Zwift, the recently unveiled indoor cycling entertainment provider, has announced that former professional cyclist Mike McCarthy has joined the company as VP of Content and Licensing.
McCarthy, a professional cyclist for a dozen years, was a world pursuit champion on the track, multi-time Olympian, and a member of the US Bicycling Hall of Fame. He has worked for the past 16 years in the financial services industry.
McCarthy will begin his duties for Zwift immediately. “I couldn’t be more excited to join the Zwift team,” said McCarthy. “The perfect balance of business, creativity, and cycling play straight into my skillset. I honestly couldn’t think of a better group or product to be a part of.”
“Our ambition is to create an entertainment platform that will provide riders with new levels of inspiration and motivation,” said Zwift Co-Founder and CEO Eric Min. “Adding an experienced competitor like Mike to our senior team will allow us to more quickly build an ecosystem around the Zwift platform that will vastly enhance the user experience.”
Min added, “We’ve seen an incredible response to our Beta program and we believe that if we can deliver content that is engaging, social and competitive, we will be successful.”
Currently in Beta, Zwift uses it’s Zengine – a massive, multiplayer video game platform – to deliver a fun, social and entertaining indoor cycling experience. Zwift will open its platform to the public in early 2015, with a basic subscription costing US$10 per-month.
The minimal equipment necessary to use Zwift is a basic bike trainer, wireless speed/cadence sensor and a USB ANT+ dongle for connecting to a PC or Mac.
