Our Story

QuickTech was started in September of 2009 by Travis Mettler in his garage in San Marcos California. It all started because his laptop broke & he took it to the local computer shop & they charged him $200, returned it & said it was fixed. Within a week the same problem, the laptop was broken again. So, he took it back again they “fixed” it & again within a week it was broken again (same problem). When he took it back the 3^rd time, they said they had done all they could do & there were no refunds. He had been to another famous chain of stores that offered tech support & been treated terribly there, so what to do?

In Travis’ early years his mother owned a health food store & the computer age was beginning. She bought a computer & a manual & told him it was his responsibility to fix & use it to help her in the health food store. Just by reading books he was able to fix complex problems, teach himself some coding & run the computer with ease. As he grew up he realized this was a natural talent / interest. When it was time to start college, he opted for a degree in web / graphic design. Part of the way through school his work was recognized by a local artist & was hired to be their full-time web & graphic designer, thus ending his college career.

Travis promptly started his company T.G.M.M. Designs (TGMM being his initials Travis Graig Minarik Mettler). He had only one client, but it was enough to pay the bills in his small lakeside apartment with 2 other roommates. It quickly became apparent that web design was not for him. Working long hours alone in front of a computer screen reviewing code was tedious and boring. All throughout his life he had been a people person, the chatty life of the party. What to do? All his life computers were a passion, but customer interaction was the fuel that excited him every day.

Flash forward to 2009 at home frustrated with a broken computer & out $200! A lightning bolt struck, “I can do it better!” So, through online classes and books from the library (we still used those places back in the day) he was able fix his own computer. Over the summer of 2009 (I mentioned he was chatty) family & friends started to bring him their technology problems to solve. By September he felt confident to contact a local computer club and offer to give a lecture on “speeding up & cleaning up your computer”. He had been preparing for his public debut, he had obtained a business license, hired a local graphic designer to make him a logo & even created flyers to pass out offering this “Speed & Clean service to all who possessed this flyer for $100. It was an instant success the flyers flew around the San Marcos community & soon he was busy working on all sorts of projects. This was magic to him he was able to travel from place to place meeting all sorts of people while solving their technology problems & making them exceedingly happy. One comment he noticed over & over again from his client was “you are a lot nicer than my last computer guy”. That is when it clicked that customer service was the key, you can have all the knowledge in the world but if your customers don’t like you & dread calling you they are always looking for someone else.

As the years past Travis expanded into business clients & even became a volunteer teacher at the local San Marcos Senior Center, teaching the older community what their grandkids were too impatient to help the with. How to use a computer! All his lesson plans he wrote himself & really fell into loving his role as a teacher. All of this expanded his business tremendously. At this point he was able to hire some employees, but he always ran into the same problem, he needed a tech person who was personable. This apparently is very hard to find, to this day it remains a challenge!

As business was booming Travis’ long-time partner was diagnosed with cancer & unfortunately had to take a step back from business to provide increasing cancer care. Eventually Travis’ partner died & unfortunately the business was suffering because of so many jobs he had to refuse in order to be at the hospital & eventually hospice.

After his partner passed away Travis reconnected with his long-time friend & always romantic interest & they began dating as he was trying to rebuild the now rebranded QuickTech LLC to its former glory. As things were getting more serious with Kristin (now Kristin Mettler) they discussed moving in together. Fortunately for their budding relationship they did in January of 2020 just before the pandemic. This was dark times for QuickTech LLC Travis packed up and moved to Murrieta California where she lived & the pandemic shut down all in person business which QuickTech LLC had so heavily relied on. At the same time new area means acquiring new clients. The pandemic meant no more public speaking, also no more teaching positions at local libraries & senior centers. This public engagement was such a driving force in acquiring new clients, the pandemic really made it hard to restart.

Kristin Mettler met Travis when they were both 4 years old. As a young girl her mother worked as a legal assistant. Often tagging along with Mom to work Kristin soaked up all the knowledge she could, deciphering the difficult contracts and legal jargon with ease. Since Kristin & Travis Mettler had known each other for so long it was obvious to Travis what a brilliant complex mind she possessed & when they joined households there was no one he trusted more than Kristin to take over the finances (Travis is an amazing tech but not a brilliant financial mind.)

As part of taking over the financial needs of not only their combined household but for QuickTech LLC as well she had her own moment of “I can do this better!”. As any person responsible for the finances taxes naturally fell under her prevue & she hired a highly recommended tax professional to do that first year’s taxes. Unfortunately, this tax professional was not so good at his job and ended up costing the couple a ton in fees because of simple unforced errors. This is when her tenacity kicked in & she began studying the IRS website to learn how to do taxes herself. This amazed Travis that she would take on such a feat until he remembered all those years of Kristin with her mom at the law firm. The complicated jargon, articles & classes did not phase her at all. In fact, she began to enjoy solving complex tax problems & figuring out difficult problems (resulting in fantastic savings).

As she was studying the IRS materials, she came across the AARP & VITA programs which trained tax preparers for free if they would volunteer their time to the elderly & less fortunate. Much like Travis’ volunteer teaching helped to launch QuickTech years before, Kristin’s newfound volunteer community helped to launch her from running QuickTech’s taxes to obtaining her license and servicing outside clients.

Along the way, working now as a tax professional, she impressed a local veteran tax professional who was thinking of retirement and offered to mentor her. Along with her continuing education & licenses Kristin has become a tax expert in her own right, offering services to individuals and businesses alike. In her thirst for knowledge, she is continuing on in her studies to become an EA (Enrolled Agent) to further broaden QuickTech’s capabilities to help our clients.

One of Kristin’s first acts when she took over the business’ financials was to rebrand us as QuickTech Inc. Taxes Titles & Technology to reflect our growing business & brilliantly take advantage of the tax benefits of becoming incorporated. This now brings us to the modern, 3^rd ideation of QuickTech Inc. you see today, that is better than ever with a great husband & wife team running the show!