My teenage daughter’s face flooded with anxiety as she uttered the words any father fears to hear. No, not those words. But still, not good: “Dad, I think I spilled water on my computer.”
I snatched up her 2017 MacBook Air and quickly tapped a random sequence of keys before thumping the space bar a bunch of times with one thumb. When that failed to revive the drowned machine, I held down the power button for a long time while reattaching the power cable. Still nothing. My amateur toolbox empty, I decided to call a pro.
Shain Cox was born and raised in Santa Barbara. As a kid, fascinated with computers, he tore apart his dad’s 2005 IBM laptop and put it back together. In college, at the University of Redlands, where he earned a degree in business administration, he enjoyed fixing his friends’ computers. Encouraged by his housemate, Cox started charging for his skills, which now range from home computer repair and data recovery to network problem-solving and home-theater installation, plus a sizable menu of business services. In 2015, Cox founded AnyTechCA ( anytechca.com ), and he recently hit his two-year anniversary running shop out of a downstairs desk at Impact Hub on State Street.