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Guilherme Rovai

UseBike

The community-driven platform for urban cyclists.

Co-founder and CEO · Lead designer · 2014–2017

weekly active users, bootstrapped
0 → 5,000
places mapped by the community
0 → 40,000+
awards in 2016
4

I co-founded Usebike and served as CEO and lead designer, balancing product, craft, and business from day one. Usebike was a community-driven app that helped cyclists navigate the city safely, combining Waze-like routing with user-generated bike-friendly locations. We built everything bootstrapped and organically grew to 5,000 weekly active users and over 40,000 mapped locations contributed by the community.

As a designer, I shaped the entire product experience, from onboarding to routing flows, with a strong focus on usability, visual clarity, and brand consistency. I also led partnerships with brands like Bradesco Seguros and Levi’s, which helped us generate recurring revenue. We were selected for São Paulo’s Urban Mobility Incubation Program and named one of the most innovative startups in Brazil in 2016.

Usebike was where I learned how to turn design into a strategic force, not just shaping pixels, but connecting product, brand, and users to solve a real problem at scale.

The UseBike wordmark, a white bicycle icon in a dark purple circle between "Use" and "Bike", above the hashtag "#PEDALEOMUNDO" on a teal background.
Two cyclists riding with their legs outstretched, above two phones: one shows a map of bike-friendly places with the search "Pedalar para onde?", the other compares routes by bike-lane percentage and time.
A teal UseBike ad in a seaside bus shelter, showing the app's greeting screen on a phone above "Baixe agora" and App Store and Google Play badges.
Three circular avatar illustrations on teal: a squirrel on dark purple, a white owl on mauve, and a raccoon on orange.
Two stickers on a silver laptop palm rest against an orange background: the UseBike wordmark and the round raccoon mascot.
Three teal pop-up cards with orange line icons: "Modal ecológico" with a leaf and smiley, "Pedalar iremos!" with a winged bike, "Pedalou e chegou!" with a smiling heart, each with an "Entendi" button.
A long teal roadside billboard with two app screens, "Rotas para bikes" and "40 mil pontos bikefriendly", the UseBike logo, and App Store and Google Play badges.
Two browser windows of the UseBike website: one asks the user to rate the bike shop "Bike North", the other thanks them with "Você é demais!" and a gloved hand raised for a high five.
A poster in a shop window, a woman in a helmet cycling across a street under the headline "Baixe o aplicativo UseBike", with Levi's Commuter and UseBike logos along the bottom.
An in-app coupon from Aro 27 Bike Café reading "Você acabou de ganhar um espresso!" next to a white mug with a teal bicycle and yellow sun, on orange.
Four app screens under a "patrocínio Bradesco Seguros" header: a co-branded splash screen, a menu offering insurance, a map with Bradesco pins, and a "Bradesco SOS bike" place card.
An open magazine on teal: the left page shows a grid of place-category pins and text about route safety, the right is a UseBike ad with the app on a phone.
Three fanned flyers: a teal front with "Rotas para bikes", "40 mil pontos bikefriendly" and two app screens, and purple backs listing "Colaborativo!", "Avalie!" and benefits.
A teal and white UseBike sign hanging on a glass shop door, telling passers-by the business is bike-friendly, with App Store and Google Play badges.
A light blue poster on a brick wall with a wrench pin icon and the copy "Sua magrela quebrou? Não se preocupe, temos oficinas perto de você."
Four 2016 honours in white text framed by teal laurels on black: Facebook Starts, The Best Tourism Brazilian Startup, Residence Program MobiLab, The Most Innovative Startup.

Other Works