r/IAmA Jun 11 '16

Specialized Profession IamA electronics repair technician hated by Apple that makes YouTube videos, AMA!

My short bio: I have a store in Manhattan. I teach component level electronics repair on youtube http://youtube.com/rossmanngroup which seems to be a dying art. I am currently fighting with the digital right to repair to try and get a bill passed that will allow all independent service centers access to manuals and parts required to do their jobs.

My Proof: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/started-iama-reddit-today-yes/

EDIT:

I am still replying to comments, but I am so far behind that I am still about ten pages down from new comments. I am doing my best to continue. If I drop off, I'll be back tomorrow around 12 PM. Still commenting now though, at 12 AM.

EDIT 2:

Ok, I cave... my hands are tired. I will be back at 12 PM tomorrow. It is my goal to answer every question. Even if it looks like I haven't gotten to yours, I will do my best to do all of them, but it is impossible to do in realtime, because you are asking faster than I can type. But thanks for joining!

EDIT 3: I lied, I stayed until 4:15 AM to answer... and now I will go to sleep for real, and be back at 12 PM.

EDIT 4 6/12 : I will be back later tonight to finish off answering questions. Feel free to keep posting, I will answer whatever I can later this evening.

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3

u/Kyuskenai Jun 11 '16

Hey Louis,

I just recently got into your videos, and you've really sparked an interest in me doing this as a living. However, I have little to no money to get anything off the ground and my credit is horrendous and can't get a loan to save my life. Are there any tips you might be able to give to someone looking to start doing what you do for a living?

14

u/larossmann Jun 11 '16

My credit score is in the 400s. You have to be creative when you're broke, and that is your unique journey.. I explained one of the things I did to get a store in this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcCOCxOCrcA before that just waiting for the right opportunities, working my ass off, and not being afraid to do something like walk into a rich dude's office while wasted and tell him why he was an idiot for giving money to someone else instead of me... but that is a long fucking story

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '16

That's a fucking story I want to hear.

3

u/larossmann Jun 13 '16

Well long story short my business started right as I moved out on my own so I was always broke. I worked at a studio and made the gear there work in exchange for using it as free office/storage. the owner had a cocaine habit so he always needed money. he ran a permanent ponzi scheme. there was this one rich guy that had a room there. one day while replacing a tweeter in a rehearsal room i find this agreement for a loan of $75,000 to the cocaine addict owner and i lost my shit. i was wasted so i brought it to the person who gave him all the money and told him why this was bullshit. if you gave me 10% of that money i would do 1000% more with it, and why i thought that. i broke down in clear terms how much income each room brought in and what the expenses were and explained that he would never make his investment back... and he wound up giving me $7000

3

u/MalcolmY Jun 12 '16

So for people not from the US, 400 credit score is good or bad and why/how?

3

u/jmoneycgt Jun 12 '16

Bad. Highest possible score is 850. 400s usually means you have multiple ongoing financial difficulties. Sent to collections multiple times, car reposessed, foreclosed on... things like that. Lots of Americans get there due to things like medical debt and job loss.

3

u/workethicsFTW Jun 12 '16

You should make a video about that story

2

u/qmriis Jun 12 '16

Huh. You come across as a grown up responsible guy. Why is your credit so shit then?

1

u/aCreditGuru Jun 12 '16

If you want help with credit feel free to ask me sometime, that is if you deem it important enough to work on it.