Social networking to consumer electronics rescue

Why not offer a community-based service, not unlike Google Forums or eBay, so consumers could find solutions for ailing equipment themselves - or pay a reasonable fee for professional help?

From that idea, Bensadon formed a list of reasons to start FixYa.com. On the other hand, his why-not list presented a formidable set of problems that might have kept FixYa.com from being successful.

Given the global reach of the Internet, Bensadon did not think starting up his fix-it-yourself-style consumer service from Israel in 2005 would be a problem. After all, he recently relocated there after living in the US for half of the 1990s. He already knew the English-speaking marketplace from his previous entrepreneurial activities.

However, he had trouble finding financing in his homeland. A lack of suitable answer experts in Israel became another problem. It took moving his business back to the the US to solve both of those issues.

"Nobody wanted to invest in the Internet. Most of the venture capital firms were burned from the first bubble. Israel was a great hub for telecommunications and semiconductors and maybe biotech companies; [but] they didn't understand anything - and maybe still don't - about consumer business on the Internet," Bensadon told the E-Commerce Times.

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