When iPhones first came out, everyone loved them.
Until they dropped them.
Same with tablets.
Even laptops get dropped.
More than a decade ago, Matt Nathanson looked at all those cracked screens, and saw something more than broken glass.
He saw a business opportunity.
Matt Nathanson
He and a partner started one of New York City’s first phone repair companies.
Matt knew nothing about fixing phones. His college major was “interactive systems”: websites, photo design, audio and video editing.
After graduating he freelanccd for a music PR firm. He was worked on Counting Crows’ MySpace — the early social networking service peaked right around the time Apple introduced its iPhone — and with bands like Florence & The Machine.
But Nathanson is the kind of guy who figures things out. He learned how to fix screens. He built a website. And he started dispatching guys on scooters to pick up broken phones all over the city, bring them to his Upper East Side apartment, and — after a $100 repair — return them to their owners.
The business grew. At its height — working in shared office spaces — Nathanson was working with clients like the NFL, Skadden Arps and Viacom.
Those are big companies. They had lots of broken screens. And they wanted them fixed, fast.
Repair at work.
For a variety of reasons, Nathanson’s New York business took a hit during COVID. But he had a fallback: Westfield, New Jersey.
He’d expanded there in 2016 at the urging of his wife, a Garden State native. When the pandemic struck — and work migrated to people’s dining rooms and bedrooms — “we became everyone’s IT department,” he says.
In January 2020 — a few weeks before COVID hit — Nathanson and his wife visited Westport.
It was cold and rainy. Looking for something to do, his wife said, “Let’s look at houses.”
They walked into a Wright Street open house, and started chatting with realtor Michael Mombello.
They had no intention of buying. But he was happy to show them houses, and they were having fun seeing houses they were not going to buy.
The seventh house was an 1868 home on Wilton Road, with slanted floors and un-level door frames. They loved it.
The couple closed 2 1/2 months later, just as COVID hit.
“It’s the best thing we ever did,” Nathanson says. “If it was 3 months later, we couldn’t have afforded it.”
Nathanson commuted to Westfield — a town he calls similar to Westport.
But he began looking for space here too.
Finally, he found it: a spot on Riverside Avenue, next to Jr’s Deli & Grille.
The Device Shop opened last month.
They fix plenty of screens, on all kinds of devices (usually within an hour). They use all original Apple parts — no knock-offs.
They repair Microsoft Windows PCs too.
But they do plenty more. They diagnose problems; install hardware and software, and remove viruses and spyware.
They replace batteries, handle camera issues and charging problems; recover data, and troubleshoot printer problems.
Relax while your repair is made — or go next door to Jr’s, for coffee or a meal.
In New Jersey, Nathanson works closely with local school districts. He just picked up 100 Chromebooks that need work, and will drop them off soon. He hopes to establish relationships with districts in this area too.
Also ahead: on-site, in-home, small business IT, and home automation with products like Sonos and Nest.
Word of mouth is spreading. Nathanson loves Westport, and customers are loving his work.
The Device Shop is getting more and more calls every day.
Often from devices with cracked screens.
(Click here for The Device Shop’s website. The Instagram is @TheDeviceShopWestport.)
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