The Digital Doctor will see you now

0:02Hello and welcome to the VergeCast, the flagship podcast of tiny screwdrivers. I'm your friend David Pierce and today on the show we're talking about repair shops. My guest is a guy named Leo Mastrolia who you might know from the internet as the digital doctor. He started a repair shop a bunch of years ago. That has grown and next to it has grown a big content business. So we originally invited Leo on the show to talk about Ramageddon. We were curious what he's been seeing in terms of repairs, how people are thinking about repairs. keeping devices longer, all that good stuff. But we ended up having a really long conversation about how repairs work in general and how he's thinking about the content side of his business and what it means to be a repair shop and a creator in the world we live in now, plus just some fun stories from the digital doctor shop.

0:47So we're actually going to do this episode in two parts. Today, you're going to hear Leo's story about what his life has been like as a creator, as a person working on gadgets, as a person thinking about the future of electronics and how real people can use them. Really fun. And then tomorrow, we're going to get deep into the weeds of Ramageddon and how it's changing the gadget business. So for now, the story of Leo coming in just a second. But first, here's everything else happening on The Verge today. I'm Nathan Edwards, and this is 90 Seconds on The Verge for Monday, August 17th, 2026. There's a new opt-in feature in ChatGPT's macOS app that lets your agent learn from the actions you take on your computer.

1:24to help finish tasks you're in the middle of and suggest skills and automations based on how you use your computer, according to the company. The company says it doesn't save images, video, or audio, and it ignores incognito and private browser tabs, but it does track mouse clicks, typing, and app switches. Have fun with that. I will not. On Friday, Amazon updated its terms and conditions with new language. Customers now have to agree that any dispute will be resolved with binding arbitration and agree to a class action waiver. Amazon took similar language out of its terms and conditions in 2021.

1:54Uber is partnering with a drone delivery company to deliver Uber Eats through the air. The company announced a partnership with Zipline, which operates in Japan, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d 'Ivoire, Kenya, and Dallas-Fort Worth. They aim to start delivering this year and reach 1 million daily drone deliveries by 2029. It's one of many recent delivery deals, thanks to new FAA rules. DoorDash launched a similar program last month. And finally, Disney held its D23 fan event this past weekend with a new trailer for Avengers There's Doomsday, a new X-Men cast, some Star Wars stuff, and a teaser for a CGI Bluey movie.

2:26I'm just going to say it. There's too much Bluey stuff now. You got to let the dogs rest, Disney. You can read more at TheVerge.com. That's 90 seconds on The Verge for Monday, August 17th, 2026.

2:51turn after turn. With consistent tone, interruption handling, and plenty of personality. So your agents keep it flowing and customers can just keep talking. Try DeepGram Flux TTS free now until September 12th. Visit deepgram.com slash keep talking. Terms of pie. Apple News Plus has everything you're into all in one place. Over 500 publications covering the topics that matter most to you. Thousands of recipes from celebrated food publications around the world. Local news from all 50 states. Sports covers from across the globe. Audio stories you can take anywhere. And daily puzzles exclusive to Apple News Plus.

3:33All of it curated just for you. New subscribers try it free for one month at news.apple.com. Terms apply. All right, let's talk repairs. Joining me now, Leo Mishulia, the digital doctor. How are you? Good. How you doing? Thank you for having me. My pleasure. Thank you for being here. So we have a lot to talk about. It turns out that your story sort of intersects with every single thing we ever talk about on The Verge Cast. But I want to start with the beginnings of Digital Doctor repairs, because I think you started this five or six years ago at a moment where, if I'm being completely honest, starting a gadget repair shop would have been a very strange, like if we were friends at that time and you were like, I think I want to start a thing to repair people's gadgets.

