Mclean, Va.-based Geek Squad killers, Online Owls, announced on Wednesday that they are launching in the greater Washington, D.C area.
The still-young startup, which provides on-demand IT support services from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. for $79 per hour, was previously operating a pilot in Herndon, Va. The move will position the startup to compete with local and franchise electronic hardware stores that offer similar in-store services, as they continue to expand.
The difference between competitors and Online Owls, IT support veteran CEO Bruno Bianchi tells DC Inno, comes from the company’s high quality technicians, less than one hour average arrival time, transparent pricing options, the on-demand model, easy online scheduling and the co-founder’s 15-year experience in the larger field.
At the moment, Online Owls is entirely bootstrapped by co-founders Bianchi and brother Italo Bianchi, who also serves as CTO. Since June, Online Owls is averaging one service call a day without any marketing effort outside of Google adwords express.
The freelance technicians that are sent for house calls are vetted, trained and receive ongoing refreshers throughout their work to effectively service new devices. Jobs include troubleshooting hardware and software issues on desktops, reconnecting internet service, dealing with viruses on laptops and completing hardware installations, among other things.
“We expect most of the business from our initial launch will come from northern Virginia because we’ve already started in Herndon, and we’re based in McLean,” Bianchi said, “right now, we have a 20-30 mile radius limit for in-home visits, but it really depends on individual technicians and how far they are willing drive. We can, of course, always try to resolve a customer’s issue over the phone, so in that respect, we can help anyone anywhere in the U.S. with remote support.”
Founded last November, Online Owls has anywhere between 10 and 30 technicians on call, today, these individuals are freelancers/contractors who Bianchi said are typically local IT support staff looking to scoop a couple extra hours of pay per week. And it’s an area of need for both customers and freelancers in the region, according to Bianchi, because of the plethora of new consumer electronics entering the market and northern Virginia’s growing tech support community that desires an alternative/additional revenue stream.
It’s also important to note that the startup’s regional launch comes at an especially advantageous time, just two months before the holiday season and the impending revenue burst it provides most consumer electronics businesses.
Bianchi went on to compare the work model for Online Owls’ “contractors” to that of gig economy king Uber, complete with an upcoming customer review/rating system and location tool to best suit user needs in the shortest amount of time, but it also comes with one major exception.
"we will expand our service area drastically in the near future"
Online Owls currently has no mobile application and though they’re developing an iOS/Android version, the current set up has perhaps surprisingly unaffected customer growth. Bianchi says that this may be because many of startup’s early customers are less tech savvy, including stay-at-home moms and the elderly. In addition, downloading an app, inputting financial information and then registering an account could be considered a point of friction for the sale—and especially is user only plans on using the service one time.
“Strategically speaking we will expand our service area drastically in the near future, targeting Frederick, Baltimore, Annapolis, Richmond and the area in between as soon as 2016. Our expansion will be in incremental steps as we secure funding, build our company and staff and grow our network of independent technicians,” Bianchi told DC Inno.
