In February I got a chance to chat with Paul Budnitz, founder of Budnitz Bicycles.

“I design and create beautiful things and then create businesses to sell them,” Paul says. He’s been a professional photographer, shot films, owned a company modifying vintage clothing, turned making handmade microphones out of a garage into a multi-million dollar business — the list goes on.

“I started out in eighth grade selling fireworks to all my friends in school and we actually programmed all our orders on the mainframe computers at the University of California, which at that time they were teletype computers. And we didn’t really know that those computers were controlled by the Department of Defense. So I eventually got arrested and suspended. That was my first business.”

In 2002 Paul founded Kidrobot, which makes limited-edition art toys. “I like to make immaculate products,” Paul says, “and if I run the business myself I get to do it my way.” Kidrobot uses Basecamp to communicate with suppliers and distributers over four continents with hundreds of active projects.

Budnitz Bicycles, Paul’s latest endeavor, uses the new Basecamp to work with manufacturers and suppliers around the globe. The bikes are gorgeous! Paul let me take one for a spin and it was honestly the most comfortable ride I’ve ever had.

You can find out more about Budnitz Bicycles at budnitzbicycles.com and be sure to follow @budnitzbicycles on Twitter.

Also, if you missed the profile we did on Happy Cog you can find it over here.