Two Funny Bird Stories

Tiny Bird Nest

Bird is a dockless electric scooter-sharing company that's been around just over. In 2018, Time magazine listed Bird as one of its 50 Genius Companies. 

Bird has an innovated business model by paying most anyone to recharge the scooters. Once they're recharged, Bird directs where the scooters should be dropped off, called a Bird Nest.

I spoke with one person who tried to use a Bird scooter, for the first time, but couldn't figure out where to insert the money. That's funny once you realize that the Bird process is exactly the same as Lyft and Uber in that you use an app to begin, end, and pay for a ride (Bird charges $1 to unlock the scooter and 15¢/minute).

Another person told me an interesting situation she ended up in when the battery died on the smartphone that was used to start the ride. The smartphone app is how a scooter ride begins and ends, so, with a dead smartphone there was no way to end the ride. Solution: Load the the Bird into a car, drive home, recharge the phone, and end the ride.