From Sinaloa to Tucson: How one business owner built a tech repair company from the ground up

For Tucson residents who need a phone, computer or other device repaired, iFIX Smartronics represents more than a neighborhood technology shop. On the city’s North Side, the business is also the result of one owner’s long path from Angostura, Sinaloa, to Southern Arizona, followed by years in Texas and a return home just as the COVID-19 pandemic began. Jesus Mascareño has built the company around technical skill, persistence and a desire to serve the community where he and his family now live.

Mascareño grew up in Angostura, a town in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, and developed an early interest in understanding how things worked. As a child, he routinely took objects apart and, at least according to his own lighthearted description, managed to put them back together afterward. That curiosity eventually focused on science, computers and hands-on repair work, giving him the foundation for a career that would combine technical knowledge with the practical work of running a business.

His education brought him to Tucson. Mascareño attended Pima Community College on a full scholarship, where he began developing the skills that would support his future in technology. He later continued at the University of Arizona, also with a full scholarship, and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2006. Tucson became an important part of both his professional and personal life. He met his wife, Megan, and they married in 2009. The couple now has two children.

After finishing his education, Mascareño moved to McAllen, Texas, to be closer to relatives who were living in the area. There, he began turning his interest in repair into a business. In 2011, he opened iFIX Smartronics and spent the next eight years establishing a brick-and-mortar operation serving customers in the Rio Grande Valley, in deep South Texas. The work required more than the ability to diagnose broken electronics. It also meant building trust with customers, managing the everyday demands of a small business and creating a stable livelihood for his family.

Although Mascareño and his family valued their time in Texas, Tucson remained a natural place to return. He moved back to the Old Pueblo in late 2019, bringing iFIX Smartronics with him and opening a Tucson location. The timing quickly created an additional challenge. The business was getting established when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted communities and businesses across the country. Rather than wait for conditions to become easier, Mascareño decided to move forward, taking the risk of building the local operation during an unusually uncertain period.

That decision has helped the company develop a customer base in Tucson over the past six years. iFIX Smartronics repairs phones, computers and other technology, providing a service that has become increasingly important as work, school, communication and daily tasks depend on electronic devices. For customers, a repair shop can offer an alternative to replacing expensive equipment. For Mascareño, each repair is part of a larger effort to create something independently, using the technical abilities he developed through school and years of experience.

The business has not been insulated from wider economic pressures. Tariffs affecting international imports have raised costs for some of the parts and products used in repairs. As a result, the company has had to increase prices on certain services. Those higher costs add pressure for a small business and for customers who are already trying to keep older devices working rather than purchase replacements. Even with those challenges, Mascareño says the company has built a strong base of customers in Tucson.

His plans now extend beyond individual repairs. Mascareño is working to secure local contracts with school districts for information technology services, an effort that could connect the company more directly with Tucson area institutions. He is also focusing on public education about online safety and ways people can remain alert to potential threats on the internet. That outreach reflects a broader view of technology repair, one that includes helping people understand how to protect themselves and use their devices responsibly.

Mascareño’s story connects several places and stages of life, from his childhood in Sinaloa to his education in Tucson, his business years in Texas and his return to the city he considers an obvious home for his family and company. The business did not arrive fully formed. It grew through scholarships, family decisions, bilingual friendships, long-term customer relationships and the willingness to take a chance during the pandemic. At iFIX Smartronics, repairing technology is the visible service, but the larger project is the steady construction of a locally rooted business built through perseverance and hard work.