Teens parlay computer hobby into money-making repair firm

Thursday, July 12, 2001 (CORAL GABLES)
BY NATALIE LAMELA, Herald Writer

For Robert Burr and Matthew Ahearn, a chance encounter in a psychology class at Coral Gables High School has turned into a profitable business venture.

When the pair met, they realized they had something in common: an interest in computers. So Matthew joined Robert's Miami-based computer repair business, Two Computer Guys.

Robert, 18, started the company in 1998, parlaying his hobby of fixing computers into a money-making endeavor. At the time, he had a partner, hence the name.

But after a few weeks, Robert, then 16, was doing all the work himself.

His parents drove him to the jobs where he made repairs and upgrades and even to computer trainings after school and on weekends.

Robert kept things going himself until October, when he met 17-year-old Matthew, a New York transplant.

Now, Two Computer Guys has expanded its services from Coral Gables into South Miami.

They offer repair, updates and training but also home-to-office networking, software installations, printers and scanners and Internet help.

They also create custom-made computers -- Matthew's specialty.

The two guys charge $30 an hour, with a one-hour minimum.

The price also includes step-by-step explanation of what's going on.

The duo has developed a system: Matthew works on the computer figuring out what the problem is, tells Rob, who then translates Matt's computer terminology into simple, layman's terms.

``Robert has a great way of explaining it,'' said customer June Edwards, 68. ``Which is what I liked. He made you do it hands-on, instead of just talking. He'd say, `You do it now,' making you repeat it until you got it right.''

Edwards began taking training lessons with the two and, over a period of three months, became advanced enough to teach her husband about computers.

For Spanish speakers, Matthew, who is Cuban-Irish, translates.

``I can express myself little in English,'' said another customer, Humberto Herrera, 68. ``But I can't really understand it. I would talk to Mathew in Spanish and he would explain what was wrong and what had to happen to fix, in Spanish, so I understood.''

``We want to educate you,'' Robert said, ``not keep knowledge to ourselves. With that attitude, technology can't grow because people aren't able to add to it. And that way, you'll feel comfortable and be able to do it for the rest of your life on your own computer. We teach you how to fish instead of just showing you to the river.''

The pair grew up using computers. Robert's parents owned Quantum Leap Technology Co., which made CD-ROMs. Now, his parents own a Web-hosting business with 140 domains and 250 sites.

Matthew's dad was a military staff sergeant who used computers for formulas for his job.

This gave the teens the opportunity to start off with computers. As technology advanced, so did Robert and Matthew.

Now, they have to figure out the future -- for them and their company.

Continuing education is a main concern. Matthew plans to study computer engineering and receive computer certifications.

Robert plans to study photojournalism and radio broadcasting at Miami-Dade Community College and later transfer to the University of Florida.

As for the company, there are plans to hire more technicians.

The grand dream is much more ambitious: a franchise system, what Matthew calls, ``The McDonald's of the computer world.''