Kenji Nakamura came to Vancouver from Japan in 2019 as a software developer. In March 2024, his company did a round of layoffs. He was in it.
Three months of job applications. Some interviews. Lots of waiting. And a growing realisation: he had spent his entire career building things for other people's platforms. He knew electronics. He had been repairing his family's devices since he was 16. Why was he job-hunting when he could build?
The Decision to Build Instead
Kenji used $24,000 of his severance to open a shop in Kitsilano — Vancouver's affluent west-side neighborhood, full of tech workers, young professionals, and UBC faculty with expensive devices.
He set up RepairCoreX on the free plan the week before he opened.
"I came from software. I know what a good CRM does for customer experience. RepairCoreX was the equivalent for a repair shop — job tracking, customer notifications, inventory, revenue reporting. It was the obvious choice."
The Right-to-Repair Timing
Kenji's timing was fortuitous. Canada's right-to-repair legislation had just passed, meaning he could order genuine Apple-certified parts directly. His customers — Vancouver's tech-literate professional community — knew about right-to-repair. When Kenji explained he used OEM-quality parts with documented provenance, they trusted him immediately.
"Vancouver tech workers understand supply chains," he says. "When I showed them the parts documentation in RepairCoreX and issued a professional invoice, they appreciated it on a different level."
Month by Month
Kenji now earns CAD $25,000–$28,000 monthly net.
His Message
"Being laid off is terrifying when it happens," he says. "But it forced me to build something I actually own. RepairCoreX gave me the system to run it professionally from day one."
"Canada has a huge repair market and not enough professional shops. The right-to-repair law has just opened it further. If you have technical skill and you're considering this — stop considering and start building."
The free plan is the starting point. The market is ready.