George Gill '87 Rolling with Entrepreneurial RentaBikeNow.com

June 27, 2009

June 27, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. — "With a title like 'Founder and Big Wheel,' you know George Gill must be a pretty fun guy," begins a Chicago Tribune article. Gill, a 1987 graduate of DePauw University, is one of two "brains behind RentaBikeNow.com, a new Web site that lets you reserve a bike online from about 200 shops around the United States and Canada," writes Heidi Stevens. "If you're traveling and plan to cycle, just log on to the site, select your destination, travel dates and type of bike, and your wheels will be waiting for you when you arrive."

Launched in April, RentaBikeNow.com offers rentals in 157 North American cities through more than 200 independent bike shops.

Gill, who majored in communication at DePauw, says the idea for the company came to him while he was on a business trip. "It's the classic tale of a cocktail napkin turns into a business plan," he says. "I was in Dallas, and I had an afternoon free, so I wanted to rent a bike and get a ride in. But I couldn't find one."

The entrepreneur explains, "Before, you might go on the Internet and search for a bike shop, but you wouldn't know the names of all the towns near where you're going, or what the geography is. Then you'd find a shop's Web site, call during business hours to reserve your bike, and now your reservation resides with someone who wrote it down on an envelope, and you have to just hope he's working on the day you go in there. We've streamlined the process and made it more like renting a car or a hotel."

Gill tells the newspaper, "We're capturing the hearts and minds of cyclists and travelers alike."

Read the complete story -- "Easy riders: Bike-rental idea clicks" -- at the Tribune's Web site.

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