Scott and Liz Owen are owners of TIKIBIKES, which is a company based in Ponte Vedra Beach that sells electric bikes. They founded the business in 2020 and continue to be deeply involved in the local community not only as small business owners but also as parents of children who play several local sports.
Can you tell us about your background and where you are from?
I grew up in Houston, Texas and Liz grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. Liz and I met in college at Auburn University, and we got married right out of school.
We spent several years in Nashville and moved to Ponte Vedra Beach in 2011 when I was working for Dell Technologies.
All three of our children have lived in PVB for a majority of their lives.
Emma Grace (19) is a freshman at FAU in Boca Raton. Griffin (17) is a junior at Ponte Vedra High School and plays varsity football and lacrosse. Elouise is an 8th grader at Landrum and a lacrosse goalie.
What led to the creation of TIKIBIKES and how did the idea come about?
During the pandemic, Liz was interested in getting an electric bike to ride on the beach. Every store and online site were sold out with waitlists.
Before we moved to PVB, she was an engineer at Dell and has a great deal of knowledge around the manufacturing and fulfillment industry.
With this knowledge, she went to some factory contacts she had and started discussing how we could go about getting E-Bikes made and what designs we liked.
From there TIKIBIKES was born. We had a Hawaiian artist design our logo and we were off and running. We wanted to combine an E-Bike company with the brand of beach culture and coastal living.
What type of products you sell? What are the more popular items?
We sell five different electric bike models that fit anyone from 10-100 years old! All of our bikes are, of course, electric but you can ride them like a regular bike if you want to.
All TIKIBIKES have four-inch all terrain fat tires, so they are ideal for any surface like the beach, grass, trails, sidewalks, and roads.
Our most popular styles are the OG and the PVB. The OG is a beach cruiser style and the PVB is a mountain bike. We also have a foldable bike, the Taco, that rides low and stores easily. They all go 20-plus miles per charge and have speeds north of 20 mph if you want to go that fast.
What are your goals and approach for the business?
We have built a growing small business in Ponte Vedra. Right now, we sell a majority of our bikes online (with free assembly and delivery) but we have also started selling them at a few different local bike shops like Bike Haven and at the Bardown Lacrosse shop.
We are in the process of deciding if we will open our own store or where we will go next with a dealer network or franchising.
It was very important to us starting this business in 2020 that we sell a quality product. We are very connected to so many different folks in this community in a number of ways, and selling a quality and useful product was very important from the very beginning.
We also pride ourselves on service. We have a business relationship with another local small business, The Bike Bus, and we also handle a lot of bike services ourselves. When you buy an E-Bike from Amazon or online, it’s very difficult to find a place to provide service and support for your bike, so that side is very important to us.
We also sell merchandise. It’s been a ton of fun to see a lot of kids and high schoolers wearing TIKIBIKES gear around PVB and "repping the brand.” We have several NIL sponsorship deals with college athletes that are from Ponte Vedra so it’s nice to support them while they help promote our bikes on social media or at their school.
What are the most rewarding parts of owning a business?
Seeing people riding our bikes around town is a lot a fun. It’s rewarding to see a brand we created from scratch bring people joy and happiness and serve a purpose as well.
Are there certain challenges you have faced as business owners?
In 2021 we faced quite a few logistical issues with shipping, but so did everyone else. Thankfully that has resolved now, and shipping rates are getting back to a more normal level.
What do you enjoy most about living in the Northeast Florida area?
There is so much to love about living here! The weather, the beach, great schools, an awesome community, and sports programs for the kids. All of it really creates a great culture to be a part of. We will never leave!
What do you like to do in your free time?
We stay really busy like most people with three kids and a small business, but we like it that way.
I am in my fifth season coaching football at PVHS, I've coached Landrum football for several years and have been president of our competitive youth football program previously.
I'm in my eighth and final year of coaching Riptide Youth Lacrosse and that has been a ton of fun watching both the boys and girls teams grow up and get to the high school level.
Liz and I were volunteer Young Life Leaders in PVB for several years as well, hosting events at our house and taking kids to winter and summer camps. Liz stays busy as the head fundraising volunteer for PVHS football, team mom for the PVHS boys lacrosse team, and coaches girls middle school volleyball.
When none of that’s happening, we try to get on the golf course, tennis and pickleball courts, or the beach.
