Charge your cell phone while riding your bike

Can you imagine being electricity­independent, yet enjoy your current lifestyle? A Colombian is doing just that, right now.

He pedals his bicycle at home for one hour every other day and provides enough energy to supply his house at night: Twelve light fixtures, his television, stereo and other household appliances run trouble­free, without electricity, as long as the moon is "full in the sky and on the job." He makes use of a solar panel during the day and has been able to lower his electricity bill from $130,000 Colombian pesos (about $44 dollars) to $6,800.

Ana María Franco is the person behind Ecobikes: The project that makes this transformation possible. The technology behind Ecobikes works with static bikes at gyms, regular bicycles and just about any other energy source. The system is even pre­installed in the bicycles.

Franco is now getting to market.

Besides individual sales, the Medellín native is taking part in a citywide project led by the Corporación Ruta N, the city government's business and innovation center, with which she installed 12 bikes running her technology at public gyms that are part of the Inder, the city's sports and recreation institute. "The idea is to make self sustaining gyms, whose energy is provided by the pedaling of its users," says Franco.

Her business concept, previously in limited application for their own use by physical training facilities in the United States, didn't have the capability to be adapted for other purposes.

Now, her novel version of the technology has been granted a patent by Colombia's Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio, the government's business promotion agency.

This recognition allows the Medellín native to market her product as the inventor anywhere in the world with full intellectual property rights. This means she can license her product.

An idea worth starting a new company

Franco is offering her invention under the umbrella of her company, Productos Ecológicos EB, which also provides solar panel energy solutions. To date, since its inception, and thanks to her Ecobikes, the company has had sales of about $350 million Colombian pesos (about $120,000 dollars) and generates six direct jobs and 30 indirect jobs.

Her patented entrepreneurship earned her the support of the Fondo Emprender del Sena in the amount of $70 million Colombian pesos, recently received, with which she started her company. Her list of clients has included the UNE and the EPM, Medellín's innovative utility company. She also works with street vendors providing them with mobile and stationary solar energy.

Franco has now set her sights on a new ambitious project. She wants to develop software that, together with screens, will allow participants at spinning classes to experience what it is to ride the Tour de France. The idea is not just about visualizing the routes, but feeling what it is to ride them. If you're scaling a steep hill on your screen, your legs will also be feeling the effort. Another tool the Medellín native is working on is a system that would display the amount of energy generated, calories used and miles travelled by the rider. This data would be available through an app that allows the user to monitor workouts and progress. The entrepreneur hopes to launch these projects by the middle of 2016.

Pedaling through the unknown

The road travelled by the Medellín native aboard her Ecobikes hasn't been without rough patches and steep ascents. Her innovation merited an invention patent but also earned her many headaches. One of them is having to import the components to develop her concept, since the technology is still unknown in Colombia.

She has no direct competitor, but also has no guidelines from someone that has been there, knows the business and how to take it to the finish line. "This has made me use a trial and error approach to find out what works and what doesn't." She also refers to the parts she's bought outside Colombia and turned out to be less than useful. She talks about the many instances where she's imported products simply to test them and after finding out their limitations has had to throw them away. "This is also a necessary process, because it's the only way to be sure you produce something of quality that really works, and not something that's just a paper patent, like many that exist in the country. Franco ends by emphasizing that, "This is real, we made it work."

anagut@portafolio.co

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