WiGoMan Blog - Tech Care (Repair, Reuse, Recycle) Industry Leader

I've said it before and I'll say again and again - Independent Tech Repair People are some of the best and brightest people I know! We need them now more than ever!! A couple of months ago I posted in the Tech Care Association blog about how I know that " Tech Repair People Are Amazing - All Tech Can/Should Be Fixed ". Allow me to drill down on that point and show you how independent tech repair allows for creative independent thought that should be welcome by the OEMs and other big tech companies because it makes your product better. Not only does it make your product better, it will certainly make your customer happier. Christmas Day 2021 - A Personal Story My daughters needed new phones this year since both of them have much older, very beaten up phones that have been repaired multiple times -- my oldest completed a screen replacement herself about a year ago (picture on the right).  Both of them had previously purchased unlocked Nokia phones that they had certainl...

I love this industry and I am passionate about seeing it prosper, especially the independent small businesspeople that make up most of its members. I started, like many of you, with an idea and a dream. I started my first tech repair business at the same time that Justin Wetherill, Eddie Trujillo, and David Reiff started uBreakiFix -- obviously they did a little bit better than I did. I realized, a little too late, that I needed help. I needed someone to help champion my business. Our industry is taking care of tech after it's sold (repair, support, reuse & recycle)  and is a relatively new industry that is still finding its way. There are a lot of great companies within the industry doing some wonderful things, including UBIF, to help people take care of their tech after it's purchased. The "Tech Care" industry has helped many creative small businesspeople get into business while also helping a unique set of people find jobs that they can excel in. Truly the Amer...

When I was a kid my Dad taught me how to fix things. We fixed things around the house, we fixed the car, we fixed the roof ( in the middle of a very hot summer ), we fixed the lawnmower but when the TV broke we both carried it down to the car and took it to a local repair shop. Repair was in our blood but when it was above our pay grade we took it to a repair shop for a professional to work on. Boy howdy did I love to tinker with things when I was a kid! Radios, tape decks, boomboxes and anything that had screws to be unscrewed. One time my parents bought me a brand new ten-speed bike, which I promptly took apart and repainted. Repair was in my blood! Our family was a typical middle class family in America enjoying what life offered us but respecting the fact that we needed to take care of the things we owned. Money was something we didn't just throw around. When my Mom wanted new chairs for the dinning room because they were wobbly and worn out. Dad broke out the woo...

The TECH REPAIR INDUSTRY is huge! I mean really, really big. Billions of dollars in revenue flow thru thousands of tech repair shops and independent tech repair people all over the country. But MOST people don't even know that tech repair is a thing! Sad 😞but true! You see, when my company started repairing cell phones as part of our AT&T retail business in 2006 every single customer would say, "I never knew anyone who fixed phones". Then w hen I opened my first standalone repair shop in 2010 almost everyone who came into our shop would say, "I never knew anyone who fixed phones". Well of course, that made sense, because we were one of the first companies to offer on the spot immediate cell phone repair in the country. The thing that really surprised  me was that for  ten years  we still had a lot of people coming in and saying the same thing!? INDEPENDENT RESEARCH Before I sold my repair business in 2016 I decided to do some research. I went ou...

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 rou...

Wow! In the last three months the TECH repair industry has seen some pretty big dominoes fall and I predict that 2017 will be a breakout year for the industry. It all started back in mid-August 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 kind of serious name in investing) also participating - after seeding CellSavers with $3 million this past December. An $18 million invest in a less than one year old company kind of says something about the tech repair industry don't ya think?? Down goes 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 2...