4:21I would have been like, that's a weird idea. Why on earth would you do that? So rewind a little bit for me and tell me the sort of origin story of this repair shop of yours. funny enough too you're gonna get a kick out of this i decided to open up in the peak of covid too i thought that was a great idea um physical retail yeah what could go wrong so i was 18 years old um i was working at wawa i was doing overnights and i also got a job working at another cell phone repair shop fixing phones because i would be atrocious with my phone i would always be breaking it eventually got to the point where i asked um my former boss bill i said hey like can you give me a job like i want to learn how to do this i want to stop giving you all this money every month because I was breaking my phone constantly.

4:59And he took the chance. He said, yeah, come on. So I worked with him for about a year. I saved up all the money I had. College wasn't really for me. So I knew I wanted to do something on my own route. I've always been very self-driven. And there was a local spot in town that was for rent. So I decided to just take the leap of faith. I spent every last dollar I had. Like I said, it was the middle of COVID, but it was an essential business. I knew that since everybody's working remote, they need phones, tablets, computers, everything for work. And there was nothing else in the area also besides a couple of small kiosks in the mall, but the closest mall is about 45 minutes away.

5:35So I decided to take the leap and it really did play out really well. So I'm very blessed. Was it a big success from the very beginning? Because it's interesting timing in that, like you're just saying, everyone at that moment had just bought a bunch of new devices. Yeah. And everybody was trying to figure out all their work from home gear. Everybody had upgraded their laptops. This is when like everyone on earth bought a Peloton. So your timing in that sense was really good. Did it pan out right away? So, I mean, just like starting any business, I'm sure even when you guys started The Verge, like it takes time to build up that momentum.

6:10I remember the first six months of having my business, I was still doing overnights at Wawa and I changed my direct deposit. So I'd go into the business account, kind of supplemented a little bit. And that kept me afloat until I actually started building the client base. And then ever since then, I mean, year after year, it's just been getting crazier and crazier. What were people bringing you in those early days? Like, do you have memories of the first few things that came in? Yeah, mostly the simple stuff like screen repairs and batteries, a lot of tablets, computers with water damage. Really depends on the type of day.

6:41I always tell people, because this is a very common question I get asked, like, what do you mostly see the most of? I tell them it depends on the week. Like, I feel like it comes in waves. One week will be only samsung phones the next week it'll be only game consoles like playstations um and then week by week you get an influx of different things but in the early days it was definitely just a weird mix scattered here and there you know we are dangerously close to validating everybody's conspiracy theories that these companies design their products to all fail at about the same time yeah but it's like if you get you know the the run of iphones two weeks before the iphone event And every year it's like, listen up Apple, we've got you.

7:17It's not a conspiracy. I mean, it is true. Even with the new liquid glass update that they release, all those older phones are really struggling to keep up. Yeah, that's very true. So at what point do you look at this business and say, okay, I've started this repair shop. It's going pretty well. People are starting to find me. I would assume a big part of it is kind of the local experience, right? People like having a place to go where they can talk to a person as opposed to trying to navigate YouTube or figure something out over a phone. And like a huge part of this is the customer experience.

7:48At what point do you then turn and think, okay, there's a content business here. I want to start making content as I'm actually doing the job. Was that part of the plan at the beginning? It wasn't until about a few years ago. I dabbled a little bit. I mean, if you scroll far enough on my page, I released a couple of videos here and there because content has always been like my dream. Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a YouTuber. I did like stop motion animations. and if anybody remembers go animate out there i used to do like some really crappy animations on there um but like filming and creativity and youtubers i grew up on like all i'd watch as a child was youtube like ray william johnson all these big creators at the time smosh and all these other guys and techs always you know inspired me too like i've always wanted to get like a new pc and stuff like that as any kid wants you know yeah but the real takeoff didn't happen until I was more established in my business.

8:39And the reason the content side of my business is so like just performing so well is the same reason my actual business is performing really well. It's because it's like what you said. People just want to come in and have a personalized experience. Like, all right, that's the guy that's going to help me. Because unfortunately in today's society, most people unfortunately don't really care to help you out. They're just there to collect the paycheck, go home. If there's something that's a little hard or challenging, they just say, oh, sorry, I can't help you. Go elsewhere. and they want to push that burden onto somebody else.

