According to Artemyev, after selling Euroset and moving to London, he spent about two years not doing business, but then returned to entrepreneurship. He chose the field after becoming acquainted with a unicycle owned by his friend Alex Zhavoronkov, who works in biogerontology. Artemyev says he accidentally burned his own wheel "because I misjudged the riding mode."
When he approached the manufacturing company, he was connected with an American of Chinese origin, the owner of the patent for a unicycle without a seat but with pedals. Artemyev flew to the US and tried to buy the business, but, according to him, the owner "asked an incredible price." So the entrepreneur decided to make his own wheel.
"I grew up among radio components; my dad is a teacher of theoretical foundations of electrical engineering with electric motors. This gives us every reason to believe that we are capable of releasing an iPhone in the unicycle market," says Timur.
In the end, he says, he returned to negotiations and bought not the entire business but the unicycle production technology. The team assembled by Artemyev works at Spinar Ltd.
Technical Questions
Artemyev says the wheel runs on a battery charged from a regular socket; a full charge from the mains costs 10 pence, and a fully charged battery should be enough for 10 km. When asked how long it takes to learn, he replies that learning to ride a unicycle is "no harder than learning to ski or ride a bike," and moving through a crowd, he claims, is "absolutely no problem."
The entrepreneur speaks separately about legislation: according to him, it is a conservative area that changes slowly but adapts to technology. He recalls a law that once existed forbidding cars from going faster than a horse-drawn carriage.
The Idea and Plans
Artemyev emphasizes that the task is not limited to creating a product: the team wants to introduce the very idea of riding a unicycle to the masses. According to him, the only problem he encounters on the street is people trying to stop him and find out what it is and where to buy it.
The wheel can be rented or bought at the store, where, it is reported, all models on the market have been tested. Artemyev says of the new model:
"It will be the iPhone among unicycles. And that's when all your unicycle riding skills that you acquired while riding competitors' products will come in handy."
He also speaks of a broader vision — a project for a city with a different transport system and different logistics.
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