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If we've learned anything from a wave of recent startups, it's that we like things to be done for us, when we want them done (now would be good). Errands service company TaskRabbit can find you a gopher to buy you an In-N-Out burger at 10 p.m. (as long as you live in California or are willing to wait for it to be driven to your In-N-Out desert), New York startup Swifto can dispatch a dog walker to your exercise-starved pooch in the middle of the day, and ride-sharing services Lyft, Sidecar, and Uber will pick you up with just a few taps on your iPhone.
Joining all those services in the on-demand category is YourMechanic, the folks you point your smartphone or laptop at when your own personal car won't make it up the hill or out of the driveway. YourMechanic debuted at Y Combinator's Demo Day in March, and just closed $1.8 million in funding from Y Combinator, SV Angel, CrunchFund, SoftTechVC and angel investors Jeff Clavier, Yuri Milner, and Ashton Kutcher.
YourMechanic connects with independent mechanics that will come to your location, whether it's your house or office, and fix your car on your schedule. Mechanics that are certified by the company can fix anything from a dead battery or broken headlight, to timing belts or brake problems. If all you need is a little car maintenance, like an oil change or transmission flush, YourMechanic has you covered too.
When you have a problem with your car, or need preventative maintenance, you fill out a form on YourMechanic's website and describe your car's maladies. YourMechanic gives you a quote for the service, based on the average time to make a repair, the parts required, and a travel fee. You provide a credit card to book the appointment. A certified mechanic, vetted by YourMechanic, travels to your car and fixes the problem. Once they're done, YourMechanic charges your credit card so you don't have to pay anyone directly. The company argues this process dramatically cuts down on "shady markups" you might find at the car shop down the street. From an example on its website, YourMechanic charges about $500 to replace a timing belt on a 1995 Honda Accord. A local San Francisco mechanic quoted us around $900 for the same work. Not only is YourMechanic cheaper in this case, but what price can you put on avoiding the wait and the coffee at the mechanic's?
YourMechanic makes its money by taking a transaction fee when its network of mechanics buy parts from one of its supplier partners. The mechanics get to keep all of the money they earn from the repair job, typically $75 per hour. That's where YourMechanic has a wrench up over traditional auto shops in attracting mechanics. Most grease monkeys are paid at a much lower hourly rate.
Mechanics that come to your driveway, burgers that appear in the night, thanks to smartphones and the internet we are becoming a nation of lazy, impatient DDIYers (Don't Do It Yourself). It's perhaps not the path that our pre-iPhone forebears had laid out for us, but then again not having to wait for anything is pretty perfect. How nice would it be if someone else waited in line for you at the bar? Some smart entrepreneur is no doubt furiously coding that app already.
