Company History

Mike Cachat on the trails of nearby Sycamore Canyon Park, adjacent to our corporate office.

“I just wanted to fund
    my bicycle habit!”

Mike Cachat – Founder and C.E.O.

Funding your bicycle habit. Isn’t that why we all have jobs? Isn’t that where our obsession to cycling gets fed? As you obviously know (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this!) once you catch the bicycle bug, you can’t get rid of it!

Fabulously, this addiction caught the founder of Jenson USA at a very young age, and he did everything he could to build a business that has grown to the magnificent levels that Jenson, its employees and customers enjoy today.

Operating With Integrity

With over 20,000 items in stock, expert customer service, and a state-of-the-art 74,000 sq ft facility, Jenson USA prides itself on being the best place for cyclists to buy from, vendors to sell to, and employees to work for. In fact, the ultimate focus at Jenson is to create an over-the-top customer experience at every opportunity.

Over time this commitment has helped Jenson USA build enduring and sustainable relationships throughout the industry. This has been accomplished through open dialogue with vendors and customers alike, as Jenson USA employees embrace the importance of both customer advocacy and vendor/brand objectives. Additionally, pride is taken in our policy that all vendors, employees and service providers are paid on time, every time.

Circumstances in the company’s early history drove management to a market-changing revelation - forcing a paradigm shift - targeting a new focus on continued improvement, while fostering a commitment to be the best corporate citizen possible through honest, forthright communication and business practices.

From The Beginning

Mike Cachat (pronounced Ca-shay) got his first job at Supergo Bicycles in Brea, California when he was just thirteen. Building bikes on a make-shift work bench created by stacking bicycle boxes in the back parking lot of the shop. Earning enough cash to buy the latest widget from Shimano or Easton or Onza. Fueling his dream to become a professional mountain bike racer.

As Mike’s racing skills grew, he needed more time to train, and with help of his mentor, started his own bicycle tune-up business. The goal was to provide services to his friends, their friends, and their friends’ friends! Unfortunately, the business did not take, and Cachat had to find another way to make money without sacrificing precious training time.

Through a maze of moxie, determination, and some hard learned lessons, in 1994 Mike invested in a “yellow pages” ad, created a “bike shop” and began purchasing products from distributors and reselling them to his racing and training buddies and people from the local trailhead.

Mail Order Calls

The next business move was to create a mail-order bicycle parts company, built from the base of the bike parts business. Investing in graphic design software to create ads, purchasing a Veriphone machine to process credit cards, and balancing a high-school workload, Mike quickly realized that the bicycle business was going to overtake bicycle racing as his fateful career.

For the first year of the business, Mike was still in high-school, convincing his principal to let him have a modified schedule so he could leave school at 10am to get back to the phone and fill orders. He even had a business class where his teacher utilized him as a “real world” case study, with Mike coming in every couple of weeks to tell the rest of the students how Jenson USA was growing, as the teacher provided valuable mentoring to the teenage entrepreneur.

In 1996, with guidance from family and friends, he opened a 1,400 square foot industrial unit and hired his first employee to open up the store before Mike would get out of class. By this time, Jenson had created an eight-page catalog, and was placing ads in Mountain Bike Action and Mountain Biking magazines, operating a thriving business, while Cachat was still a high-school senior.

Growth and Trouble

By 1997, business had grown significantly, and a larger warehouse was leased for the Jenson business in Brea, Ca.

The next few years were filled with 100% annual sales growth and solid returns, albeit with a slight lack of business discipline (what can you expect from a young and star gazing entrepreneur with no business experience?!) While Jenson grew, a serious crisis was bubbling beneath the surface. By late 1997, mismanaged finances resulted in major debt to vendors.

By now, the company had 12 employees, and a lot of people counting on Mike to keep food on their tables and mortgages on their houses. He had to decide whether to close shop or get serious. Mike thought long and hard, and realized that his priorities had been going in the wrong direction. Cachat’s soul-searching and financial crisis triggered a serious wake up call that ultimately forced a re-invention of the company.

