Meet Trailblazer Falon Velez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Falon Velez.

Falon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I worked at the Apple store for several years as a tech at the Genius Bar in South Florida stores. Because of my experience with both Apple and Windows products along with the ability to speak Geek in Layman’s terms, I was able to help customers understand technology. My presence at the Apple store grew and my appointments for One to One’s were booked up fast. I had clients asking me to come to their home and teach them in a private setting outside the chaos of the Apple and Windows retail store environment.

I quickly saw a demand for this type of service, as neither Apple nor Windows offered this service to do on-demand tech help and computer training in the privacy of your home or office. I decided to quit working for Apple to finish my last year of college and gave this business idea of “getting tech help to your door” a shot. By the time I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biological anthropology, I went from a single person driving around south Florida helping people in need of tech help, to a company called TeachGeek with a small staff of 3 in south Florida. Three years later, I decided to expand to Denver, Colorado where I now work as an IT consultant for my own company.

Has it been a smooth road?
Fortunately, it has been a smooth road for the most part, but like anything that’s worth fighting for, work is involved. The work can be tedious and at times redundant and not fun, but it’s all well worth it at the end.

The biggest struggle as a young woman entrepreneur has been keeping my ego in check and to remember to stay humble as we strive for equality. Because I’ve seen so many women struggle and men succeed, I have a stigma about men in power and being “better” or more powerful, so I become super competitive at times. Having two awesome boys as main main techs had made me appreciate the younger generation of men who are also feminists and happy to let a woman lead them.

My advice is if you have an idea that you know is unique and you see a demand for, then get out and go for it. You don’t need office space, a fancy App, employees, and a ton of overhead for something you are passionate about. As a woman, don’t be afraid to be smart in an area where men dominate an industry like tech. We truly are much smarter men have dominated for so long we feel inadequate as a woman to these fields of tech and finance. Do not let that stop you. If you have a passion for an industry, go for it! You don’t need a man or money to get you there. Just stay focused and dedicate your time to making your dreams come true! It’s not easy but if it were, we would all be business owners!

The other obstacle as I was growing was finding people to bring on to my team. I am so thankful for the employees we currently have but it was hard finding a team I wanted to grow my company with. My advice is to pay the people you really want to have to help your business grow. I pay them very well, treat them like they are my team, not my employees, and pay to have them well trained in the products and services we sell. We spend time at least once a year getting together to do things outside of the work realm. Treat those people whom you want to help your growing business with love and respect, along with fair pay and you’ll be growing your business in no time!

We’d love to hear more about TeachGeek.
What makes us unique is our ability to have patience but also train our clients to understand that “it’s not broken” but that it is user error mixed with fear of the unknown cyber world. We pride ourselves in making people of all ages understand that it’s not about being dumb or stupid, it’s about understanding how the technology works and how it can be helpful to your everyday life at work or in your home. Because we come to you whenever you are, it helps our clients feel at ease in the comfort of their own home or office setting environments. We also partner with AV Installers and Integrators for companies like Control4, Lutron, and Savant, who work on major higher-end Smart Home projects, to give them a hand with smoothly exiting from installations while leaving us with their valued clients to learn the gadgets they spent lots of money on. We see a big gap between the integrators installing, and the client’s learning. At TeachGeek, we want to partner with these smaller AV companies to be the support and training behind their hard work.

Finally, we began 3D printing and CAD summer camps for kids ages 8 and up, which allows kids to leave an advanced program at a young age and use design thinking to unleash their creativity through Steam principles.
We truly pride ourselves in making others’ lives easier and more efficient through technology, while making learning it fun and stress-free!

Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
I was a huge gamer as a child. I started with my first Gameboy, around the age of four, and the passion for gaming, computing, and “hacking” grew very quickly from there. I was the go-to girl for “fixing” things, especially hardware gadgets like video games, VCR’s (back then!), and computers. And yes, I am still a gamer at heart, and am looking into a new VR setup in my home as we speak!

Pricing:

• Basic in-home tech help – $125/hour
• Basic in-home tech help packages – 4 hours or more – $115/hour
• Basic in-home tech help packages – 6 hours or more – $110/hour

Contact Info:

• Website: teachgeek.co
• Email: hello@teachgeek.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachgeekacademy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teachgeek/

Image Credit:
Michelle Reyes

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