Why YourMechanic (YC W12) Chose to Grow Slowly

I think this is a great example of finding an unglamorous problem and then relentlessly executing on it. It's been a pleasure to watch.

- There is clearly an opportunity here and it's more work than simply writing a webapp, putting stripe on it and pumping VC money into Facebook ads. These guys have been doing the dull background work and that's a long-term slog, but an even longer-term win.

- Unlike a lot of startups, there's no clear acquirer on the horizon. I'd bet on a profitable business quietly growing into an IPO and then staying independent. I see some Buffett factor here!

YourMechanic is interesting in that, unlike many other "on-demand" startups, the economics make a lot of sense. They are able to pay their mechanics more than a standard shop (eg. dealer) can pay, and at the same time generally offer same or lower rates for the consumer.

This is probably a combination of two factors: (1) unlike driving, repairing cars requires quite a bit of skill, so the mechanics have some protection against wage cuts (compare to Uber), and (2) a standard mechanic shop has overhead that YourMechanic does not.

"Chose to grow slowly" is a great headline but that's not what happened.

Their business is fundamentally reliant on an accurate and high quality parts sourcing operation, which took years to build:

"To ensure it can provide any and all parts a customer’s repair could require, YourMechanic has had to build out a large catalog of parts from scratch, which took awhile. At the same time, just like any other services startup, it also had to perfect its operations before setting up shop in new markets."

I used YourMechanic for the first time in Denver Co just a few weeks ago: blown away by how easy it was. It absolutely felt like this was not a rushed endeavor and that paid off big time. I will be using them for the foreseeable future.

Is it just me, or are news sites seemingly allergic to actually linking out to the companies profiles in stories such as this? I mean, yeah, I can GoogleDuckBing YourMechanic, but is a little external HREF action too hot to handle? "nofollow" is a thing, they don't have to give it up by linking out.

I wonder how well this works with complex problems. Since many new cars run on computers, how to mobile technicians have the equipment needed to diagnose and fix those kinds of issues I wonder?

This would be great for things like getting your brakes replaced.

Also, I wonder how they handle waste disposal of fluids?

Congrats to the team. Can't wait till they expand someday (hopefully) to my city.

Sometimes simplifying and standardizing the service before growing pays off.