Singapore startup does an Uber on tech support Next time your friend's Aunty Gladys asks if that software the nice man from India installed on her PC is legitimate, you might just get paid for helping her out. That's the aim of Singaporean startup Fynd, which bills itself as a way to “use your technical expertise to earn extra income.” The site's schtick is to match folks …
Fynd's rates are “$80 to $150 per job”
Which is what I've seen people who (sometimes) know what they're doing charge. Clients do that once and next time go to Staples and buy a refurbished for $150 or a new one for less than twice that. People figure out these simple economics. Perhaps the numbers are different in Singapore, but one has to wonder what the actual market for Fynd is going to look like.
In any case, this could be fun to watch. From what I've seen, people who do low end and home PC work are none too competent. "Where are my files?" is a common question when the box comes back. Will the Fynd "geeks" do better? I think not.
It'll be interesting to watch, if nothing else, as the available supply is very low around here ( Cow-Town, USA) even with Silicon Valley a hop-skip-and-a-jump-away. That sucking sound is all the regular guys and gals being sucked into San Jose. If those rates hold, hell I might be interested if I'm allowed to pick the date/times. I'm extremely competent just not able to survive the grind that is IT at any decent firm. Been there, done 24/365 w/o a vacation in years, burnt myself out. I've run into a few others like me around, have even trained people into the field.
I agree with your call, just passing on that there are some competent people around that can't work at a firm.
There is a world of difference between this and uber. Not much risk of getting in a taxi when the driver has a licence and a road legal car and vetting. A very different proposition to letting random techs lose on your kit. Where's the guarantee of quality or resolution? What's to stop over enthusiastic but incompetent morons applying and then being let lose on the world?
It will take at least that long to run a full virus scan on most older kit.
I assume that the geek will have an investment in infrastructure such as a home office with fast broadband and all the latest Windows Updates held locally. Also insurance cover.
Working at the customer's home is a recipe for trouble as a lot of the work will be starting a job then waiting for 2-3 hours to finish and any downloads will be constrained by the customer's link speed.
As already stated upstream it is hard to justify paying a decent price to cover several hours of skilled labour when the capital cost of the hardware is around £300. Back in the day when a decent PC could cost £2,000 paying
£200 to fix it looked reasonable. Try charging that today.
This also explains why small businesses tend to use low skilled support because the cost looks unreasonable when you have bought a couple of XP machines 10 years ago and can't move because your business specific software package won't run on W7 or W8. The perception is that if the suport costs more than a new machine then it isn't good value. At the price point they are comfortable with they can't afford marketable skills.
Seen that with a local business I know.
So who are these geeks who can offer a quality service at a low price?
Retired and bored ex-IT professionals who are time rich but cash poor?
There was already an affair like this in the UK - PCHomeHelp (which I think is probably dead now). I signed up as a student (as you say, I was time-rich and cash-poor), was put in touch with a couple of people in our village and the next village over. It was local (few minutes walk) so much quicker than having to take their PC in somewhere, cheaper than PC World or calling out an independent shop, and the availability was better since I wouldn't have jobs queueing out of the door so could pretty much fix anything in the same evening. You say "a lot of the work will be lengthy" but I disagree. People who call up with hardware issues, easy. Issues with new wireless devices that aren't happy in the house, easy. People who call up with malware, you can get rid of the worst stuff with quicker, more targeted malware tools, then run a full virus scan and offer to remote control it from home when its finished if they're not happy with you removing the computer. There are workarounds, and I never had a job that lasted more than an hour (so again, as a student it suited me because it didn't get in the way of anything else I should have been doing); malware wasn't as prevalent when I was doing it, but I've found most drive-by malware pretty trivial to clean up even now.
Like this Singapore company say, it's not going to be making anyone a living, but for a bit of "pocket money" while I was studying at college it suited me right down to the ground. I got to exercise my excellent troubleshooting skills, help out other people so they weren't ripped off by PCW, and because they weren't family and knew upfront that it'd be a paid service, people paid up without any argument. The insurance was a bit of a grey area I suppose, I didn't have any as a student, but that never caused me any problems. If I'd have broken anything then I would have replaced it somehow even as a student but perhaps not everyone is as upstanding.
Well, in every small town and large US city I've lived in over the last 15 years, and still today, the average rate for small business and home tech services from highly skilled and competent folks were/still are around $100/hour (the rate is also around the same in Poland btw). Why would someone waste the money and the time needed to move data, re-install apps (assuming end user even knows how), and re-learn new workflows after buying a new PC?
Why would someone waste the money and the time needed to move data, re-install apps (assuming end user even knows how), and re-learn new workflows after buying a new PC?
I would guess because they don't know any other way and they like to get something new instead of fooling with something which they perceive as broken.
If you're responding to my top post, I'm just reporting what I see happening. Many people don't even know what an app is, let alone know how to move files around. That is just the reality for a lot of people. Note that people on this forum are very, very, far removed from the typical low end user who is likely going to be calling Fynd. We'll see.
I think that the low end is going to be the actual market. (work flow? haha!) My theory is that people who already know something about computers will not be interested in having somebody with no known credentials or background fix their computer for what is, in reality, real money.
I used to do freelance auto repair, before engines became so computerized. I charged less than the pro shops, so the customer felt like they got a sweet deal. I converted free time to cash, not losing 30% to taxes. All work guaranteed, plenty of repeat business and referrals.
I've done the same with computer service. If I can't charge something reasonable to do it, I tell them so. Some of my clients have paid half the value of a laptop to fix it because they liked it, or simply for the reassurance that Someone Nice Is Taking Care Of It. Others won't, they buy a new one. My customers get a good deal, I get free cash, everyone wins.
I don't have to work for $100 an hour, sign me up!
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