Matthew Rusk Student Entrepreneur in Residence

Over the last few months I have had the pleasure of getting to know Edward Latham and Alex Nechoroskovas, co-founders of the iPhone repair company iMended. Having previously met Ed during the infamous Deloitte pitching event in 2012 where he pitched his innovative idea to sell advertising space on university paper – essentially to enable students to get free handouts at no extra cost to the university; while advertisers get the valuable student’s attention with great ad-space. Unfortunately although the product seemed a great idea one of the business leaders of Deloitte didn’t seem to take too kindly to Ed having used a rival company’s logo at the top of the prototypes.

Since this time, and who knows maybe because of that infamous encounter, Ed and Alex have pivoted to explore the ever expanding market of iPhone repairs. Indeed, iMended is a localised service that the pair have devised to enable iPhone users to repair their phones in a rapid, professional manner at much lower costs than the high-street competition. Having pitched the idea here at the Innovation Centre the duo won a Start Up award grant enabling them to launch their website and start growing their business. With customers coming in from across Exeter the duo have stationed themselves at the Innovation Centre, as well as down at Devonshire house to fix phones with all sorts of cosmetic and internal problems. They are now looking to start expanding across the south-west and further afield with a franchise model – whereby the team generate the clients and provide the knowledge and materials to enable specialists in that location to fix the iPhones. At this stage it looks a really exciting business proposition and we are all interested to see where Ed and Alex, two very promising young entrepreneurs, take the product. You can read more about the iMended story on the University of Exeter website via these links: iMended Case Study and University News.

In terms of the progress here at MGR Music this week has been super busy in terms of launching new a website, with Guitar Lessons Birmingham coming online which is great news. I am still trying to get the right structures in place to enable me to manage the growing business but it looks really promising at this stage that it can develop into a thriving music tuition business that extends well beyond Exeter where it was all started!

Connect with Matthew via LinkedIn or visit his latest entreperurial project WhiskySubscription.com.

Posted under Business Innovation, iMended, Student Businesses