Small to Big: UBreakiFix
The gadget repair chain got off the ground during lunch breaks at an Orlando restaurant
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Justin Wetherill, 26, got his start in smartphone repair much as you would expect: He busted his iPhone’s screen, tried to fix it, and ended up wrecking it. After honing his technique on a few practice phones he picked up on EBay, Wetherill launched UBreakiFix in 2009, fixing phones at a Panera Bread in Orlando while on lunch break from his regular job as a database designer. Today the company boasts 75 locations in the U.S. and Canada—two-thirds of them franchises. Among its most memorable rescues: retrieving baby pictures from an iPhone that had fallen into a cement mixer. Here Wetherill discusses how technicians share their know-how as the company expands.