S-Town Podcast Powered by Local Co. | MIT Invention Superpowers Your Bike

KG: Dylan had a chance to review the Copenhagen Wheel, a smart, motorized wheel that gives your bicycle an extra boost of speed — something that requires no button-pushing, lever pulling or any other kind of interaction. After years of development by Superpedestrian, a Cambridge-based MIT spinoff company, the device is finally ready for purchase.

Dylan: After a few days of riding a bike with the Copenhagen Wheel, I have to be honest; riding a normal bike will feel boring, antiquated and exhausting after this. That's because it not only gives you an extra boost of propulsion while you're pedaling on the streets but also when you're trying to power up hills, to the point where cycling up a steep incline almost feels effortless. The drive system adds just enough electric propulsion to your pedaling that it can barely be felt, making you feel as if you're far stronger than you actually are.

While I the Copenhagen Wheel turns your bicycle into the ultimate city bike, the only thing that gives me pause is the price point. You can order the Copenhagen Wheel by itself and install it on your bike for $1,499 (or monthly installments of $99). You can also order a bike with the Copenhagen Wheel already installed for $1,999 (or $135 a month).

KG: Dylan has a full write-up on the website. He also made a video showing how it helped him cycle up hills faster without too much effort. Read more: This Powered Wheel Lets You Crush Hills With Your Bike — Even If You're Not Fit

Dylan: The video is kind of embarrassing (well, the part when I nearly died biking up a hill without the Copenhagen Wheel). Everything else is good.

Lucy: I’m excited to say that my very first story for BostInno is about a digital tool that I think could be helpful to a lot of people: Kinto, an app that creates a community for caregivers and was recently selected as a finalist in a pitch competition in Mountain View.

The app is the latest creation of Redstar Ventures, a venture foundry in Cambridge run by serial entrepreneurs Jeet Singh and Joe Chung. You may remember them as the co-founders of ATG, the e-commerce company which was later acquired by Oracle for $1B. Read more: Cambridge-Born Caregiver App Kinto Selected as a Finalist in Mountain View Pitch Competition 

KG: On Tuesday, a bunch of startups pitched at Harvard Business School’s Rock Accelerator Demo Day. Here are a few that caught our attention: Lock.in “guarantees rent payments to small landlords by bearing the financial risk of missed rent”, Noken “is reimagining the tour operator concept for millennials by curating instant-bookable itineraries that are guided through our app”, and Impact Labs "is developing and producing add-ons for football and other helmets to reduce damaging impact forces to the brain.”

Dylan: If you're into podcasts, you've probably heard about the latest hit show from the makers of This American Life and Serial, S-Town. What you probably didn't know was that the company hosting the server and making the ads possible was Cambridge-based PRX.

PRX, which also distributes This American Life and runs an independent podcast network called Radiotopia, developed its own ad serving software for shows like S-Town and This American Life, and that means it handles all the server requests for every download of every episode.

Andrew Kuklewicz, CTO of PRX, wrote a post about how PRX helped release all seven episodes of S-Town at the same time and how it was able to keep the server online despite the large spike in download requests.

Lucy: Things are going well for Reflexis Systems Inc. The Dedham-based provider of workforce management is seeking $60M in investment and has already raised $33M, the BBJ reported. Reflexis customers include Staples Inc., TJX Companies Inc. and Home Depot.

Dylan: Just going to put this out there...

KG: Ty Danco is 25% jerky. Cool.