BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Bike.rent Manager (BRM) has announced the addition of two new hires with the arrival of Veneta Sotirova as product manager, and Mark Hoggatt as fractional product owner.
These strategic hires are said to mark a significant step for BRM, where the business has an ongoing commitment to growing the bike rental industry and driving innovation, with the BRM platform.
Veneta Sotirova comes to BRM with a notable 20-year career spanning various high-profile companies in the travel industry, including time spent with Lastminute.com and Travel Ledger.
Bringing a wealth of experience and a proven track record of success, Sotirova points to key achievements including:
- Successful launch of a Travel B2B payments platform for Travel Ledger
- Development and launch of start-up online travel agency – EspressoTravels
- Continuous delivery of new product features to leading travel tech providers
With a deep understanding of FinTech and user-centric product development, Sotirova is poised to improve BRM’s core system and solutions, and customer satisfaction, significantly enhancing an already widely used and well-regarded product and service offering.
Mark Hoggatt comes to BRM on the back of a distinguished 30-year tenure at Trek Bicycles.
At Trek, Hoggatt played a pivotal role as product manager, guided the growth of Ascend Retail Management Services from a small start-up to a multi-million dollar global software and services company serving over 2,000 bike shops globally.
In 2024, Mark established Level 5 Ventures to continue his passion for supporting small businesses.
At BRM, Hoggatt will leverage his extensive experience to guide product development and strategic growth, ensuring BRM continues to meet the evolving needs of the global bike rental market.
On sharing the news, Doug Stoddart, BRM Founder and CEO commented: “I am delighted to welcome Veneta and Mark to the Bike.rent Manager team. They bring exceptional skills and experience, and their personal values and vision also align closely with BRM’s commitment to innovation and exceptional service, making them ideal additions to our team.
“As BRM’s founder, I have defined our product and its ongoing evolution for the last 14 years. So, it is enormously satisfying to reach a new growth phase with a larger team, with huge product experience, who will help us build on our strong foundation and achieve our ambitious goals.”