9:08But these are mothers and parents and people that like need their devices. Like you can't go about your normal life without having tech, going to DMV, appointments. Everything is online. So it's a very crucial step that you need to have all these devices working in their full ability. But like I said, the main thing is, you know, because I'm just so personable with people and I just want to help people out. That's why they keep coming back and that's why they like the videos as well. So I imagine though that there's a day where you decide, okay, hey, I'm going to strap a GoPro to the top of my head just while I do business and then just sort of see what happens.

9:43Like there's a real I'm just going to put this camera on my face and see what happens energy to some of your videos. Is that how it went down? So I actually reached out to a close friend of mine. Her name's Alaya. I reached out to her and I was like, hey, like I'm looking for more people. My business has really taken off. Like I really need some help. Like just if you want to be like a secretary and sit up front. And she's like, hey, like I do social media and like I can really help you out. um i think if we do some skits and work on stuff like this like we can really grow something and i was like all right let's let's try this out so when i first started making my videos we did a lot of skit videos do not watch them they're absolutely cringe terrible um i don't want to i don't want to take them down because i like seeing the progress sure but like i'm imagining like the office but set at the digital doctor yeah yeah basically okay i love this this is terrible Terrible, terrible.

10:30But then eventually we started seeing like very common. If you go on Instagram, it's mostly meta footage now, like people wearing the meta glasses. Eventually we decided to switch to those and say like, hey, how about you just show yourself fixing and helping people out? And ever since then, I mean, it blew up. Do you get people now who come to the store and want to be content? Yeah, I would say 90 % of people that come in are probably because they watch the videos. I mean, a lot of times they'll come in and say, hey, I love the videos. I drove from Brooklyn. I like a lot of people from the city drive an hour and a half, two hours to come see me.

11:07Tons of people from out of state drive in. But do you think it's because this is a thing I've always wondered about channels like this, where you are sort of it's content, but it's also a business. And for whatever reason, for the longest time, my feed was filled with kids getting haircuts. Like for whatever reason, I just ended up on cool haircut TikTok. talk you know what i'm talking about right we're on we're on the same side of the algorithm for sure yeah yeah so and i found myself wondering for the longest time like they would talk about you know these people drove four hours just to get their haircut by me and it would be like okay do they do this because they think it's going to be an awesome haircut and they saw the haircut and were like i want that it's definitely the content definitely it's because they want to be on the channel i think so yeah okay okay do you ever get people who you come in who come in and they're like clearly playing a character and being weird and you're like you need to you need to cool you know not really because i've seen other creators where like that's their like genre like their niche is like their videos are always like crazy story um i'm not gonna name names but there's another creator who does like the same type of videos i do and like the people that come in are very over the top and it like feels like i wouldn't say scripted but definitely like more staged and like awkward um i like to keep my channel like completely like genuine just put on the glasses, record, do what I normally would do if the cameras are on because you come into my store, I'm going to treat you exactly the same way that I do with the glasses on or off.

12:33And I think that's why it resonates so well is because people know if they come in, I'm going to just help them out, treat them like a person. It's going to be a pleasant experience. I can hang out with my cats, you know, and life's good. The cats are a very important part of the channel. Some people come in just for them, believe it or not. I would assume. And I really like there's a moment in like two thirds of your videos where you try to find the cat. And for some reason, that always makes me laugh. They're always like, where's the cat? We want to see the cat. So I'm like, I don't even know where he's at.

12:59It's great. So at some point, I would imagine the business is going well. The content business starts to grow. These two things start to feed each other, I would assume, right? So that you get more business, which leads to more content, which leads to more business, which leads to more content. Do you separate those things in your head that you have the repair shop and you have the content business and they are different things? Or do they increasingly smash into each other? So that's a really, really good question because this is the main issue I've been running into recently is how do I balance that?

