Growing iPod Repair Biz Founded By Students

February 28, 2008 by Rich | 3 Comments
In Niche, Startup, Success

The iRepair Squad began as the iPod Repair Squad, and it was the winner of the initial Project Springboard business plan competition co-sponsored by Junction Ventures Ltd. and Bradley University. With that win came financial and technical assistance to get the company started. Nobody, Scaggs said, expected this kind of growth.

That growth for iRepair Squad has been nothing short of phenomenal in its first year and as it moves toward millions of dollars in annual sales and 100-plus employees, it will relocate to larger quarters in East Peoria that can accommodate the expected growth.

James Scaggs, founder of the company, said he eschewed offers from other, larger cities and elected to stay here “because the people here believe in us and what we’re doing.”

The company, with more than $1 million in sales already in less than a full year in business, expects to reach $17 million in sales over the next year and grow employment to about 100 people. The company, which at the start repaired iPods, now will repair other small electronics and will sell restored equipment, as well, through its Web site.

The company, Scaggs said, is securing contracts with national electronics retailers and manufacturers to do their repair work, which will fuel the growth.

Photo by Leslie Renken.

Comments

Closets Los Angeles on February 28th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

In a world where we can store every piece of music we have ever owned or wanted or got stuck in our heads in a device smaller than a pack of ciggerettes why had this idea not been done before? When I finally succumbed to the ipod craze I spent over a week downloading my collection of CDs and tagging them, organizing my discs of mp3s to load in and making everything perfect (my collection of EVERYTHING Johnny Cash had ever recorded was a prize among anyone who heard of it) and for a year I was very happy. I owned a 40g 2nd gen ipod that had over 20,000 songs on it. Then it broke. Since I bought it used it came with no warranty and after I spent 200 bucks on it I really didnt want the mac store to go ahead and charge me 150 just to see if it was recoverable. SO, now it sits in my glovebox and almost a year later it was replaced by the sleek 4gen black 30g. And after all the time I spent working on my original ipod this one just didnt seem like much fun. My music is half loaded on there, multiple listings for the same band etc etc. If this company had been around 2 years ago, then I would still be in heaven with my magical ipod. Instead, I’m here, missing Mr Cash. When this one goes out, I’m looking to the irepair squad.

Tommy
tony on March 10th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

You can also try http://www.ipodrefresh.com. They have pretty low prices and do great work.
iPod Repair Guy on March 25th, 2008 at 10:43 am

In response to Tommy, your situation is not uncommon, and the sad truth is there was a solution the whole time! Rapid Repair has been the leader in ipod repair since its inception more than 4 years ago. Want proof? Google “iPod Repair” and see what company comes up first in the NON-paid results.