Andrew Jervis is a man on a mission – to make the process of getting your car fixed as convenient as possible.
The 38-year-old has the automotive industry in his blood: his grandfather worked as an Army mechanic during World War Two while both his dad and brother earned a living by getting oil under their fingernails.
His approach is a little different: he is transporting the garage to your driveway and addressing a growing need for straightforward repairs through his expanding company ClickMechanic.
“When I was studying for a Masters degree I became interested in the repairs space,” Jervis explained.
“I learned two important things: 50% of consumers dislike the experience of getting their vehicles fixed and there are billions of pounds being spent on repairs every year.
“I knew there was something in that and decided to create a business that would bring trust, transparency and convenience to the repair market.”
ClickMechanic is an online repair market where customers input details of the problem they are experiencing with their vehicles before they are supplied with a quote from one of the hundreds of trusted mechanics who work under its banner.
“Most repairs can be done remotely, without having to go to a garage. A mechanic comes to them, wherever they are, and does the repair there and then,” says Jervis.
“My co-founder Felix Kenton used his skills to build and maintain the initial version of the proprietary software we use which uses millions of data points around repair times, part prices, average regional labour rates. This is how we keep all our service offerings updated.”
A Lancaster University business graduate, Jervis went straight into a banking role back home on the Isle of Man. After a stint of travelling he was eager to establish his own business.
He explained: “My first venture was selling car accessories online. This earned me a decent living but I wanted to solve the bigger problem of the repair space.”
His Masters education in entrepreneurship enabled him to explore finding a solution to the issues he had identified in the motor repair industry and this is where he wrote the first business plan for ClickMechanic.
Jervis took this and applied for a technology accelerator programme in London, where he met his co-founder.
“We got a bedsit together and just started building this business. We were living very lean, buying food from the reduced section at supermarkets,” he recalls.
But the founders kept pushing and spent the next few years raising money through investors and growing their company.
Then came a major bump in the road: COVID-19. At the start of 2020, they lost 50% of their web traffic almost overnight.
“The pandemic brought new challenges but I think as a team we responded quite well,” reflects Jervis.
“We learned some new things, in particular how we could operate remotely as a business which is something we’d never even considered before.
“We’ve kept going and kept growing and I don’t think I’ll ever get to a point where I’ll think, ‘That’s it, I’m done’. I want to keep building.
“We currently have a core team of 25 and more than 1,000 mechanics on the books.
“We’ve got a strategic framework for how we’re going to grow in the next three years, and we’ve got our finger on the pulse when it comes to trends so we’re always ready when we need to adapt.”