Getting your car repaired is not only costly, it’s frustrating. This is especially true when you have to leave your car in the shop for days at a time.
Fiix want to fix this. Part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 class, the startup has built a platform to send a mechanic to your home to fix your car within hours of being requested.
Customers request service by calling or chatting with the company on the website. Interestingly, Fiix prefers to deal with customers over the phone so they can accurately diagnose the issue. This lets them send the right parts and mechanic without actually seeing your car, and make sure the issue can actually be fixed in a driveway and doesn’t need a full garage.
That being said, the startup says over 80% of repairs done in a shop can be done in a driveway as long as you have an experienced mechanic.
All of Fiix’s mechanics are independent contractors – some who are generalists and some who specialize in foreign cars like Mercedes. In fact many are mechanics who work during the day in dealership repair shops and work for Fiix to make some extra cash on the side. Since the startup has no fixed overhead they can pay their mechanics more than most shops or dealerships can.
Fiix co-founders Khallil Mangalji, Zain Manji, and Arif Bhanji
Prices are on par with an average repair shop, and about 30% cheaper than getting your car repaired at a dealership. But of course it’s much more convenient than both – the startup currently can get you a mechanic in about three hours, and is working on getting this down to an hour from the time of request to when the mechanic arrives at your house.
The startup is live throughout Toronto and the surrounding areas, and plans on expanding soon to other car-focused locations like California. But launching in Toronto brings up the question of what happens when it snows or is too cold to repair a car outside? To make sure your car can still get repaired same-day, Fiix will tow your car for free to a shop that they rent space in nearby.
Fiix had an interesting journey to YC. After launching in Toronto the startup applied to Y Combinator’s Fellowship program via the pitch contest held on Justin Kan’s Snapchat. They won and got accepted into YC Fellowship, and now six months later are part of YC’s full-fledged winter class.
Now, Fiix is doing over a million dollars in sales (parts and labor) on a yearly basis to over a thousand customers in Toronto.
Of course Fiix isn’t the only on-demand mechanic startup. YourMechanic launched in 2012 at TechCrunch Disrupt SF, was also part of YC’s Winter 2012 class and recently raised $24M in funding. But with so many cars on the road there’s definitely space for some competition.