Valerie Topete - Equipment for the Professional Bike Messenger

Valerie Topete is currently serving as a professional bike messenger for a company in New York City called Mercury Rises. The company has become one of the leaders in the business, and a great deal of that success is due to her success. She has become the top messenger for Mercury Rises, and is always ready for the next important delivery.

Valerie Topete

New York City is huge. Valerie Topete used to suffer from anxiety when she moved to the area seven years ago to begin a career. However, her job has taught her the best way to navigate the dense traffic, and now she never leaves home without her bike. Through out her time as a messenger, she has learned what equipment has become essential to her success.

The first piece of equipment you’ll want to have is a helmet. They are essential for quickly delivering important messages around the city. However, no message is more important than your brain.

The next piece of equipment you’ll want to have is a pair of gloves. When you’re delivering messages fast and frequently, your hands get sweaty, which makes them slip on your bike grips causing blisters.

One other essential piece of equipment for the bike messenger is a small, bike computer. A sensor attaches to the front wheel spokes, and a small screen, slightly larger than a watch, connects to the handle bars. They track your speed, distance, and time during a ride.

Valerie Topete always has her equipment ready to go for the next job, and she has learned how essential it is through out her career.

Valerie Topete - Amateur Photographer

Valerie Topete sees herself as a witness to the everyday lives of the millions of people who live in New York City. That’s a tall order, and there’s no way she can accurately capture the sheer volume of life that happens in New York every day—even in her own borough. Topete works as a bicycle courier in New York, a job that allows her access to the public outside that many other professionals don’t have. She hopes to start selling her best photographs as a second career someday. Here are a few tips to taking pictures in the city:

 Be mindful of your surroundings. Many people don’t want their picture taken in public by a stranger. If you feel that you’re making the people around you with your camera, ask them if they would like to be in a photograph and make concessions as necessary.

Subjects and framing. Pay attention to how the eye will be attracted to different elements of your photograph. Valerie Topete loves to frame her subjects in creative ways, giving her viewers a chance to focus on her subject in a different way. Framing can also be used to create a space within a picture.
Shadow and light. Especially in black and white photography, which Valerie Topete is fond of, the interplay of shadows and light can create a beautiful and interesting conflict in a picture. Valerie Topete has played with different light settings on her camera and with different subjects in and out of shadow.

Valerie Topete works throughout the five boroughs but lives in Brooklyn with her family.
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Valerie Topete - Rising to the Top

Valerie Topete became a high-ranked bike courier at the highly competitive bike courier company Mercury Rises in only two years. Employees often don’t make it through their first month at Mercury Rises because of the fierce competition for the best-paying routes and the most opportune clients. But Topete rose fast because she had the skills to compete against anyone at the company and she wasn’t afraid to provide herself with opportunities to show her skills.

 

Valerie Topete learned how important opportunity was in a corporate setting during her early weeks with Mercury Rises. In an environment in which employees are encouraged to directly challenge each other, she quickly found herself taking some of the best routes available and moving up in the company. Valerie Topete had the advantage of learning the city and how to stay safe on almost any route by working as a freelance bike courier for three years before. She still took routes that she wasn’t familiar with and challenged some of the most skilled riders at Mercury Rises. She didn’t win all of her challenges, but she showed that she wasn’t afraid to take on the most responsibility and take risks. Sometimes risks are the only opportunities you get in a highly competitive job environment like Mercury Rises. 

Valerie Topete has worked for Mercury Rises now for four years. As a high-ranking bike courier, she is entrusted with some of the company’s highest-profile clients and their very sensitive jobs. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Valerie Topete - Courier for Mercury Rises

Valerie Topete is a skilled professional bike courier working full-time for Mercury Rises, widely recognized as one of the top courier agencies in New York City. Topete worked as a freelance bike courier for three years after she moved to New York in 2008. For the past four years, she has worked for Mercury Rises. Topete has always loved to ride her bike and she feels that her position with Mercury Rises is the perfect fit for her and her dream of making a living by doing what she loves.

Working for Mercury Rises is not easy. The company’s owner, John Tudebaker, purposefully made his work environment at the clubhouse a den of competition. Employees have the opportunity to pick up more routes and work more if they can prove that they are more effective than other employees. This kind of direct competition put Valerie Topete on her heels at first, but before long she came to understand this practice. While many couriers only worked part-time, Valerie Topete worked a full week every week and found herself earning more work. Tudebaker, above all, tries to maintain a high standard of excellence for his company and his employees. He fosters this vision by creating direct competition between employees to keep them fresh and on their toes.

Valerie Topete came to relish the opportunity that Tudebaker gave her and made a career out of delivering materials for clients throughout New York City, her dream job. She is now married with two kids.
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