The app that fixes the car service frustration

When Stan Petrich and Anton Lensvelt came up with the idea of creating New Zealand’s first car service app, they had no idea where to start.

“Coming up with a tech idea when you’re not from a tech background has definitely been an eye opener. We knew exactly what we wanted from a consumer perspective, but where do you start as a tech entrepreneur?” says Petrich (pictured right).

They due are the founders of FIXR, a mobile app that allows consumers to post a job relating to vehicle repairs and services, which car service agents respond to with quotes. 

It is based on first-in first-serve format for businesses to promote quick turnaround times and as little hassle as possible for consumers. The job poster will only see up to five quotes.

“We’re only five weeks in and we’re getting up to 30 jobs a week, considering we have not undertaken any serious marketing to date.  We have only used social media which has produced a decent level of uptake,” Petrich notes.

The app’s biggest appeal is in its ability to simplify an activity considered time consuming and irritating by most people when looking for the best car service for the most affordable price.

Petrich says with the substantial price variations between car service centres with no obvious reason to the consumer, it is a universally frustrating process, which is when he saw the need for FIXR.

Petrich and Lensvelt have bootstrapped the entire business, which Petrich says opened his eyes to the complexity of tech-based businesses as you go.

“When you initially come with a basic idea, which is what FIXR is at the stage, you have no idea that as you build, the majority of your work becomes trouble shooting and implementing modifications which constantly need cash injections.”

“You think you have the right idea, until you start building the platform and only then when you realize how much you have actually missed.”

FIXR took 12 months to develop, with Petrich initially told it would take three. “You think you have the right idea, until you start building the platform and only then when you realize how much you have actually missed,” he says.

To fund the modifications Petrich and Lensvelt outsourced the first phase of their product development but further modifications will have to be done in New Zealand. “As the app is geographically sensitive, further modifications cannot be done externally, even though they might provide far more cost savings,” says Petrich. He plans to launch a capital raise campaign with Lensvelt in the near future to develop the app’s premium features.

Currently, the offers a free service for consumers and businesses but the model is designed with the vision of becoming New Zealand’s online one-stop-shop for vehicle services.

“The idea for the premium features is to allow consumers and business to communicate on the platform, negotiate, advertise and transact money. A comprehensive online vehicle services solution,” notes Petrich.

“The benefits will be substantial for both business and consumers and delivers the most sought after commodities of our modern society: money and time savings and ease of use,” he says.

To learn more about FIXR here’s a video: https://goo.gl/Uafmsu