Strider Bikes strives to inspire kids to ride bikes and build new skills. Founded in Rapid City in 2007, the company has grown to offer more ways for children to learn how to balance and ride on two wheels.
Today, Strider Bikes is a global company headquartered in the Black Hills. They sell their products online with the security of Golden West Technologies backing them.
Pictured: Kent Jacobs, product design manager.
“Strider Bikes instills confidence, and it can really be life changing for that kid,” says Product Design Manager Kent Jacobs. “We want to get kids on two wheels and having fun outside.”
Golden West Technologies provides firewalls, data backups, and business continuity services for Strider Bikes to keep the business running nonstop. The custom care and support from Golden West, Kent says, is important in maintaining the core mission of Strider Bikes.
Balance bikes develop confidence
Strider Bikes designs lightweight, pedal-free balance bikes that help children develop confidence and coordination, skipping any struggle stages with training wheels. Their products are used by families, schools, and community programs worldwide, encouraging active lifestyles from an early age.
The Strider Bike company started as an alternative to training wheels that focused on the most important skill necessary for starting to ride a bike: balance. Founder Ryan McFarland made what became the prototype Strider Bike for his son, Bode, to be involved in riding bikes. After developing the idea into a product, the company quickly grew and spread across the country and world in popularity.
Many products that Strider Bikes has created since then have been with the help of Kent, who has been with the company for more than a decade and a half. Kent became the first Strider Bikes employee in 2009, working with Ryan. Over time, Kent’s position slowly evolved in various ways, including his involvement in the IT Department and work as the engineer designing ideas generated by the team at Strider Bikes.
Security measures offer safety
Around 2011, Strider Bikes partnered with Golden West Technologies to keep their vision of the balance bikes always rolling forward. Kent explains that without their off-site backups provided by Golden West, any cyber incident that occurs could stop the company in their tracks, leaving all the approximately 50 employees waiting for the network to come back online.
“The systems that we have set up through Golden West are critical to our daily operations, and we’ve done it in a way that works for us,” says Kent. “We need a more custom solution and it’s really nice to be able to reach out to Golden West whenever we need to.”
Looking forward, Kent says that Strider Bikes has a great path forward. Kent can cover many of the technological needs for daily activities while relying on Golden West when he needs to know more – saving him and his team time and money.
“Today, I am the IT Department. I have worked with Golden West Technologies to figure out what systems or servers need upgrading, and what the timing and cost looks like, so we can continue to operate with as much uptime as possible.”
Schedule a meeting with Golden West Technologies to learn how we can provide a flexible support arrangement tailored to any business needs.
