Philadelphia native Kevin Thompson had been an entrepreneur for 15 years when he first came up with the idea in 2018 to bring an eco-friendly, electronic scooter company to his hometown. He knew there were risks launching a new venture, but he started Verve Scooters anyway.
Partnering with music executive Tykeem “Tak” Williams, Thompson saw an opportunity to fill a need for affordable transportation in his community, but also to give returning citizens a chance to earn a living wage when they re-enter society after incarceration.
They recruited Naim Statham to serve as the company’s chief operating officer and former NBA All-Star Rasheed Wallace became an investor. With Verve’s dockless scooters, they would help decrease traffic congestion in Philly and break into a market that has few Black owners.
Thompson said he was ready for the challenge and prepared to go hard to bring his vision to life. What he didn’t anticipate was a nearly year-long pandemic with no end in sight and the local politics he’d run into while trying to get Verve off the ground.
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“It’s actually been very difficult. It’s been a very bumpy road, especially dealing with the whole bureaucracy of just Philadelphia itself and how the dynamic works in this city,” Thompson told Moguldom in an exclusive interview. “It’s a very complicated city so I thought that it would be a much more straightforward process … and also it’s been a challenge to raise capital for the company.”
Before Verve, Thompson launched a community living space for people with special needs and opened a nail salon. Verve hasn’t been his hardest venture, he told Moguldom.
Yet its significance to the culture at a moment in history when Black people are facing so many challenges is not lost on Thompson. He chose the company name intentionally.
“Exuberance for life, enthusiasm — that’s what the word Verve means,” Thompson said.
He shared how the covid-19 pandemic has affected Verve’s growth.
“It’s a double-edged sword, some good and some bad,” Thompson said. “Everyone slowed down so we were able to introduce articles and content on Instagram to get more visibility and get our platform noticed, so that was a good thing, but also the concern now is a lot of people that were interested in investing or thinking about investing, it’s a bit worrisome for them based on how the economy is so it’s a bittersweet type of thing.”
As people began to be informed of the steps necessary to combat the virus, Thompson said they found a way Verve could serve the community in a way they hadn’t thought of before.
“As we got closer to understanding what covid-19 was … with social distancing and all these different things that we could do to keep each other safe, then came the opportunity for this form of transportation to help with that,” Thompson said.
He and his team ran into some local and statewide bureaucracy while launching Verve.
Earlier this year Verve had 100 scooters ready to hit the city’s streets when they were told scooter sharing in the state was illegal. They hired a lobbyist, who Thompson said was making headway, but the city ended up not passing the legislation that would have allowed scooter-sharing. They were then subjected to a request-for-proposals process that didn’t work out in their favor, Thompson said.
“It’s just been a nightmare in Philadelphia … it was such a horrible experience … and we knew this was going to happen,” Thompson said. Eventually, Verve was able to secure the option to use “sit-down” scooters that cost a lot more money to purchase. “It’s the way the city of Philadelphia works and its politics and it didn’t go well for us.”
Aaron Ritz is the transportation program manager at Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability — the government office responsible for driving change through transportation and infrastructure systems.
Verve’s RFP application “wasn’t ready for prime time” and there was a “lack of appetite” for a scooter-sharing program like Verve’s, Ritz told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Ritz’s words defy a recent a report by Bloomberg about scooter ridership that said, “Battery-boosted rentable vehicles were a serious urban transportation technology that racked up more than 38 million trips in 2019 — a healthy chunk of the 84 million total trips that traditional docked bike-share programs and less-traditional dockless services tallied.”
Despite the issues with the RFP, Verve’s founders persevered and the new sit-down scooters are set to hit the streets in October or November. On a grand scale, Thompson said he wants to work with big private companies like Tyler Perry Studios and – once they make a name for themselves in U.S. cities – enter international markets starting with West and Central Africa.
His ultimate vision: to make Verve a social entrepreneurship venture that helps build wealth and inspires future generations.
Hiring the formerly incarcerated is part of Verve’s plan.
“A lot of these other industries that I entered, unfortunately, I was not able to hire family members like my brother, who was incarcerated for some period of time, so that’s what led me to get into an industry that could not only create generational wealth but also isn’t overly saturated. So you’re tacking two birds with one stone,” Thompson said.
As a hybrid tech and transportation company, they want to use Verve to introduce younger Black people in their community to other successful career options.
“Tech is something you can literally change your life overnight with, so our ultimate goal is definitely to let younger people in the community see that,” Thompson said. “I know everybody thinks their way out is the NFL, the NBA or being a professional entertainer, but you could actually make a lot of money, if not more money, getting involved in tech, and I represent them. I look like them. I dress like them. I talk like them, so that’s important as well.”
It’s a sentiment Williams shares.
“We strive to give a better option for urban communities. To see the passion that we have being a Black-owned business, and what that means for everyone watching us, like the youth, is one of the reasons we are persevering for our families and our communities,” Williams told Moguldom in an emailed statement.
Despite the challenges they’ve faced, Thompson said they are not deterred. Verve is recruiting people to serve as chargers for the scooters that will soon hit the streets.
“The type of adversity that I’ve faced in my life, the type of adversity that my family has faced that I’ve had to assist them with, this is nowhere near in comparison,” Thompson said. “We’re not talking about life or death or prison, which are some of the things I’ve faced and my family has faced. When I say ‘complicated’ — we look at complicated as trying to figure out and understand an industry that you have no experience in. That’s a whole other issue that allows you to be more fearless and take more risks.”
Thompson said he doesn’t want his community or the culture to miss the moment.
“I feel like it’s a new day for the Black Diaspora to really show what we’re capable of. We’re such creative and talented people, making something out of nothing all the time. I feel this is our opportunity to start to create generational wealth for our families and bring that cycle of economic despair in our communities to an end,” Thompson said.
