Kyle
Knoxville, a town in the great state of Tennessee with just under 200,000 people has an entrepreneurial revolution occurring right now. A community group called “Entrepreneurs of Knoxville” or EOK for short, has seen over 40 small businesses and startups launch.
EOK was founded in April 2008 by Leonard “Leo” R. Knight Jr and today it’s amassed over 950 members. They offer a variety of programming from entrepreneurial “support groups” to mentorship efforts and everything in between. They also hold work shops, lectures and a variety of other great events.
Knoxville is just one of nine entrepreneurial pockets across the state of Tennessee. In fact, with nine different high growth areas that means Tennessee residents are never more than an hour and a half away from an entrepreneurial hub. Also, all nine regions within Tennessee are participating in the upcoming Global Entrepreneurship week.
EOK Founder Leo Knight and EOK member Augustine Gattuso launched EOK’s latest startup “FairMechanics” on Thursday.
As you might imagine the goal behind FairMechanics is to help consumers find the most fair mechanic for their next repair needs. FairMechanics offers their platform for bidding out auto problems on the web, and mobile devices with an iOS and Android app.
Rather than just offering a directory of local mechanics, FairMechanics’, platform allows users to bid out the work they need done on their cars. FairMechanics is looking for mechanics to join their service. They’re offering a “first 10 bids” free program for early adopters on the mechanic side.
Their website doesn’t say the vetting process for the mechanics but we’d imagine that there is some kind of process set in order to be able to call the service “FairMechanics” in the first place.
Users will create a profile for their vehicle and post a job out for bid. Mechanics will get the bids delivered to them via email and then the user/shopper will decide on the best mechanic for the job, from the bids they received. A ratings system will be in place when the work is done so that feedback can be given to the mechanics so they can bid on future jobs.
The shopper in this scenario is just as integral to the business model as the mechanic. FairMechanics is helping the user/shopper get their repair work done at the best cost, with the best customer service and the quickest possible. On the mechanic side FairMechanics is giving out job leads for mechanics, and what mechanic would turn down a good quality lead.
Linkage.
Check out this great Knoxville startup here
No one covers high growth tech news in the South East like nibletz.com
Make sure you’re “everywhere else” February 9-12, more info here.
