Natalie Semmel Photo
Asher Arka and Gary Murphy at new downtown iZeek.
A new tech shop has opened on College Street. The shop’s operators are promising “fast quality” phone repair “without the hassle of going to a big store.”
The sleek white shop, called iZeek (rhymes with “geek”) opened Jan. 28 at 250 College. It’s the third out of what its owners envision as at least an eight-shop chain in the state.
Asher Arka and John Akdeniz founded the company in 2016. They both had backgrounds in computing. Pooling their modest savings, they opened the first iZeek branch in Hamden.
“We weren’t sure if we would make it,” Arka recalled.
Word of mouth helped their success. Within a few months, they had a repair contract with Hamden’s public schools.
Word of mouth also introduced Arka and Akdeniz to Gary Murphy. Murphy is a licensed optician, with a background in retail. He first went to iZeek in 2017 to get a broken device repaired. “I went to iZeek because it was highly recommended by a friend,” Murphy said. He wanted to join them. “I said, ‘you guys are great. How can I get in?’”
Murphy became a partner. He is taking charge of iZeek’s new College Street location.
“This is a great location to be an alternative to going to say, the Apple store,” he said.
As at the two other branches, iZeek repairs phones, tablets, computers, game consoles, and other pieces of technology. “We mostly get phones, but other things come in, too,” Murphy said. He and Arka said it usually takes around 15 minutes for the average repair, although that number can change depending on the damage and device size.
iZeek looks to open five more stores in the next two years. Arka is scouting locations in West Hartford, Norwalk, and Greenwich.
Natalie Semmel is a junior at New Haven Academy.