Paradigm Shift

“Treat everyone with respect, and be the best company for customers to buy from, vendors to sell to, and employees to work for.”

Mike met with his key long-term employees and hashed out a recovery plan. He called all of his vendors, and made re-payment plans. The company would commit to paying all vendors on time, all of the time, and has done so ever since.

A mission statement was created - “Treat everyone with respect, and be the best company for customers to buy from, vendors to sell to, and employees to work for.” Mike took a hard look at the practices that had caused the challenges and made a 180-degree change.

By the next year, the Jenson USA website was upgraded. An unprecedented focus on the end-user was established, providing the first real-time stock status ever in the bicycle mail-order business. Every once in a while, orders that were specified “ground” were upgraded to “overnight” unannounced, bringing an extra level of satisfaction to the Jenson customer. Every complete bike that was ordered would be taken out of the box and meticulously hand-prepped for the customer before being re-packed and shipped to its final destination.

Customers began noticing the change, became repeat buyers, and spread the word to all of their friends. Vendors were delighted with the changes made and it was apparent that true business partnerships were being formed. With a paradigm shift in business practices and long-term outlook, a sustainable and values-based business was formed.

Solid Expansion

As fate would have it working from a foundation of honesty and follow through on commitments proved to be the formula for success. By 2001 Jenson purchased an 18,000 square foot warehouse in Ontario, California. Still growing quite rapidly, the management team created a more structured business plan, ensuring that the mistakes of the past would not be revisited.

In 2004, an employee profit-sharing plan was created, making a percentage of the profits available to every employee in the company. Employees are continually encouraged to suggest ways to make the company better! Since the creation of this plan, Jenson USA has remained profitable. The employees share in the fruits of their labor and buckle down when necessary to make Jenson one of the most sought-after places to work in the bicycle industry. Just ask any employee, check how long they have worked at Jenson, and you’ll universally find satisfaction and passion for their job.

2007 saw the expansion of a brick-and-mortar retail store in Corona, California that helps the company stay in-tune with what the walk-in customer needs. This location also allows Jenson to build relationships and learn from vendors that are not yet involved with the Jenson online business.

Customers Are Everything and Charity Begins at Home

Jenson USA donates 20 Eastern BMX bikes to students at Emerson Elementary, Riverside, CA.

Mike was nominated and received an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for the Inland Empire in 2009, and the company purchased its current 74,000 square foot facility in Riverside, California in 2010. New customer-oriented policies include the only “Guaranteed Arrival Dates” service in the business, where if your shipment doesn’t arrive before or when stated at check-out, you receive a $10 gift card good for your next purchase.

One benefit to the new location is that it is a “wheelie-ride” from the world-famous Sycamore Canyon Park, and in addition, numerous road rides are available right out the door of the company. Employees regularly ride at lunch, before and after work, and volunteer to lead rides and perform trail maintenance in the canyon and beyond.

In addition to giving back to employees and customers, Jenson prides itself on helping charities including the Susan G. Komen Foundation, Loma Linda University, Movember, the International Mountain Biking Association, Bikes Belong, Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, World Bicycle Relief, the recent adoption of Sycamore Canyon, donations to cyclists in the US Military and many, many more.

The Future Looks Bright

While sales continue to grow steadily, Jenson USA strives to remain humble, helpful and humanitarian. Online media giant MTBR.com’s readers have voted Jenson their “Favorite Online Retailer” for three years in a row, proving that our policies and commitment to excellence are resonating with our customers.

Jenson USA operates with a purpose behind everything that we are doing, whether it is helping a customer who ordered the wrong product, working with a vendor to build the value of their brand, letting our employees make entrepreneurially-based decisions and helping soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan find joy though cycling.

Nearly all of the employees at Jenson are cyclists, and every one of them is a key component to the company’s success. President and CEO Mike Cachat is happier than ever, running a market-leading, integrity-based company, and fulfilling his original wish - funding his ability to ride!

Keep your eyes out for Mike and other Jenson employees on the streets and trails of Southern California and beyond. They’ll be the ones with the ear-to-ear grins on their faces…

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