While living in Hout Bay, an opportunity came up for Jade to manage a diamond store. There, he learned how to evaluate gold and diamonds, and gained real experience leading a team as a manager. It was during this same period, around 2014, that he pursued studies in his field of I.T. — keeping his technical foundation sharp even while working in a completely different industry.

Alongside the day job, he never stopped tinkering. Jade began taking on small repair jobs for friends and family, and the feedback was immediate: devices that others had written off were coming back to life, often working better than they had in years.

Jade had a friend who sold accessories in Rondebosch. His friend approached him with an idea: manage the store together, with Jade adding a value-add service by doing the repairs. It made sense — the store already had foot traffic, and Jade could bring the technical side while his friend handled the floor.

It was around this time that Jade employed his first delivery driver — someone he had been close with since school who saw the vision and wanted in. Jade also took on an intern who came through a life coach he had been doing work for since 2014. Together, this small crew assisted with call-outs and home inspections, learning the trade hands-on while keeping up with growing demand.

They worked alongside each other for a good stretch, building a rhythm and serving students and locals in the area. Eventually, they parted ways and closed the store when his friend had an opportunity to move over to Canada. From there, we operated on Ednam Road in Newlands for quite some time, keeping the work going without the storefront overhead.

In early 2018, Jade opened our flagship store — and with it, doubled down on a mission that went far beyond repairs. Fix I.T. became a training ground for young professionals entering the I.T. trade, working with life coaches and recruitment partners to help interns and students build real-world experience while completing their studies.

We also invested back into the community on a national scale, providing free internet access and past exam materials to underprivileged schools across South Africa. We believe everyone deserves a fair chance and a real opportunity to succeed, no matter where they come from.

These aren't just words on a page. Our values are deeply personal. Jade comes from a very large family spread across diverse industries, giving him a wide lens on how different people navigate the world.

More profoundly, when they were in primary school, Jade's brother was knocked over by a car. He recovered, but could never get back into mainstream schooling and faced great learning difficulties. Watching his brother's resilience firsthand shaped Fix I.T.'s core belief: patience, accessibility, and second chances aren't optional — they're essential. That spirit is baked into how we treat every customer, every intern, and every device that crosses our bench.

At a pivotal point in the company's growth, Jade decided to take a sabbatical from Fix I.T. to study finance. His goal was simple: sharpen his business development skills and build a stronger ethical framework for how he wanted to run his own company.

Before stepping away, he handed the client book over to a small circle of existing technicians he trusted — people who knew the standards and shared the same respect for the customer. For a while, the operation ran quietly under their care. But client requests never really stopped; old customers and new leads alike kept asking for Fix I.T. by name. The demand made one thing clear: the brand had built something worth continuing. Jade returned with clearer systems, stronger leadership principles, and a renewed vision.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the repair industry faced severe supply-chain disruptions for replacement parts. Rather than compromise on quality or let our customers down, we made a strategic decision: we closed our two main retail locations and pivoted to a remote, freelance technician model.

This allowed us to maintain our high standards, control our parts sourcing, and continue delivering the same expert service — just without the overhead of a storefront.