Nicole Johnson on growing Boyd Cycling without compromising quality.

Both founders had raced professionally. Johnson describes how her husband, Boyd, paid close attention to his wheels and sometimes rebuilt sponsored equipment to change its performance. As he considered retiring from racing, he wanted to make his own contribution to the industry.

Johnson was already working in cycling when he began the business. A few months later, he asked her to join because he needed her help. She gave notice at her job and took responsibility for sales and business development, alongside the many other jobs a young company required.

Bookkeeping and human resources became part of her work too. The founding expertise provided a useful beginning, but it did not remove the need to learn how the company should operate. Johnson describes that learning as one of the earliest challenges.

The Johnsons had married the year before starting the company. Nicole says they worked to keep their marriage and their business relationship distinct, with respect for the different skills each person brought.

Working together did not mean avoiding disagreement. Some decisions required both of them to consider the options and reach a shared position. She describes giving each other time to think and supporting one another through that process.

Their professional network also mattered. Friends, former teammates, and people they knew in the cycling industry became early customers. Johnson recalls celebrating the first purchase by a stranger as a sign that the company was reaching beyond the people who already knew them. For a new business, those are different forms of evidence: initial support helps it begin, while customers outside the existing network test whether the offering can travel further.

Boyd Cycling initially sold bicycles, handlebars, bottle cages, and wheels from the founders’ home. Inventory soon made the home difficult to use, and the range tied up cash. Bicycles introduced combinations of sizes and colors that were hard to match to demand.

Johnson says reading Good to Great helped prompt a discussion about focus. The founders decided that wheels were where Boyd’s strongest expertise and interest lay, and dropped the other products.

She reports that the company doubled in size the following year. That is her account of this company’s experience, rather than a promise that narrowing any product line will produce the same growth. The decision gave them a clearer use for limited money and attention: develop and sell the product they believed they understood best.

Johnson describes obtaining a $50,000 loan through a Michelin development program around the middle of 2010. The application required a business plan and a presentation to a board, giving the founders a structured way to explain the business.

She says the financing helped them buy more inventory and hire a full-time employee. The example illustrates a specific step in Boyd Cycling’s history; the interview does not establish whether that program has the same availability or terms today.

More broadly, Johnson emphasizes finding knowledgeable people when a question falls outside the founders’ experience. Early bookkeeping and compliance tasks had been unsettling because she wanted to handle them correctly. Over time, she became more comfortable recognizing what she did not know and asking someone who did.

When asked about an accomplishment she values, Johnson points to becoming a better leader and building a workplace people enjoy. She says the founders depend on their team and need to give employees a path and a shared direction.

Long-serving colleagues are part of what makes that meaningful to her. She describes a company where people can ride bicycles and leave at four o’clock to collect their children and spend time with family.

Those choices reflect a view of success that includes the people doing the work. Johnson also says founders should pause to celebrate progress. Constantly moving to the next problem can make it easy to overlook what the team has already accomplished.

Johnson recounts a serious problem in 2012, when the company ordered roughly a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of rims. According to her account, the supplier had said it could support the company’s growth, but the shipment failed Boyd Cycling’s quality-control requirements.

The company returned the rims and received replacements that also failed inspection. Johnson says the process repeated a third time, after which the supplier stopped responding and retained the money. She also says the company later saw its rim shapes on another company’s product. These details are allegations in her account of the event; the interview does not independently establish the supplier’s actions.

The financial loss forced the founders to borrow money and rework the product with another factory. She describes the new relationship as an important part of the company’s later development, with improved quality and a long-term manufacturing partner.

Asked whether she would handle the decision differently, Johnson returns to the inspection standard. The rims were not acceptable to release to customers. The financial pressure was substantial, but she says it did not change what the company believed it could responsibly sell.

The pandemic created another operating challenge. Johnson says relationships with manufacturers in Asia helped the founders recognize the potential disruption early. They increased inventory ahead of expected delays, then used air freight where necessary as shipping became difficult.

She describes those choices as calculated risks. More stock requires money before it produces sales, so the company still had to consider whether demand would support the investment.

In Boyd Cycling’s case, she says the company grew during the period as more people took up cycling and other outdoor activities. The useful lesson is the decision process: pay attention to information from suppliers, consider how interruptions could affect delivery, and weigh the financial commitment before ordering.

Johnson also discusses a proposed pump track in Greenville. She describes a paved place where children and people of different ages could build cycling skills in a setting separate from road traffic.

At the time of the interview, the group was still working through education, costs, and fundraising. She hoped the location would be accessible from nearby neighborhoods and that donated bicycles could help children who did not own one participate. Those were plans described during the conversation, rather than a report that the project had opened.

The discussion ends with Johnson’s advice about asking for help. Other entrepreneurs have often faced similar problems, and she sees little value in pretending to have every answer. Her own story repeatedly returns to that point, through industry relationships, financial support, employees, and manufacturing partners.