Joel LaRusic, long time Vancouver entrepreneur and founder of Tech Next Door, ran a computer repair shop in North Vancouver for about 10 years.

One day, a gentleman came in because his computer had some sort of virus, or malware. Thing is, it was the same customer who had come in about 6 months ago. "How did this happen?" he lamented, "What am I doing wrong?"

Joel was only able to give him some generic advise such as: "Well, you've got to be careful what you click on" or "You really have to be suspect of email attachments". Over time, similar situations happened and it occurred to Joel that while tech support companies were quick to fix your computer and clean-up your viruses, for a fee... we were not doing enough to make sure people did not get viruses and other malware in the first place.

Another day, the phone rang and Joel picked it up. On the other end was a distraught women who explained that 'Microsoft' had just called her and told her there was a problem with her computer. She allowed them to remotely access her computer and charged her $400 for a lifetime support contract. Joel got several of these calls every week and they were scams. The people were not from Microsoft and the support contract was practically useless. To Joel, it seemed out of control. Cyber criminals were taking advantage of our most vulnerable people... and they were winning. Joel wished he could do more.

Still another day an older man came to pick up his computer from the shop. He asked Joel if he knew of any training programs for seniors to help him understand his computer. He wanted to be productive and stay connected to his family. Joel did not have much to offer. The library offered classes but they were busy and did not cover all that much. One-on-one training, at full rates, was just too expensive. Joel wondered what he could do to fill this void.

As incidents like this happened, seeds were planted and Joel set out to provide a better version of traditional tech support... a version that first and foremost protected the vulnerable and second, that provided training and education to help people use their technology with confidence. Over the course of 18 months, Joel went back to the drawing board and designed a tech support company that addressed security and training. Tech Next Door was born. It is different and superior that traditional support models in many ways.