From a power plant classroom to 7,500 repairs a year
I was born in 1990. In 2007, I enrolled at the Saint Petersburg State Technological University of Plant Polymers to study Industrial Heat Power Engineering, on a full state scholarship, because my family couldn’t have paid for it otherwise. Two years in, I added a second degree in Organizational Management. I graduated in 2012 with two diplomas and zero interest in working at a power plant.
- 1990
Born
Born in 1990.
- 2007
Saint Petersburg
Enrolled at the Saint Petersburg State Technological University of Plant Polymers: Industrial Heat Power Engineering, full state scholarship. Added a second degree in Organizational Management two years in.
- 2012
Gold-Standart
Graduated with two diplomas and opened Gold-Standart, a sports nutrition store that grew into five retail supermarkets, wholesale, and a category-leading e-commerce operation: $1M annual revenue, up to 1,000 orders a day.
- 2022
Miami
Moved to the US with his wife and two daughters, starting from zero. First repair job: a refrigerator in Sunny Isles Beach, three hours just to diagnose.
- 2022
Berne
Founded Berne Appliance Repair in October. Year one: two technicians, about 35 jobs a month.
- 2026
Today
Three brands across Florida, 30+ people, 20 field technicians, around 7,500 service jobs a year. Premium vendor for commercial clients servicing major retail chains.
0 jobs a month then. 0 a year now.
The first business
In October 2012, a few months out of university, I opened my first business: Gold-Standart, a sports nutrition store. Over the next ten years it grew into a chain of five retail supermarkets, a wholesale operation, and one of the strongest e-commerce stores in the category. We became the regional leader and one of the first sellers to dominate the sports nutrition category on AliExpress.
At our peak we were doing $1M in annual revenue and up to 1,000 orders a day.
But the part I’m most proud of isn’t the revenue. We built the sports community around us. We organized and funded competitions, brought international athletes to compete, and essentially carried entire sports federations (armlifting, powerlifting, bodybuilding) on our shoulders. The biggest moment was bringing the US national armlifting team to compete alongside our APL federation. For a business that started as one supplement store, that was surreal.
The decision
By early 2022, the economy around me was heading downhill and I no longer saw a future for my business, or, more importantly, for my two daughters. We made the call that thousands of families have made before us: start over somewhere safer, with more opportunity.
We landed in Miami in early 2022. Me, my wife, two kids, and a business back home that I would eventually shut down for good in 2023. Ten years of work: five stores, a warehouse, a team, a community. And I was starting from zero in a country where I knew almost no one.
The screwdriver
Those first months were hard in a way that’s difficult to explain to anyone who hasn’t immigrated. Then, almost by accident, a friend told me about the appliance repair industry.
Here’s the thing: I’m an engineer by education. Thermodynamics, heat transfer, the physics behind every refrigerator and dryer ever built. But I hadn’t held a screwdriver in twenty years. I’d spent a decade running stores, not fixing machines.
My first job was a refrigerator in Sunny Isles Beach with a burned-out heating element. It took me three hours just to figure out what was wrong with it. The next job was a dryer, and I actually knew how to fix that one. It still took me over seven hours.
But something clicked. The engineering education that I thought I’d never use turned out to be a superpower in this trade. I wasn’t memorizing repair procedures. I understood why machines fail. Within months I was diagnosing faster and fixing better than people who’d been in the industry for years. I learned the trade hands-on from a business partner, and when we eventually went our separate ways, amicably, I started building my own network.
Berne
In October 2022, I founded Berne Appliance Repair. The name is just my last name, shortened. In the first year we were two technicians doing about 35 jobs a month.
Today, the network runs three brands across Florida: Berne Repair in Broward and Palm Beach, Berne Appliance Repair in Miami-Dade, and Norma Appliance Repair in Tampa. We’re a team of more than 30 people: 20 field technicians, 6 dispatchers, and 3 managers, handling around 7,500 service jobs a year. We’re also a premium vendor for commercial clients servicing major retail chains.
From 35 jobs a month to 7,500 a year, in under four years, in a country I’d just moved to, in a trade I’d never worked in.
What I care about now
Finding great technicians
It’s the hardest problem in this industry, and I think about it constantly, including how to make Berne the company technicians actually want to work for. If that’s you, we’re hiring.
Automation
I’m an engineer at heart, so half my company runs on systems I’ve built: parts-lookup bots for technicians, automated bid management, AI-assisted dispatching workflows. A 30-person service company can run like a 100-person one if you build the right tools.
The story itself
Skilled trades in America are full of opportunity that nobody talks about. I went from immigrant with no industry experience to a 30-person company in four years. Not because I’m special, but because this industry rewards people who show up and think. More people should know that.