TECH REPAIR INDUSTRY FROM 2016 TO 2019 & BEYOND - Dominoes Have Been Falling in the Tech Repair Industry And I'm Not Talking About Pizza

Wow! In the last three years the TECH repair industry has seen some pretty big dominoes fall and I predict that 2020 will be a breakout year for this rapidly growing multi-billion dollar industry.

Dominoes started falling back in mid-August 2016 when a company most people had never heard of managed to pull down $15 million in series A funding, led by Carmel Ventures, with Sequoia Capital (a pretty serious name in investing) also participating - after seeding CellSavers with $3 million in December 2015. An $18 million invest in a less than one year old company kind of said something about the tech repair industry don't ya think?? Down went a domino.





August 22, 2016 | Israeli startup CellSavers, which provides an on-demand repair platform for smartphones and other mobile devices, has completed a $15 million financing round, led by Carmel Ventures, with participation of Sequoia Capital Israel. The current funding follows the company’s $3 million round in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital in December 2015. CellSavers’ platform is based on an end-to-end technological and operational solution, which enables the company to match consumers and skilled professionals in real time. CellSavers was founded in 2015 by CEO Eyal Ronen and president Itai Hirsch.



Then, as we had the last two years, in 2016 a bunch of us repair people headed off to Vegas in September for the 3rd annual Wireless Repair Expo. It turned out to be the largest attendance for this event to date. We gathered to learn stuff, make new connections, find new vendors and have fun with some GREAT people. Did I mention it was the THIRD Expo?! That's important because it's one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready ... well, let's just say we were ready to go. Another domino fell!

Then came October 2016 and it didn't disappoint either because two more big dominoes fell within just a few days. 

At the beginning of October 2016 AT&T and Asurion (you might have heard of these companies) announced that starting on November they would be using 3rd party on-demand repair companies to come fix your phone in select cities (as David Letterman used to always say, "Let's hope your city was selected") with additional cities rolling out in December. This was HUGE news for the repair industry as a whole because Asurion was and is by far the biggest handset insurance provider in the country - maybe the world. They were now opening up their business to third party repair. Boom went that domino!!

A couple of days later, we learned that one of the biggest retail repair operators, UBREAKIFIX, had partnered with a small company a few of us had heard of called GOOGLE -- yes that Google -- to become the exclusive repair partner for the new Pixel phones in the US and Canada (Canada too, eh). This was really big news on many different fronts but for the tech repair industry it was further validation that we could do some pretty big things. And if these bigger companies were willing to work with us the sky was the limit. And another big domino fell!!

You have to understand my friends that big huge corporations like AT&T, Asurion, Google and others move at glacial speed when trying to adopt to new things (In 2010, having worked at the carriers earlier in my career, I had approached people at these big companies. There responses were that people just don't get their phones fixed anymore). But some smart repair people knew better and had already been opening up local repair shops all over the country that were generating billions, yes I said BILLIONS - $4 billion by industry estimates at the time.

Over the next two years the tech repair industry took three steps forward and two steps back. Consolidation became the name of the game as the two biggest tech repair chains, UBREAKIFIX (516 locations in the US & Canada) and CPR-Cell Phone Repair (750 locations in 17 countries), absorbed smaller chains and longstanding independent shops to grow even bigger.

National chains got into the tech repair game too. Big mambajamba national chains like Staples (1,220 US locations), Batteries+Bulbs (600+ locations) and Cellairis (600 worldwide locations) got more into repair. While RadioShack finally died -- RIP to the Radio and the Shack or was it the Radio in the Shack?

Some small regional chains, like iFixandRepair (85 locations), Dr. Phone Fix, Cell-Doc (both with 40 locations each) and StayMobile (40+ locations) have grown to become bigger players by adding more locations across the US.

But the truth be told, small independent shops continue to proliferate throughout the tech repair industry. Thousands of one person shops exist all over the country. Independent shops like Desert Wireless in Twentynine Palms, CA, Geek in Heels in Winston Salem, NC and Moses Buckwalter in Lancaster, PA. Two successful female entrepreneurs and a kid - no kidding Moses B is a self proclaimed "Apple Repair Genius" and I don't think he's old enough to drive. Pretty dang impressive!

Independent tech repair shops will continue to prosper as long as there are people who need tech repaired and bright innovative people to repair it. If you have the skills -- and you need mad skills to play here -- you can open your own tech repair shop! Many of these folks work out of there home to start or they come to you for the repair. 

Funny because that's the way this industry started with independent techs buying parts off eBay and putting "Ads" on Craigslist in the mid to late aughts. Many, including yours truly, thought those days would be gone by now and they 'aught' to go (pun fully intended, sorry). Instead they have become the backbone of an industry.

2019 - THREE YEARS LATER

Today tens of thousands of Tech Repair People are fixing phones, tablets, computers and drones across the country. That little startup that disrupted an industry by raising $15 million back in the summer of 2016 recently raised another $50 million to evolve into a company than can support more tech in more places. Now touting more than 4,000 "fully vetted" techs in 50 US cities they have re-branded to become

Still other tech repair companies and repair industry people haven't been as fortunate. iCracked, the industry innovator for on-demand tech repair service, was acquired earlier this year by SquareTrade, an AllState subsidiary. BUUUUTTTT the terms of the deal were not announced, this after the company pretty much went dark for over a year. Mission Repair, an early industry innovator that pioneered fast turnaround mail-in repair, closed up shop at the end of last year after suffering large losses from major accounts. E-Tech Parts, a major organizer within the repair industry, went out of business then relaunched as E-Tech Plus then moved to Texas under different ownership.

Countless individuals that were prominent in the repair industry have all but vanished from the scene. This after a group of "core" people had secret meetings with some weird code-name claimed they were putting together a national repair organization to help promote tech repair and finally organize this mishmash group of people. The 2018 Wireless Repair Expo in Vegas and subsequent Repair Roundup that met in Charleston, SC, were the last time the tech repair industry gathered as a group of professionals (THOUGHT - might be time to meet again on a more open & honest basis, just saying...).

So, you see, lots has happened over the last three years while many dominoes have fallen. But I'll tell you one thing there has been one company that has stayed true to the repair movement all along, IFIXIT! Kyle and his awesome crew of folks have led the fight in the Right to Repair movement, which might be the very last domino to fall someday. 

Hopefully that will happen someday soon!

Friends, new and old, we have built a multi-billion industry over the last decade and a half. As in any movement some have made it big while others have lost faith and fallen away. The new generation of repair people have lit a fire in me to see this industry rise to even greater heights. To heights many don't even know are capable. I will share more about this vision in the posts to come. Please follow my blog, comment and follow me on twitter (@RobBobLink).

2020 will be a breakout year for the tech repair industry and it's not just busted smartphone screens. There is so much new TECH hitting the market right now it makes my head spin. So my question to you is: whose going to fix it? We will if we all work together!

Now enjoy a little Van Morrison then get to work!