Meet Limvirak Chea, CEO and co-founder of Fixter

Hi Limvirak, thank you for joining me, could you please give our readers a short introduction into the CEO and co-founder of Fixter?

Of course, thank you for having me, Nadine!

Well, firstly my name is Limvirak Chea. I was born in the Philippines to Cambodian parents and spent my early life growing up in several places. We went on to live in Saudi Arabia, DR Congo, Mauritania, Niger and later relocated to France, so it's fair to say I've called quite a few places my home! I was mainly educated in the US and France, as I attended University and made my first steps in my career there. I then moved to the UK fifteen years ago and embraced my passion for being a digital entrepreneur. Before launching Fixter, I was lucky enough to experience working at Google, scaling Eventbrite across Europe and helping other early-stage entrepreneurs with their businesses. The next logical step was to pursue a start-up of my own and I found the perfect co-founders to do it with.

Before we jump into Fixter, tell me about your morning routine or ritual to get your day started on the right foot? 

I guess everything changed with Covid-19 in March this year.

I usually read the news because I always like to know what’s going on in the world. It’s important to keep an eye on it. However, I probably read too much about Coronavirus so I dialled it down after reading pretty much everything I could find in the news for the first month or so. Then my morning routine consists of a quick check of my emails and Slack messages, in case anything urgent comes up. I then shower, have breakfast with my kids and do the school run (since lockdown!). It used to be a quick shower and bike ride to the office where I liked to arrive early (8-8:30 am), as it’s calmer, but I have adjusted my pattern in the last 6 months, since leaving the office and working from home.

Thanks for that Limvirak. So, what inspired you to launch Fixter and what is the end goal?

The idea of Fixter really came from my own experience as a car owner with a busy schedule. Car maintenance always seemed time-consuming and difficult for me. I never knew much about cars and I didn’t know where to start with maintaining my car properly. I couldn’t find an easy and suitable solution for myself online and that’s how Fixter was born. Since everything is online nowadays, I wanted to create a future proof platform that can build a bridge between customers and garages, with the end goal of making car maintenance as easy as ordering a takeaway. We are working towards a digital transformation in the car maintenance industry in order to create a convenient solution for the generations to come.

How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?

Fixter solves current market issues associated with the car maintenance industry, which carries a reputation for lacking transparency and trust. The aim was to turn the industry upside down and really focus on people’s needs and what it actually takes to create a revolutionising service in a crowded market place. As a result, we are solving those market issues with a tech approach. Our end-to-end solution includes the collection and delivery of customer cars, in-house Fixter mechanics, upfront quotes and brilliant customer service. Additionally, we are leading the way in the digital transformation of the car maintenance industry, which unlike most contemporary industries, has inherently rejected digitalisation. We also work with carefully selected independent garages to support individual businesses, which is more important than ever.

We hear a lot about culture in large corporations, but how important is company culture in a tech start-up like Fixter, and what is your top tip to get it right?

I believe that the team is one of the most important factors for a startup’s success. Company culture is a powerful tool to enable the team to make the right decisions without having to wait for decisions from the managers. Subsequently, the person who is doing the work every day can react quickly to the changing environment, which is exactly what a startup needs to beat the big corporations. 

At Fixter we have 7 core values to our culture.

Hiring is important to build the right company culture. The first step is to hire people that excel with those values. I have personally interviewed all the employees in Fixter. When hiring a new candidate, we have a culture interview to make sure the person we are hiring is lined up with our values. 

Then repeat, repeat, repeat. In our old office, we used to put our values on the walls. I talk about our company values every month at our company-wide meetings. We have also set up awards as a platform for employees’ to tell their own stories of excelling in one or more of the company values.

Staying on the topic of people, does your company help the community that you’re located in?

