BIKEBAZE: from vision to validation — without building an app first
A smart community feature as an intermediate step toward a larger platform
BIKEBAZE is a platform that wants to reduce bicycle theft. Not with expensive trackers, insurance, or by deploying police capacity, but by getting citizens themselves to take action. Their approach rests on three pillars: registration of bikes in an accessible database, prevention through visible stickers and smart nudges, and an active community that helps each other find stolen bikes by proactively scanning stickers and reporting stolen bikes.
Management summary
The challenge
BIKEBAZE wants to reduce bicycle theft through a digital platform based on three pillars: registration, prevention and community. The ambition was clear, but due to limited technical capacity and constant work pressure from running a startup, they couldn’t get the community features off the ground. Moreover, there was the idea that you could only store user information safely and consistently with a full-fledged app.
The solution
During a hackathon we worked together with BIKEBAZE on a first prototype of their community feature. Not a mobile app, but a mobile web page where users can directly see the data of their scanned bike and collect points. By using a combination of cookies and browser fingerprinting, we managed to build a solution that also works through the browser, without download or login.
The result
A working MVP that made the community idea tangible and testable. With this, BIKEBAZE managed to avoid unnecessary costs for app development and gain valuable insights into user behavior and activation. The solution also fit well within their existing stack, and was rolled out nationally almost immediately after the hackathon.
What if you don’t have time to build, but do want to validate?
BIKEBAZE wants to put the ownership of bicycle theft back with the community. Not by overwhelming citizens with expensive locks, trackers or insurance — but through three pillars: registration (a public database of who owns which bike), prevention (smart stickers, signaling and awareness), and ultimately an active community that helps each other find bikes.
The first two pillars were in place. But the third? The team had been discussing this internally for months. “We know that community is important,” said Dries, “but we simply don’t have enough time to do something with it. Everyone wears multiple hats and the tech capacity is limited.”
Yet it was itching. Because how do you know if your audience is even waiting for a community function without first building an app worth tens of thousands of euros?
One day, a sharp idea and a testable prototype
Dries signed up for a hackathon at 010 Coding Collective, armed with an ambitious pitch. During the session, the focus was quickly found: a working version of the community feature where you can scan the unique safety tag ID on a bike. With this you can check if a bike is marked as stolen, possibly contact the owner directly and earn points — for example for reporting a scan.
Smart controls on the format of the ID are built into the solution and location data is automatically sent along with a scan. The whole concept revolves around low-threshold activation, without users having to download an app. “I thought: we’re mainly going to brainstorm and maybe make a wireframe. But it was just clickable, shareable and directly usable.”
What if you don’t build an app — and come out stronger because of it?
In retrospect, the biggest gain turned out to be not so much the feature itself, but the decision to not build an app for now. The hackathon brought change to that: by cleverly deploying cookies and fingerprinting, the team could achieve their goal without a native app.
The MVP also turned out to fit surprisingly well within the existing stack. “It’s a relatively small addition, but opens the door to a completely new phase: we can now really test with users what works.” Finally, the session provided alignment within the team — essential for a small, multidisciplinary team with limited development capacity.
From bootstrap to national rollout
The collaboration fits perfectly within BIKEBAZE’s bootstrap mentality: a small, multi-skilled team that builds, validates and launches everything themselves — without investors or agencies.
The MVP may seem small — it fits within one HTML file — but the mindset behind it is grand. BIKEBAZE is a team that takes nothing for granted. They build everything themselves, keep experimenting and grow from rejection to rejection.
“It’s a beautiful adventure with a lot of rejections. It’s really rejection therapy, I would call it. But we’ll get there.”
— Dries Dederen
The MVP that was built during the hackathon is now being rolled out nationally. Users can earn points by scanning bikes, making reports or inviting others. And every scan provides valuable data for the community — without needing an app for it.
Lessons learned
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Validation can be simple
With one clear action, a simple point system and a handful of test users, you can already gain valuable insights — often faster than with a complete feature set. -
An app is not a prerequisite
The underlying need was: collect data and activate behavior. This turned out to work fine without a native app — through a light, browser-based solution. -
Sometimes HTML is enough
One standalone HTML file, without logins or installation, proved sufficient to test the core functionality and roll it out nationally. -
A hackathon can directly fit into existing tech
Because the solution was technically light and smartly aligned with the existing stack, BIKEBAZE could use it directly without refactoring. -
A hackathon is more than a brainstorm
It’s not just about ideas, but about focus, validation and working prototypes that you can test immediately.
Closing quote
“This was exactly what we needed. I thought: we’re mainly going to brainstorm and maybe make a wireframe. But it was just clickable, shareable and directly usable. And the best part is: no one in our team had to be woken up for it.”
— Dries Dederen , founder of BIKEBAZE
