If your mom or girlfriend keeps telling you that you are wasting your life playing video games, invoke the name of Bob Wells.
Co-founder of Vancouver Island’s My Tech Guys, Wells has no formal education in computer technology. He credits the many hours spent playing video games for the intuition he developed when it comes to fixing computers.
“If you are on the forefront of computer gaming, you’re trying out the latest hardware, your computer’s always crashing, and you’re having to know lots about IP addresses and network bandwidth,” Wells said.
After spending some time in Africa, Wells returned to Canada and studied theatre education at the University of Victoria but didn’t finish his degree before landing a job with the Ministry of Education doing fine arts education curriculum development.
Living in Salmon Arm in 2007, he started Silicon Garden, which did website development and computer training. He then moved to Victoria, worked for a number of dot-com companies as a contractor, and ended up as the head of Shaw Cable’s Internet department.
After that, he moved to the Comox Valley to teach computer repair at a private college, and in 2006, he and Scott Swanson decided to start a computer sales and service company that made house calls. Wells said customers like the model of friendly, helpful computer guys who will come and fix your computer when you need it fixed.
“A lot of our clientele are seniors,” Wells said.
The company has grown steadily, with a 50% increase in business in the third year and a 100% increase in the fourth. The company now employs 12 people, has opened a second store, and is making annual sales of $1.8 million. •