Absolutely, for example, throughout the ongoing pandemic, we felt it was our responsibility to help those most vulnerable during the peak of the virus, not only to ensure their physical safety but also relieve their mental stresses and strains, in a period of significant uncertainty. As a result, we have focused on offering help to the most vulnerable people in London, by giving over 65s the opportunity to request delivery of essential items when their cars are collected and returned.  In conjunction with this initiative, we also announced a special discount for key workers, offering free collection and delivery of their car and a £10 contribution to their order. This initiative aimed to ensure that the UK’s key workers who work tirelessly around the clock, are able to keep safe and mobile.

It is also very important for us to look after our drivers and ensure their safety at all times. While our Fixter heroes operate within their local area so they don’t have to travel too far, in March we also launched an initiative to follow all World Health Organization (WHO) protocols, including handwashing, gel protocols and maintaining safe distances when dealing with customers, as well as using forensic principles to guide the processes of sanitising customer’s cars.

What plans do you have for Fixter over the next two years?

We’re planning to double our revenues in 2020 and scale across the whole of the UK - and believe it or not, we are still on track to do so, even with the ongoing pandemic. We are using big data to constantly refine our quote engine and offer the fairest prices to our customers. The most exciting project is the online software we are currently working on to help our partners digitise their workshop and increase their productivity. Since we define ourselves as a tech company, this will be a great way to demonstrate our abilities. 

In the last couple of years, a lot of work has gone into the consumer side of things and the customer journey. Looking forward, we want to focus on creating a more profitable business for independent garages too. They are currently using a portal to communicate with us, that makes the whole experience easier for them and our customers. We aim for garages to be able to use the best of Fixter, throughout all of their operations and improve efficiency to run their garages. We’re also focusing on securing funding for our international expansion.

Before moving on,  I know that keeping an eye on the numbers in any business is important. Subsequently, how do you ensure that you’re always up to date?

Naturally I’m very data-centric and keeping an eye on the numbers is ingrained into my daily routine. My morning always starts with looking at daily reports I receive and giving my feedback to the team. Generally I like to catch up with the leadership team first thing in the morning to make sure we are aligned for the day ahead.

Are there any specific product or service launches we should know about?

We have been working on our ‘quote engine’, which uses big data and machine learning to automate the process of giving quotes. In the car maintenance industry, the price for car parts, labour hours and rates are constantly changing. It is still mostly a manual process to quote customers how much repair work cost. Failing to accurately estimate the labour time or parts prices could result in a loss for the work done and damaging customer trust. Using our quote engine, we’ll be able to provide accurate, instant prices for customers, enabling transparency in the car maintenance industry. 

As previously mentioned, within the next couple of years we are also planning to launch online software which will help our partners digitalise their workshop, which will be significant in increasing productivity. The software will be a long-term solution for customers and garages and will be a big milestone in redefining the car maintenance industry. Of course there is plenty more in the pipeline but as i’m sure you can understand we cannot say too much at this time.

As the CEO and co-founder of a successful start-up, what would be your top marketing tip to grow a business that is niche?

First of all, the car service, maintenance and repairs market is worth a staggering £13 billion per annum - in the UK alone! However, as previously mentioned, this industry is also the largest consumer market that’s still untouched by the digital revolution, and for many that's just because “that’s the way it is”. 

To grow a startup is not easy. We choose to focus our marketing message around convenience and affordability, which resonates with our core audience very well.  As I mentioned earlier, one of our core values is ‘either win or learn’, so we are always testing new ideas and new channels to find the right recipe for growth.

And finally, with all the success stories around entrepreneurship and how innovative people have to be to take the leap. How do you think you’ve innovated your sector and why?

I think that we have paved the way towards the digitalisation of the car maintenance industry and are continuously challenging the negative perceptions which have previously been associated with car maintenance. Our innovative service offering means that car owners no longer need to threat over being misquoted, overwhelmed with complicated jargon, as well as many other things. We are very passionate to support and modernise independent garages as well as help them prepare for the next generation of car owners.

Additionally, we are freeing up people’s time to do the things that really matter to them, and that’s why I believe we appeal to such a wide audience and that the future looks very bright for Fixter.