pace to launch or expand an average of three bike share programs each week this quarter, we’re investing in senior leadership to help manage — and further scale — that growth in the coming years.”
These additions follow a robust year of growth at Zagster. In 2016, the company achieved 300 percent growth in implemented programs; 400 percent growth in deployed bikes; and 300 percent growth in staff. Earlier this year, Zagster closed a $10 Million Series B Round of Funding led by Edison Partners, a leading growth equity capital firm. The company also launched a new mobile app that simplifies and improves the overall user experience for the company’s 100,000 riders nationwide.
Aiding the company’s rapid growth is the significant demand nationwide for greater access to bikes. In a survey of more than 3,500 Zagster riders nationwide, two-thirds of respondents said access to bike sharing improved their quality of life, while 92 percent said Zagster was a good investment in their communities. Moreover, according to a report by the National League of Cities, “nearly half of all trips using any form of transportation in the United States are less than three miles, an ideal distance for 30 minutes of bicycling.”
“There is a huge addressable market for Zagster, and one in which we have proven experience through our partnerships serving cities, universities, corporate campuses and real estate companies,” said Ericson. “Our hybrid bike share model — which blends dockless bike share locking for mid-trip stops with fixed station locations for beginning and ending rides — offers a flexible approach that meets the convenience and accessibility demands of riders with the structure and order communities require in public transportation systems.”
Ryan Hoppe joins Zagster as the Vice President of Marketing with more than 20 years of marketing experience. He has helped innovative tech companies build strong brands, define new categories, accelerate revenue growth, become market leaders and achieve high-value exits. Most recently, Ryan was SVP of Marketing for Nanigans, the leader in digital advertising software for in-house marketing teams. Prior to Nanigans, Ryan was a Global Head of Product Marketing for music streaming leader Spotify.
Rebecca Castoldi, General Counsel and Vice President of Human Resources at Zagster, is an accomplished in-house attorney with more than 10 years of experience advising media and tech companies. Rebecca most recently served as General Counsel at Lola, a travel startup that provides on-demand travel service through a smartphone app. Before that, she spent seven years as the in-house counsel for Brightcove, handling both domestic and international matters.
Adrian Albus, Director of Growth Strategy for Zagster, is a business leader with over a decade of diverse business experience as a management consultant, corporate strategist and adjunct business professor. Prior to Zagster, he led the strategy team at Zipcar where he was responsible for identifying growth vectors and building new businesses within Zipcar's mobility portfolio. He is focused on creating and implementing new technology-enabled transportation models that make getting around our cities and towns more efficient, cost-effective, and equitable.
About Zagster
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Zagster is the largest and fastest-growing bike-share provider in the United States. Zagster operates more than 160 bike share programs in 35 states across North America and specializes in making bike sharing available in areas where traditional bike share providers can't reach. Unlike other programs in which riders must drop off bikes at designated stations for every stop, Zagster’s programs give users the freedom to ride as long as they want, wherever they want. And because Zagster manages all aspects of its programs — from bikes and technology, to maintenance and marketing — Zagster partners can create and deploy scalable bike-share systems that best suit their needs and work within their budgets.
