Startup of the Month: TechBuddy

Nowadays, consumer electronics serve a lot of different functions and it’s easy for everyday consumers to get lost. Often they need help fixing things, to activate or take advantage of features on their devices or to simply make them start working. Most of the issues that we resolve for our customers are technically simple, but what’s missing is the instructional element.

TechBuddy provides on-demand tech support at customers’ homes and what makes us different is that we are focused on the people. All of our “buddies” have been trained in how to teach others — and how to be patient with them too. When they assist our customers at their homes, they sit down with them and provide explanations in detail so that consumers understand how devices work and must be maintained.

Suppose you just moved to the city and need technical assistance or advice. You can book a service through our app, social media, website or by phone and specify what kind of service you need, along with your address. Immediately, the service appears in our system and all nearby “buddies” with the appropriate skills for the requested task are notified. Once a “buddy” takes the task, the customer is contacted to arrange the visit. It’s that easy!

I’m a Spaniard but lived part of my life in Sweden, where the idea of TechBuddy was born in 2016 and the company was launched shortly thereafter. From that moment on, we started getting a lot of traction and calls for service so we began to offer installation and support for existing electronic products, as well as support before making purchases. It all grew so fast that I quickly realized we were dealing with a global need.

Spain is the first market we are expanding to and I have been responsible for bringing the project here. Scandinavians are very “techy” but I find that Spaniards are are tech savvy too. The local circumstance of high unemployment rates here as well make us believe that our service can be of great benefit here. In one corner, we are creating opportunities for people who are passionate about technology to get some source of income, and in the other, we are helping people who are new to or even afraid of new technologies to understand them and be part of this technological change.

Last June TechBuddy launched a partnership with Media Markt and, at the moment, we are operating in nearly 50 cities in Spain. Given the success we had partnering with Telco companies in Sweden, we are working on partnerships in Spain’s Telco sector as well. With the increasing market of internet access, wifi, networks and technologies of the sort, there are a lot of customers who need our services. Our idea is to cover the whole territory in the next months and, at the same time, expand TechBuddy to different countries.

Learn more about TechBuddy at techbuddy.es.