Idea
Remote Geek Squad: one-tap screen control for non-techy people
Sam pitches a Geek Squad model with no house calls — let someone install an app, tap one button, and you remotely control their phone/computer to set things up (PayPal, Venmo, screen sharing). Geek Squad reportedly does ~$2B revenue at 50% margins.
“And what I think is, how can I just do this Geek Squad model but without driving to someone's home and just having people who could just be like, 'Look, install this app.' literally click one button, boom, I'm now controlling your phone. Now let me show you, watch how I'm doing that.”
Steal thisOffer remote, one-tap screen-control tech help for non-technical users instead of in-person house calls.
Idea
Geek Squad Local: hyper-local teen franchisees, app-dispatched
Shaan's hyper-local franchise model for home-tech help: recruit 15-18 year olds via Facebook to run their neighborhood, teach them 3 tasks, run demand-gen Facebook ads, and dispatch the nearest kid via a 'Mayday' button — paying them ~$20/hr while keeping ~$20/hr margin.
“hey kid, hey, you know, 18-year-old kid, 17-year-old kid, maybe actually even 15, so you can get a few years out of them as they build this business. But basically say, hey Hey, you can run it for your local, like, neighborhood and area, and you can make, you know, $40,000 a year doing this, or $30,000 a year, which will sound like a million dollars a year to, you know, a 16-year-old kid.”
Steal thisRecruit local teens as franchise operators and dispatch them on-demand via an app for home-tech jobs.
Idea
Asset-light franchises: a franchised, remote Geek Squad for work-from-home IT
Bakke argues classic franchises are asset-heavy (rent, equipment), so the opportunity is asset-light franchises for the remote-work era, e.g. a franchised Geek Squad selling regional territories that companies pay a monthly fee to make their IT problems go away.
“And I think that somebody will build like a multibillion-dollar company basically doing like a franchised version of Geek Squad. I think that that's one super interesting example.”
Steal thisTake a 70-year-old franchise model and strip out the real estate and equipment for the remote era.