Take a moment to head over to the Technician Blog where we are opening up our comments to find a slogan for the MinuteFix t-shirt. If your slogan wins, you get a free T. This is your chance to make your mark on us (and get some free shwag).

Update: The deadline has been extended to Sunday, May 4th. Speak up now.

Credit: “Home of the 99c special” was submitted by our MinuteFix Certified Technician Jessee Petersen. This is only a demo.

MinuteFix will be attending the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on April 23rd and 24th. If you are too, drop us a line, we’d love to meet up and talk. Web 2.0 is at the heart of a community like ours, and being based in Silicon Valley, there is no better place to be this week. We are excited about the industry and in meeting other industry leaders, sharing ideas, leveraging our talents and improving our world through technology.

As the old expression goes, some words are worth their weight in gold. Today we woke up to this blog post that is titled MinuteFix Revolutionizes Technical Support, Period.

We’re glad our message is coming across crystal clear. We’re here to make a change, and we’ll work tirelessly until the job is done.

The big day has arrived. We have been working for this day for several months now, and it has been well over a year since this idea came about. Over seven of us have been working on this project full-time, tirelessly to deliver a product that will change the world of tech support, and the time has come.

We are very proud of what we are releasing today, and are well aware that it is far from over. On the contrary, this is the very beginning.

We are happy to annouce that we are launching with a 50-strong community of Certified MinuteFix Techncians. A group of stellar support experts who are certified by MinuteFix and bring with them a great deal of industry-related certfications from Microsoft and HDI. The community is certified by MinuteFix in Microsoft Windows, Vista, Office, Antivirus and Security and general technologies. They are online now and ready to help.

Thank you to all of those who were part of this, for your individual contributions and for your support. It’s time to start helping people with their technology problems, and today, with the launch of MinuteFix, it is our promise that we will do our very best.

Welcome to MinuteFix.

We’re just few days from opening the doors to the world. After months of planning, testing and fund-raising, the day is almost here. We already have a fast-growing community of Certified MinuteFix Technicians rolling up there sleeves for the big day. We’ve opened the site to a select number of users to kick the tires and so far, we’re getting great reviews. Now, we’re almost ready for primetime.

We’ve been getting tons of requests for a sneek view into what’s cooking behind the curtain. So, you’ve asked for it, here’s a preview of what is to come…

One of the final steps in opening up our doors has been the integration of our secure payment system. Today we received a welcoming package from the friendly folks at Discover. Discover? I said to myself — does anyone still use Discover? Well, we’ll soon find out.

Inside the welcome package was this window decal. We don’t really have the proverbial glass door to display it on, but it does make us feel like we’re in business.

Do you have a Discover card?

MinuteFix is as much about connecting people as it is about providing technology support. I met Phil last year at SOBCon, a yearly business blogging conference held in Chicago where we both were invited to speak. Phil came across immediately as the type of person who I’d like to be associated with: energetic, sincere, fast on his feet, young and enthusiastic. Not to mention his face is always flooded with a contagious smile. Months later when we started building what is now MinuteFix, Phil’s background and personality just seemed like a perfect match to the promise we have made at MinuteFix.
 
Phil Gerbyshak is known in the blogging circles the “Relationship Geek.” He says his mission on this planet is simple: To help people unleash the greatness inside them. He connects people to these ideas to take them to the next level. But not only does Phil understand the importance of building relationships in business, but he has a passion and background for the essence of what is MinuteFix.
 
Phil has been working in the Help Desk and Customer Service area for over 20 years and has been involved with HDI (Help Desk Institute) for the past years as the local chapter officer in Milwaukee. He currently manages an IT Help Desk at a financial services company where his team of 7 technicians support over 2,000 desktop computers around the world. Phil is the author of the book 10 Ways to Make It Great!, as well as a professional speaker.
 
I’m happy to announce that Phil has joined our founding team as consultant and advisor. He will be helping us with building a solid community of technicians by offering training and strategic planning while helping us build strong communication ties to our global community of users. Phil brings tremendous experience, knowledge and connections to the help desk industry, and sees MinuteFix as an ideal project where he can blend his passion for forming great relationships and delivering what he knows best–delivering great technology support.
 
