Team
Stephen Doll, CEO
Stephen co-founded Stromm Cycles with Ben in 2017 while working on his degree in mechanical engineering. He has raced bikes since childhood, and broke enough components on the potholes of Michigan roads to realize that if he wanted to have a truly great bike, he was going to have to design it himself. He became his own mechanic and developed a strong sense of what designs measure up both from the performance and usability perspectives.
He and Ben have teamed up on several design iterations of novel aerodynamic bicycles, and turned their learnings from each version into their dream bike, the Stromm track frame. He's an innovator in bicycle design, simulation, and manufacturing, and pushes technology to the limits to create groundbreaking products.
Ben Rothacker, CTO
Ben is a professional aerodynamicist with over a decade of experience designing high-performance vehicles for the aerospace industry, with a longtime interest and focus in the low-speed regime of aerodynamics most relevant to bicycle design.
His airfoil designs and expertise have been used in and contributed to numerous successful sub-, supersonic, and vertical lift aircraft, high performance racing cars, and several bicycles, and he holds several patents for novel aerodynamic devices.
At Stromm, Ben develops and simulates location-specific airfoils and flow strategies, iterating with Stephen to turn concepts into full frames and components with an aerodynamic advantage over competitors.
Dave Koesel, CMO
A lifelong tinkerer, Dave began building mountain bike frames in his basement and father's race car fabrication shop. He worked in bike shops in college and went to work for Felt Bicycles after finishing school. He led the development on the track frames Felt athletes used to set records and win medals at the World Championships and Olympic Games.
Dave then went on to lead product development when 3T introduced bicycles and launched their North America operations, and followed with a few years as the Leader of Component Development at Specialized Bicycles. At Specialized he reinvented the Roval brand, aiding in transitioning the professional peloton from tubulars to clincher wheels and developing lightweight gravel and XC mountain bike wheels.
He has a keen instinct for which new technologies will revolutionize the sport, and is always seeking the next breakthrough. He knew when discussing Stromm's technology with Stephen at their local velodrome that this bike would be the way of the future. Dave joined Stromm Cycles in 2023, and leveraged his manufacturing, sales, and distribution knowledge to turn a concept design into Stromm's first commercially available product.