From 13 Bikes to $100M: Mathias Ihlenfeld Knows Who His Customer Really Is

He showed up to the United States with three tennis rackets and a toothbrush. No plan B. No safety net. Just the belief that a big challenge usually contains a big opportunity waiting inside it.

That’s Mathias Ihlenfeld. You may not know the name yet, but you probably know the brand he helped build: Woom Bikes.

Woom makes bicycles designed specifically for children. Not adult bikes shrunk down and painted bright colors. Actually engineered from the ground up for kids aged 18 months to 12 years, from the brake reach to the crank arm length to the weight of the frame itself.

When Mathias stepped in as CEO of Woom’s US operation, they had 13 bikes in inventory. By the time he was done, they had crossed $100 million in revenue.

He said something in our conversation that stopped me cold. A 30-pound child riding a typical $80 Walmart bike is hauling about 70% of their body weight. For an adult, that’s the equivalent of riding a bicycle that weighs 150 pounds. No wonder kids quit. They’re not weak. The bike is wrong.

Woom’s answer was the world’s lightest kids’ bike. And they don’t call themselves a bike company. They call themselves a love brand. Their motto: “We don’t sell bikes. We sell smiles.”

That philosophy extended to how they ran the business. Early on, Mathias used his personal cell phone as the customer service hotline. Not because he had to. Because he needed to hear directly what was and wasn’t working. Customer experience wasn’t a department. It was a belief system, measured through CSAT scores and NPS, trained into every person who walked through the door.

Mathias is now active right here in Round Rock, plugged into the Chamber‘s Entrepreneurial Council and our startup ecosystem. After we finished recording, we decided together to offer the next pitch competition winner a working session we’re calling “The Stories That Sell.”

That’s what happens when two people with the same beliefs find each other in the same room.

Listen to the full episode and then go ask yourself: is your product actually designed around your customer, or just around your category?

A 30-pound child on a typical $80 Walmart bike is hauling about 70% of their body weight. For an adult, that’s like riding a bicycle that weighs 150 pounds. No wonder kids quit. The bike is wrong.

Mathias Ihlenfeld, Former CEO, Woom Bikes USA

We don’t sell bikes. We sell smiles.

Mathias Ihlenfeld, Former CEO, Woom Bikes USA

A big challenge usually contains a big opportunity waiting inside it.

Mathias Ihlenfeld, Former CEO, Woom Bikes USA

Episode Chapters

1. [00:00] Three Tennis Rackets and a Toothbrush — Mathias arrives in America with no plan B and a belief that big challenges contain big opportunities.
2. [03:30] What Woom Actually Sells [VERIFY] — Not bikes shrunk down from adult sizes. Bicycles engineered from scratch for children 18 months to 12 years, down to brake reach and crank arm length.
3. [07:00] The $80 Walmart Bike Problem [VERIFY] — The 70% body weight statistic that explains why kids quit cycling, and why most of the industry missed it entirely.
4. [10:30] From 13 Bikes to $100 Million [VERIFY] — How Mathias stepped in as CEO of Woom’s US operation and scaled revenue by orders of magnitude over his tenure.
5. [14:00] His Personal Cell as the Customer Hotline [VERIFY] — Why Mathias made himself directly reachable to customers and what he learned from those conversations.
6. [17:30] Love Brands and CSAT Scores [VERIFY] — How Woom baked customer experience into its identity, not just its operations, and measured it rigorously.
7. [21:00] Round Rock, the Chamber, and What Comes Next [VERIFY] — Mathias’s current work in the Round Rock entrepreneurial ecosystem and the “Stories That Sell” session born from this very conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Mathias Ihlenfeld and what is Woom Bikes?

Mathias Ihlenfeld is the former CEO of Woom Bikes USA, an Austrian company that designs bicycles engineered specifically for children aged 18 months to 12 years. Unlike conventional kids’ bikes — which are typically adult bikes scaled down — Woom builds from the ground up for a child’s proportions, weight, and developmental stage. Mathias grew the US operation from 13 bikes in inventory to over $100 million in revenue.

What makes Woom Bikes different from other kids’ bikes?

Woom builds the world’s lightest kids’ bikes, engineered from the ground up for children rather than scaled down from adult frames. Every element — brake reach, crank arm length, handlebar width, frame weight — is designed for a child’s actual proportions. The result is a bike a child can actually control, which is why kids who ride Woom bikes tend to stick with cycling.

What does “love brand” mean in business?

A love brand is a company whose customers feel an emotional connection that goes beyond the product itself. Woom’s approach — “We don’t sell bikes, we sell smiles” — is a deliberate decision to measure success in customer experience and emotional outcome, not just units sold. Mathias tracked CSAT scores and NPS rigorously and trained every employee in that philosophy from day one.

How did Mathias Ihlenfeld grow Woom Bikes in the US market?

Mathias started with 13 bikes and no established US operation. His approach centered on obsessive customer focus — including using his personal cell phone as the customer service line early on — and building a team that understood customer experience as a belief system, not a department. He scaled Woom USA to more than $100 million in revenue before transitioning out of the CEO role.

More From Rock Solid

If this episode resonated, hear Kevin Koym of Tech Ranch on building customer-centered businesses and Jessica Scanlon on what makes a brand people actually remember — both chase the same question Mathias answers here. Browse all Rock Solid episodes.