13:30How do I balance the content and the business? Because the content, obviously, like you said, gives me more business. So I can't lack on that. And like the viewerships and like people from Philippines and New York and India and like all over the world reach out because they love the videos. They're never going to come in. You know, they're countries away. So I don't want to let those people down, but also I can't let the physical business, if you drop off a device, I can't let that also take a hit because I'm sitting there recording content all day. So my main goal over the next few months is try to build up more of a team, like a team of editors and filmers.

14:01This kind of helped me leave that workload because I'm just simply one person. And my tech, Dominic, he's way too busy with repairs. Like we'll get down like 30 devices a day and there's still a stack of like 300 devices in store because we also accept mail-ins. So like they're just coming in all the time. So it definitely is something I don't have a direct answer to yet because I'm still trying to navigate it. Does it change the thing in your mind when you start getting big in this particular way? Like not only does the volume go up, but like I saw one of your videos where your face appears in a reflection and there's this big kerfuffle in the comments.

14:37It's like face reveal. We see Leo now. You are a celebrity in a way now, right? And it's definitely a different way of thinking about the business. And I think I ask this in part because I've seen so many things like this go from I am a business that makes content about my business to I am a media company that happens to have a retail store. Right. And it ends up being a really different kind of phenomenon. And I think particularly coming from where you come from, where it's like I did this not to be a content business, but because I wanted to start this repair shop. And that business is also going very well for a bunch of reasons we should talk about.

15:16It just strikes me as keeping that thing sort of pure in the way that you want it to be is going to be continually harder as the business of content gets bigger and bigger. For sure. And especially because like the type of content I release now, like I like doing it. I absolutely love doing customer interactions and stuff. But I also do like long format videos. And there's a lot of stuff on the long format that I can do that I can't do in a short. and I really want to be able to experiment with stuff like that, like tech reviews and stuff like that. But simply, I just don't have the time. I'm pulled in every different direction.

15:50I mean, theoretically, your content business is big enough now. You have a couple million followers across platforms. You could, with a straight face, just say, screw the repair shop. I am going to be a tech YouTuber now. Has that thought crossed your mind? A few times. I have a very big problem of letting people down though. And I have built up a crazy big local base of like just moms and grandpas and stuff that come to me for everything. And those people, like, what are they going to do? I know a lot of creators are doing that. They also have stores. They're just strictly focusing on the content, which is always a possibility.

16:25But I haven't really made a decision yet of where I want to take it. But I have some ideas of different directions. I just want to try to handle all the eggs in one basket as long as I can until I have to make like a serious change, you know? Yeah. What is the oldest stuff you see people coming in consistently with? No, I don't mean like, I'm sure somebody is showing up with the 7, but is there like a generation of devices you're starting to see more and more of now? Honestly, this happens a lot in my business is like when I first started, it was mostly SEs and 11s and XRs. stars and like a few 12s and 13s and then the next year it like just moves over just like the next couple generations is the most common repair and then the real old ones like you barely touch you do like one or two a week um like now it's mostly 15 16 17s and like 13s a year ago super popular repair i was doing iphone 13 repairs every day 10 15 a day now it's like one or two you know if that you see the migration of people moving over to the newer generation and then it's usually not the newest phone but a couple before that is the ones that people fix in the most interesting i guess that makes sense and it's it's sort of a bummer that it's not older than that you know what i mean like even the fact that the 13 has kind of fallen out of your purview it has that's not that old a phone and and i think it says a lot about the moment that we're in that even with phones, I think people are still upgrading more frequently.

17:57Like my guess is most people are holding on to their laptops much longer than they used to. They just last longer than they used to. I think top priority is the phones for sure. The laptops, most people, they don't really care about. Yeah, and I think we're all so trained to upgrade our phones every couple of years that the idea of it still mostly does what I need it to, I'm just going to keep it. I think it's still pretty rare. And it seems like that's kind of what you're seeing too. Yeah, no, definitely. That's really interesting. So what are the big problems people come in with? I assume I can guess, right?

