Meet John Harmon

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Harmon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with john below.

John, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I think everyone is tested in their life and sometimes they don’t even see it. Their are different tests that hit us square in the face almost daily. How we respond is what are the building blocks to success. Before I built ObiiGO I was a successful financial advisor and I had challenges daily. Sometimes I didn’t’ want to get out of bed but, you have to access the “pain/reward” emotion and decide what the consequences are. Over time you build up your “emotional” strength and learn to identify the ramifications of bad choices. This also comes from my days playing baseball in college. I had to put in the time to be the best. I had talent but, so did everyone else on that level. I had to work hard. I was in early and stayed late every day. I put in the time to achieve that goal of playing college baseball. Was it painful and did it hurt some days. You bet. Buts I had one direction I was looking at and I was determined to give 100% until I was told it was over. I left everything on the field.

ObiiGO is the same. I’m determined to help every driver in the US and the world save money, time, safety, and frustration through our app. We have built features that help the driver and the shop owner, so it works in unison. When both sides are happy an equal exchange transaction can occur. Businesses today are focused on fees and that bottom line way more than the customer. I think that has been the downfall of many sectors. The auto repair industry has been stuck in a monopoly of dealerships and rogue mechanics for a while. We work with independents only because we feel they can do it better and less expensive. That does not mean it’s done wrong. These shops owners came from dealerships and saw how much upcharge there is. They want to do it better, faster, less expensive. We want to help them be more successful.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

ObiiGO was founded late 2021. Like a lot of companies, we were founded by trying to solve a problem. With over 300 million cars in the US and over 310 million smart phones I knew as a car owner I hated the repair process. I also had insight to the auto repair business and saw the frustration from the car owners driving around from shop to shop looking for the best quote. We built ObiiGO from the ground up created the code. We had to overcome a lot of obstacles to connect our app to shops. I often use the analogy of the iphone when talking to people who say, “I never knew this app existed. Its about time someone built this!” When the iphone came out, no one knew how to work it or what it did. But eventually it has become an extension of our life.
What’s one thing you need daily other than your phone? Your car. Even during covid, you needed a car. The average American today cannot afford a $500 repair and the average repair is $1000. This was another problem we wanted to solve. We built in the first “repair now pay later” payment options with klarna, affirm, Apple Pay. This was a challenge as no one had ever done it before as well. As we continue to ad features, we are now focused on AI and predictive preventive maintenance. This will not be a tool to get you to come in more often for repairs but, to help you determine what you need to do before it becomes a larger issue. We want to save drivers money. Our loyalty of users will come from this. As a bootstrapped startup we are focused every day on growing and sharing what we do. The excitement I have every day is hearing from customers who used our “repair now pay later” and it saved them from coming out of pocket $600. Now they have interest free payments up to 8 weeks. This is the reward. Because of what we built they can buy food, their prescription, rent, get to their job, etc.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I’m always “sharpening the blade” when it comes to learning. The day you realize you don’t know everything and can say it out loud the better off you’ll be. You may be at the top of your field but, there is always something to chase. I was brought up with accountability. I think that’s an important factor for the younger generations. From raking the yard as a 10 year old to meeting my goals today, it all is fundamental. If making your bed first thing when you get up is your goal, set it and do it. Progress is repetition day after day. You’ll stumble, you’ll make mistakes but, you’ll have momentum.

Keep your momentum going. Hang around good people you can learn from. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Our country was built by people who had naysayers in their ears, and they reached for the stars. Be the best you can be. If you’re happy, then you are making a lot of people happy around you. We need more of that today.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

When asked to do this article I didn’t expect one of the questions would be if I’m looking to collaborate with anyone. As I said previously, I’m confident in what I can do but, I don’t know everything. I’m always looking for great collaborations. This is a shout out to every repair facility who reads this to send me an email so I can demo out the app. This is a shout out to everyone who knows or has a good mechanic, and you want them to use ObiiGO so you can reap the rewards and benefits from our app. This is a shout out to every who reads this to download the app.

I’ll always take a meeting to listen. One of the readers may change ObiiGO for the better.

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Image Credits

Credits: ObiiGO

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