HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

khallil

49 karma · joined August 12, 2015

submissionscomments
khallil··on Tech Dental Startup Looking for New CTO
If it helps, I'd like to throw in my opinion and say Patrick is an outstanding founder, who would be great to work with :)
khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
The main flow of the website is to let us pick the mechanic for you, but for customers that really want to choose their mechanic, they can book directly at fiix.io/mechanics
khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
You're onto something here with maintenance. The worst part about owning a car is maintaining it. Fiix is going to remove all of the hassles of owning a car, and we want to get to the point that you can 'set it and forget it' for general maintenance.
khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
The winter is definitely hard in Toronto, and we work closely with our mechanics to make sure they're warm and safe.

We try to maximize the number of bookings inside a garage, and they're all equipped with both heated jackets and portable heaters.

When it gets way too cold, we prioritize mechanic happiness and reschedule all the jobs for the day.

khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
Our locations are all part of the "GTA" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Toronto_Area)
khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
khallil@fiix.io or m.me/km
khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
So far we have seen no signs of leakage, and we've been monitoring it closely.

A few reasons why leakage doesn't happen:

- Unlike cleaning, this isn't a weekly service, so the incentive is less.

- When our mechanics communicate with customers it gets routed through a Fiix phone number and/or 'business cards' with direct links to re-book them

- Mechanics have also expressed that they don't want customers having their personal phone numbers because it actually takes long to quote out a customer (we've built software to do this instantly).

- Because we do a high volume of repairs, we can get better parts costs than mechanics could on their own

- By going through Fiix, the mechanic gets 'de-risked' as even if the customer complains, or things go wrong, they still get paid

khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
None of our technicians drive tow trucks. You can see some of them, and their reviews here: https://www.fiix.io/mechanics
khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
If the car needs a tow, we'll get it taken to one of our partner shops. So far, we've repaired a few thousand cars and less than 1% have needed a tow. We only contract licensed mechanics with many years of experience, so they can do pretty complex work by jacking up your car on your driveway.

When we were running TireSwap we did on rim tire changes and rotations only (summer to winters and vice versa), so no mounting / balancing was needed.

khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
I'm glad you like the idea :)

We have a few partner shops across the city that we'll get the car towed to in the case that we can't complete the work at their home. That being said, we've completed thousands of repairs and less than 1% have needed the tow service.

Off rim tire changes and wheel balancing are the only services we offer that are non-mobile. These are 'experiments' for now, but we have them on the site because we have other mobile partners that will bring a large truck with the balancing machine and complete the repair.

khallil··on Launch HN: Fiix (YC W17) – Same-Day Auto Repair at Your Home
We pitched to Justin Kan on his snapchat story, and got an interview for the YC Fellowship. If you're interested, you can read the whole story here: https://hackernoon.com/how-to-make-20-000-on-snapchat-and-ge...
khallil··on Instacart is playing games with its workers’ pay
Seems like they're learning a hard lesson on unit economics. We're somehow at a point where companies are burning cash to provide low service fees, and now they need to become profitable.

When there's nothing left to optimize, the way to become profitable is to either pay drivers less or charge customers more, and customers are not down to pay more.

khallil··on A Solar Powered Backpack for Every Child Needing Light
Forbes did a whole feature on this product: http://www.forbes.com/sites/viviennedecker/2016/09/09/the-23...

The founder Salima has applied to YC in the past, so I'm sure she'll be here answering questions