Sip a cold, craft beer while you get your bike fixed

When Kiley Sutter opened VeloWagon as a mobile bicycle repair shop in a 1969 Volkswagen bus, he found a winning combination: bikes and beer.

Now two years later, he’s expanding into Velo Garage and Tap House in a North Kansas City location that he will share with Velo +, another bike business owned by Vincent Rodriquez.

Sutter got his start with a Dislocated Workers Program scholarship for a Kauffman FastTrac® NewVenture™ class taught by Rebecca Gubbels at the Small Business & Technology Development Center (SBTDC). After the class ended, Gubbels became his business consultant and referred him to other resources for help in finding a location and negotiating a lease. ” The FastTrac NewVenture course and working with Rebecca Gubbels really helped me focus my idea,” Sutter said. “Rebecca challenged me to go lean and start my concept small to test the market … hence the wagon. Before expanding to the garage, her request to check in with her about budgets, signing leases, etc. kept me on track.”

At their new 3,000-square-foot location, Sutter and business partner Steve Borden will be sharing space with Vincent Rodriguez who owns Velo +, a bike repair shop that also builds custom steel bikes. Rodriguez is a SBTDC client who was part of ScaleUP! Kansas City and took the Kauffman FastTrac® GrowthVenture™ class. He worked with Jill Hathaway, SBTDC business development consultant, to execute a growth strategy plan that included adding the North Kansas City, MO location to his current Lenexa, KS operation and a new Iola, KS shop.

With seating for 99 customers and 10 local craft beer taps, Velo Garage and Tap House and Velo + will open at 1403 Swift St. in North Kansas City on Tuesday, March 7. Read more about these growing businesses in Feast Magazine,  Thinking Bigger, The Kansas City Star and Ink.

Follow Velo Garage and Tap House on Facebook.

Contact Velo+ at their website.