Ah, the water-damaged phone. You’ve most likely held one in your quivering, helpless hands, pondering how you’ll carry on with your tech-dependent life. In this day and age, when people can’t move an inch without their precious electronics, it’s a common occurrence — one that about 22 million Americans experience every year, according to TekDry Device Rescue.
Who is TekDry? Oh, you know, just the company that figured out how to end the sorrows of those millions of wet phone owners far and wide. Straight out of DU’s MBA program has come a solution for all wet electronics, including phones, cameras, laptops and iPads.
In spring 2012, Eric Jones (MBA ’13), Craig Beinecke (MBA ’13) and Adam Cookson (MBA ’13) chose to deal with the problem of water-damaged electronics for their main MBA project. It went so well that several DU instructors advised them to quit their jobs. They did, and TekDry has been on the rise ever since.
By creating a machine with an extreme drying chamber monitored by various software and sensors, the three found a way to rescue not just water-damaged electronics, but also totally soaked ones in just 20 minutes.
The TekDry team has a storefront in Westminster, Colo., but their expansion plans don’t include opening more stores of their own. The three have been traveling around the country, looking to place their machines in established repair shops and electronic stores. “We’d rather partner with somebody who already knows how to do everything else, and simply provide an opportunity for the water side of things,” Beinecke says.
In October, the company inked a deal to put its machines into 82 Staples stores around the country; TekDry also is exploring other uses for its technology, including health care — sterilizing medical devices — food technology and circuit board manufacturing.
A few final words from the TekDry Staff: Devices bigger than large laptops don’t currently fit in the machine; power down your device if it’s still on after it’s water-damaged; don’t plug your device in after it’s water-damaged; don’t put it in rice after it’s water-damaged (they’ve proven that method ineffective); and even if your phone is still working, it won’t be for long, and you should get it dried out immediately. Their rescues have been over 75 percent effective with phones that weren’t kept on or plugged in.