Recorded live at Micromobility Europe 2026 in Berlin, this fireside chat features Christian Springub, Co-Founder & CEO of Dance, discussing the journey of building one of Europe’s most recognizable e-bike subscription companies — and the road that ultimately led to Dance joining forces with Swapfiets.
Coming from a software and tech background, Christian and his co-founders set out to build something tangible: a premium e-bike subscription service with its own custom hardware, software stack, logistics, warehouses, mechanics and repair operations.
That journey turned out to be far harder than expected.
Christian shares what he learned about moving from software to hardware, why Dance customized too much of its first-generation bike, the enormous cost of making mistakes once hardware is already on the road, and why hardware companies need to grow very differently from traditional software startups.
We also dig into the decisions that helped make Dance stand out: its distinctive bike design and prism colour, its obsessive attention to branding, its premium positioning, its influencer strategy, and the factors that made Paris one of its strongest markets.
Christian also reflects on fundraising roughly €60 million across debt and equity, the consequences of scaling too quickly during the COVID-era funding boom, why he no longer sees businesses like Dance as traditional venture-capital businesses, and why profitability and strategic backing matter so much in asset-heavy mobility.
Finally, we discuss the acquisition by Swapfiets, what brought two longtime “frenemies” together, the complexity of restructuring debt to complete the transaction, and Christian’s advice to founders building hardware companies today.
Recorded at Micromobility Europe 2026, Berlin.