Welcome aboard Phil, and thanks for making us great.

MinuteFix has been selected to present to the influential Harvard Business Angels in San Francisco in December. The group, which meets quarterly, brings successful entrepreneurs and professional investors together to listen to 3 early-stage companies pitch their idea. This time, more than 40 Silicon Valley startups have applied, and MinuteFix has been selected as one of the three presenting companies. A combination of a sizeable potential market and a compelling product offering has opened the door for us to Harvard.

I’ve always admired leaders who come forward with honesty in times of adversity. History repeats itself, and it takes smart men and women to realize that the truth will always surface. It would seem that these simple concepts are obvious, unfortunately more often than not, they obviously aren’t. Companies have to grow aware of the power of online communications these days, and the strength of the online community. Modern companies must act quickly when things go wrong.

Crisis management has always fascinated me. I think that great leaders show their true colors in times of trouble, not in times of bliss. It takes true character to say I’m sorry; and have always admired people who are capable of a seemingly simple gesture.

Today, at MinuteFix, we partnered with the Cadillac of Managed Hosting providers. We take our technology decisions very seriously, and often times, base our selections on less ordinary characteristics. We’re like that. We like to make logical decisions without feeling the pressure of what classic startups should do. That is why our business model is so unique. We like to focus on what we do best, and hand off crucial, but non-central pieces of our technology to those who are the best at what they do. We’re proud to say that our soon-to-launch production environment is now in the hands of the great people at RackSpace.

You might have heard that RackSpace suffered a massive outage on Sunday of this week causing a large number of their customer’s servers to go offline. Why then have we chosen RackSpace as our partner, you may ask? Well, there are four simple reasons.

• First, we’ve become RackSpace customers after the outage, not before. RackSpace has been through the one-in-a-million crisis that managed hosting companies never even plan for, so now that they have been through the worst, we know we’re at an advantage.
• Secondly, we too are a customer service company. We’ve always admired the Fanatical Support promised by RackSpace (I’ve worked with them previously), and it has always been an inspiration to put communication and customer service before technology.
• Third, thanks to Xavier Resendez at RackSpace we have a solid server environment, at a killer price. Always an incentive for early-stage ventures like ours.
• And lastly, I was very impressed by how Lanham Napier, CEO of RackSpace handled their downtime crisis. It displays great character and determination; that is the type of company we want to be associated with.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank those who have believed in our team, our vision, the market potential and our product and are making this all happen. As Christmas makes its way into shopping centers, tvs and churches around the globe, it makes sense to take a moment to acknowledge that angels do indeed exist. Thanks to those who have come from above to keep the lights on and our servers running. I’d like you to know that we are very frugal with what we have, just swing by our loaner offices anytime and you will just see how.

A quick thanks is also in order to our pre-angel supporters: Visa, MasterCard and AmericanExpress.

MinuteFix is a California-France-based company. Yes, the wine might seem strangely coincidental, but there’s more to it. With offices in San Jose and Paris, we cover both continents and dig our roots into the technology centers of the western world. MinuteFix this week inaugurated its Parisian office located at 18 Rue Montmartre in the 1st arrondissement in Paris. Overlooking the Eglise Saint-Eustache, Paris’ oldest cathedral, we are now in closer access to European partners, capital and technicians.

We are also in Paris because we believe in revolution. MinuteFix knows no borders when spreading the world’s wealth, all while changing the way people interact with technology. Our economic model is unique; it reflects our desire to touch people’s lives and empower those who could otherwise never participate in a fair, level marketplace. Not unlike those great thinkers and leaders who did their part for equality and justice, many of whom still lie in this great city. We too intend to make an impact on the modern world with what we do best–technology–and we believe Paris is the right place to do it.

Well, it’s official. MinuteFix now has an office, founders’ commitments, and a head’s start to building a product that will touch the lives of many, worldwide. It all starts just like this: some power, water, a chair and a desk. We’ve been fortunate enough to be allowed to piggy-back on the offices of Hogares Realty, who have kindly provided this office space free of charge for the first few months of our hatching. Thanks to the early believers in our dream — we won’t disappoint you.