This startup wants to be the Genius Bar for everyone else
A new on-demand startup wants to take the headache out of getting your phone, or anything tech-related, fixed. And to do that, they're willing to visit you at your house or take care of it while you're shopping in the mall.
Joe Du Bey first thought of Eden when he visited his parents in Seattle for Thanksgiving last fall. He was greeted not only with a large meal, but also an equally large to-do list of technical problems his parents needed fixed.
As Du Bey describes it, his parents are "tech-forward but not tech-savvy" and installing things like Nest Thermostats or configuring wireless networks doesn't come naturally.
To fix both his parents' problems and the technical frustrations many Americans face, du Bey and his co-founders launched Eden, an on-demand tech support company. Eden will dispatch a "wizard" to your house to fix any problem for you, whether it's setting up a printer or configuring an Apple TV.
The company is named Eden, after all, because "it's a suggestive place where everything works," Du Bey said.
That means they'll even be the ones to call Comcast for you when you need it.
Eden, though, isn't sticking with only an on-demand model. Du Bey told Business Insider that the startup is opening a kiosk Monday -aptly called the Wizard bar - in San Francisco's Westfield Mall.
Movie-goers and shoppers can drop off their phones with cracked screens or their computer that needs repairs and the Eden team will take care of it on-site. If you can't stick around, the team can set up an appointment to dispatch one of its wizards to your house at your convenience.
Eden's repairs cost $69 hour, billed in 15-minute chunks, although the first hour is free for first-time customers. Repairs for cracked phone screens are billed at different rates because of the cost of the glass.