18:28Screens, batteries, other various, I dropped it and something happened. But I noticed on your channel, one thing I'm constantly shocked by is how many specific software problems people are having. Some of it is like, I can't use my phone, but some of it is also like, people seem to constantly have weird pop-up problems on their phones that they don't know how to solve. How much is the breakdown kind of hardware versus software problems people are having? If I had to guess, I would say probably about 25 % is software based. And more so it's software towards Android phones more than anything. Like Android phones have very common issue when it comes to the bloatware apps.

19:08Like anything that's PDF reader or weather apps. These aren't legit apps. What they do is they call pop-ups. And then when you go to hit the X, it'll literally download more and more of them in. and then eventually the phone just becomes unusable. Just add, add, add, add, add. So I think Android phones definitely have more of a software issue when it comes to stuff like that. But even iPhone users, especially if they've gotten the phone fixed before, sometimes the screens will just freeze up and you have to do a soft reset. Kind of stupid, in my opinion, that all phones now you have to hold the power with the volume buttons, even on the Android phones the same way in order to turn the phone off because older people, they're like, I'm hitting the power button, it's not doing anything.

19:44But a lot of times too, iPhones will have that issue where they just freeze and there's no way to turn it off unless you do a soft reset. But if your phone's not working, how are you going to Google it? Yeah, it's a really interesting one. And I think that's such a funny example of it is a very simple thing to know the right answer for how to turn your phone off. But it is actually incredibly unintuitive how to turn your phone off. It's a strange state of affairs. What about on the hardware side? Is there anything that might surprise me that you see a lot of these days? Well, I'm down in the Jersey Shore.

20:14So, I mean, we do in the summer times, definitely a lot of water damage. People still take their phones into the ocean, the pool. Despite all belief about phones being waterproof, they're water resistant. They'll say waterproof to a certain degree, but I always tell people I don't trust it at all. I have a lot of customers, they come in, they get a splash from a wave. It eats through that adhesive, especially salt water, gets in the phone. I was going to say, waterproof also does not include salt water. and super doesn't include like dirty shore salt water. That green water, yeah. And another thing too is rice.

20:49Don't put your phone in rice. I mean, the only thing that rice is good for is you're not charging your phone because that's like being in a bathtub and dropping a toaster while you're in there. It fries everything. So the best thing to do is turn the phone off. If you could take it to a repair shop so they can open it up, dry it up, clean it with alcohol to prevent any future corrosion. But honestly, the best thing to do if you get water damage is just back it up, you know, fix the bare minimum and go trade it in and get a new phone because water damage is always tricky.

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23:46You're mentioning wanting to do right by customers, and it does seem like that particular calculation you're describing, like, should I do nothing? Should I fix it and give it back to you? or should I do the minimum viable amount so that you can go trade it in? I'm imagining you're doing that math constantly. Walk me through that process a little bit. Depends on the person. So you can kind of gauge a person's needs by how they're coming into you if they're like, and usually they'll tell you to. Like, hey, they come in in a panic. Oh my God, I have all this appointments, like appointment, I got a flight later today and I need this phone working, my ticket's on there.

24:24You know, so you can kind of gauge, all right they need a fix now but what i like to do in certain situations where it's like water damage like let's stay on water damage for a second with water damage i tell them hey i can get this phone on and working especially because i plug it in it's vibrating but nothing's on the screen but if you take a look here like the cameras they're super fogged up so water's by the cameras i'll pop it open i'll show them hey the entire inside of the phone's wet what i recommend i give them multiple options i say what i recommend is do the bare minimum fix it trade it in but if you want to fix it and keep using it, that's on you.

24:57But I'm just trying to save you the money and the headaches moving forward in the future because, you know, water damage is always very, very annoying. And I just I try to lay out as many options as I can. I let them choose. And I never try to push anybody in the right like in in the direction that I want them to do. I just want them to make a decision. If they say, hey, I want to go somewhere else. That's fine. You know, make your own decision as long as you're happy with it. And that's pretty much it. I would assume that most people are in some kind of hurry by the time they get to you. Right.