Tapping into the US consumer and SMB tech support market projected to reach $30 Billion by 2015, the tech support company Geekatoo launched their consumer-focused tech support platform to follow an entire tech support transaction from request, to offer optimization, coordination, and payment. Poised to raise $1.5 Million on its equity crowdfunding campaign on AngelList, Geekatoo has already secured over $750K on its campaign from investors Haroon Mokhtarzada, Craig Albrecht, William Cordes, Wefunder, 500 Startups and DeNA. Further detailed financial and investor information is disclosed only to AngelList investors regarding Geekatoo’s crowdfunding campaign.
Currently the tech support company’s 4,500 local “registered geek” providers tackle computer repair, networking, virus removal, home theater installation, web design, photo and video. Geekatoo provides reputation-incentives for providers to deliver high quality service. Customers primarily use Geekatoo through its fixed-priced offerings, which undercut the prices of leading tech support providers such as Geek Squad by up to 75%. Clients purchase a SKU, with verified providers claiming a job based on expertise needed and compensation required. Jobs requiring more custom attention may go to bidding. Geekatoo scores its geeks based on job history, skill tests, and certifications.
Co-Founded by former Sun Microsystems Chief of Staff Christian Shelton, a Berkeley, Harvard Kennedy School and London School of Economics grad, and former local ABC reporter Kevin Davis, Geekatoo has witnessed an enviable revenue spike since launching in 2011; this February the company reported $40,000 revenue and continued to steadily grow each month to reach $117,000 in revenue by May 2014. Geekatoo takes about a 30% cut from jobs depending on the service. According to its campaign, most popular services have proven to be virus removal, data recovery, networking, printers, home theater installation, and with adult children repeatedly requesting help for their parents.
The pitch: “Drop the Squad,” BestBuy’s Geek Squad, that is. Geek Squad currently charges $299 for onsite virus removal and other computer related issues. Geekatoo can offer customers the same service for $129. As another counter-example, Geek Squad often sends devices and computers to its central processing facility in Kentucky, preventing a speedy resolution to many problems; this inefficiency provides an advantageous opportunity to Geekatoo’s locally-sourced 
Uber model. Geekatoo promises that the submitting a problem online or with the app “takes less than 5 minutes and [they’ll] send a geek to you within 24-48 hours.” Prompts help the future customer easily describe desired tech solution and see a cost summary and list of “what you get” during the service.
$500,000 initial seed funding was raised in January 2014 by investors including Tim Sullivan, Christine Tsai, Dave McClure, Eric Ries, Parker Thompson, 500 Startups and Microventures.
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