AMA members Nancy Gerloff and Mark Augustyn are the creators of Mimi and Moto, a pair of cartoon monkeys who help introduce children to the joys of motorcycling.

Gerloff and Augustyn won the Motorcycle Industry Council’s 2019 Gas Tank Competition, which included a complimentary booth at the 2019 AIMExpo, hotel room and flight to Columbus, Ohio, for the event.

The Gas Tank Competition is the MIC’s competition and mentorship program, which pairs individuals and groups with an industry professional who offers coaching and advice on developing a business plan for a new powersports product or service.

“As Little Rider Enterprises, we have self-published two books, The Adventures of Mimi and Moto (released in October 2016) and Mimi and Moto Ride the Alphabet (released in July 2019),” Augustyn said. We sat down with the two writers to learn more about their business.

American Motorcyclist: Tell us about the Gas Tank win.

Gerloff and Augustyn: Winning the 2019 Gas Tank Competition at the AIMExpo in September was amazing. Frank Esposito was our mentor and he was a perfect fit for us. We are grateful to Cam Arnold at the MIC for connecting us with him.  As an avid motorcyclist, father, grandfather and industry veteran, Frank immediately saw the potential we see in Mimi and Moto. Writing a business plan with him forced us to really think about what we are doing and the process was extremely educational for us.

The exposure Mimi and Moto received at the AIMExpo was awesome with substantial traffic at our booth and great interactions with the industry and fans. We wore Mimi and Moto t-shirts all weekend long and we were honored and humbled to be stopped many times by people who wanted to express how much they appreciate what we’re doing to help inspire kids.

AM: How are you getting your books into the hands of young potential riders?

G&A: Both books are available on our website (www.mimiandmoto.com), Amazon, eBay and Etsy. At the retail level, along with the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame gift shop, both books are most notably available at the Barber Motorsports Museum, Wheels Through Time Museum, Lane Motor Museum, Kersting’s Cycles, Malcolm Smith Motorsports and other select retailers.  MotoAmerica has been carrying our books in their merchandise booth for the last three years and in 2019 we managed the Kids Zone at their races.

We continue to sell in-person from our booth at as many motorcycle races and events as we can attend working from our headquarters in Atlanta.

AM: How did this get started?

G&A: Our greatest accomplishment is knowing that through our success, one book at a time, the Mimi and Moto characters are getting more and more children excited about motorcycles. Inspired by our daughter, this is why we created the characters.

Our daughter is 5 years old and not reading yet, so we still read to her every night. When we first received Mimi and Moto Ride the Alphabet, she kept falling asleep before we could finish reading the book to her. We took this as a good sign.

We occasionally read it to her now, but she is more interested in helping to package orders or giving us her opinion about Mimi and Moto product ideas she likes.

Everything we do for Mimi and Moto is inspired by her, and, since we hope that she’ll take over the company one day, she might as well learn.

AM: Who writes? Who draws?

G&A: We write the books together and have learned to argue during the process remarkably well. Both of us conceptualize the characters and images and then communicate our vision to the illustrators. We are fortunate to have found talented illustrators like Esteban Alvarado, Aveliya Savina, and Marat Kurokhtin who have allowed us to bring our vision of Mimi and Moto to life and will be doing so in the future.

AM: Is this now a full-time job?

Gerloff: Almost. As with any early revenue stage business, we’re paying our bills, reinvesting in our company, and focused on long term goals. Mark owns a grassroots marketing company here in Atlanta, and I am a scientist. Since he works from home, Mark handles the majority of day-to-day Mimi and Moto activities. We trust the process and will let our fans dictate when we’re both full-time with Mimi and Moto.

AM: Are there any big plans for 2020 and beyond?

G&A: For 2020, we want to leverage our Gas Tank momentum by inspiring more kids and growing our fanbase.

Our first priority is to promote Mimi and Moto Ride the Alphabet, especially to teachers and schools, because it is geared to help children learn how to read.

We would love to recruit some A-list musicians, who are also parents and motorcyclists, to re-record our theme song.

We will be managing the MotoAmerica Kids Zone again this season.

We are going to start writing and conceptualizing our third book, which, again, will have an educational theme.

Beyond 2020, our long-term goal is to build a multi-million-dollar, global brand dedicated to getting children excited about motorcycles, because there are new Mimi and Moto fans being born every day.

Our overall plan is to release more books and merchandise, increase our distribution, reach children and families who do not ride yet, animate the characters for a series and expand internationally.

AM: What else would you like to say?

G&A: We want to say “Thank you” to all of our fellow AMA members who have chosen to support Mimi and Moto by bringing our books and merchandise into their homes. We cherish every story we hear from fans telling us how much their little riders love the characters and books.

We recently even had a mom and dad organize a Mimi and Moto themed birthday party complete with a Moto birthday cake for their daughter.

Seeing a family embrace Mimi and Moto like this tells us that we are doing something right and confirms why we created Mimi and Moto in the first place: to get children excited about motorcycles.