Revenue primarily comes from advertisements rather than rider fares, as one sponsor paying the $40 for advertising on a single bike’s front and back fender covers the cost of the bike’s rental from Koloni. Users simply download the Koloni application to locate and rent a bike, and city officials use the Koloni software to track usage. Pocahontas staff and volunteers are responsible for rebalancing the bikes across town. The price for today’s fleet of 25 bikes is $40 per bike per month. After a successful pilot in 2016, a change in software postponed the formal program launch to spring of 2018. Pocahontas rented 15 of those refurbished bikes for an initial pilot in 2016 at no cost, as Koloni was hoping to test the concept of renting bikes for locally-managed systems. To keep costs low, Dewey purchased 3,600 used bikes from the large operator Spin when Spin shifted its focus from bikes to e-scooters. The city of Pocahontas, however, was Koloni’s first partner. In response to this need, Dewey founded what came to be the company of Koloni, which now serves small markets across the South and Midwest, including Evanston, IL and Brusly, LA. He noticed that there was a need for bikesharing in the community, but at just 1,700 residents, Pocahontas was not a particularly desirable market for large bikeshare companies, which count high ridership numbers and population density as critical markers of sustainable programs.

In 2015, Brian Dewey was working with the town of Pocahontas to help develop a strategic plan for greater use of the local bike trails across Northeast Iowa.

Pocahontas ia