Smartphones, while advanced and important pieces of technology, are more fragile than some users would like them to be, with repairs sometimes costing as much as the phone itself. One college student company looks to repair phones in a more accessible and cost friendly way.
In October 2016, mechanical engineering sophomore Xavier Benavides started a mobile technology device repair company called Mobile-Squared.
Mobile-Squared travels around the Bryan-College Station area fixing phones, iPods and iPads at a cheaper price than companies providing similar services as a means of growing funds to expand to other services that Benavides hopes will one day rival major network providers and Apple services.
The idea to start Mobile-Squared came to Benavides after a skateboarding accident in 10th grade left his iPod screen broken. Benavides took his iPod into an Apple Store to have it fixed and learned that Apple charged $300 for screen repairs at the time. Benavides refused to pay $300 for the repair, and turned to the YouTube community to learn how to fix his device. According to Benavides, word of his successful self-repair spread quickly through his high school.
“In high school I was known as the ‘phone guy,’” Benavides said. “That’s pretty much what got the whole nature of the service going.”
After high school Benavides noticed a growing demand for screen repairs and decided to turn his service capabilities into a business with a beating heart.
Mobile- Squared is different from other companies that perform screen repairs because their technicians come to customers and fix screens onsite within 30 minutes to an hour of receiving a call for help. With equipment purchased from an electronics supplier in California, gloves to protect the inside of devices from oil and dirt, and a piece of equipment 3D printed by Benavides, Mobile-Squared technicians are efficient with both their time and their clients.  
According to Benavides, providing service is the ultimate goal for his company.
“It’s honestly such a humble and convenient service that we want people to know about,” Benavides said. “We don’t want people to be phoneless or disconnected for three days because they didn’t know who to come to. Service is everything.”
Shelby Mullens, Mobile-Squared COO, graduated from Texas A&M in May of 2016 with a degree in physics. Mullens became involved with Mobile-Squared after fielding a call from Benavides while working at TEEX, the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service. Mullens said the problem-solving skills she learned as a physicist have helped her as a young entrepreneur.
“It’s always about how you get to the end point and what’s the best [and] cheapest way we can solve problems for people,” Mullens said. “For Mobile-Squared it’s about figuring out how can we provide more services for people. So, I’m a physicist by training, but a problem solver by trade.”
Mullens is working to develop an expansion plan for Mobile-Squared that would put the company at the University of Houston by the end of the year and at University of Texas shortly after.
“We’re really targeting colleges because that’s where there’s the most need,” Mullens said. “So many college kids break their phones, so this plan works for our business model.”
Bilal Sheikh is a biomedical sciences sophomore at Texas A&M and a Mobile-Squared customer. Sheikh said he was glad to use Mobile-Squared as an Aggie. After Mobile-Squared repaired his phone it worked almost as good as new.
“You can definitely trust Aggies more,” Sheikh said. “I don’t have a doubt giving my phone to them, and they have a guarantee that it will be as good as new. I’d rather give my phone to an Aggie than just some guy who works at a cell phone store.”
Benavides has also started working on a patent for a device he created to make phone repairs more efficient and easier for technicians. In the future Benavides said he hopes to help solve global problems by using Mobile-Squared technology as an educational tool.
“I’d call myself crazy, but someone else would call me a visionary,” Benavides said. “I am a mind striving for global advancement. If you can simplify me into one sentence, that is pretty much what I am. I just want the world to advance socially, economically and physically… When you have a better life you can focus on human advancement, too.”