A group of us have started seriously exploring this.

In the Global North it is easier to replace than upgrade hardware. We churn through a new device every 1-4 years, and the devices are in full working order, but struggle with the latest software, or are less trendy than before. Most of us hoard 4-10 old devices at home, and throw away several more. Most of these don't go to recycling, most that do, don't get recycled but dumped in toxic piles in the Global South, and of the tiny percent that gets recycled, only a tiny percent is recoverable and the rest gets dumped.

In poorer countries it is easier to buy second hand than new, easier to repair than replace, easier to retrofit than device churn. Most tech that gets sold, is reused, retrofitted or repair, and a LOT of tech gets sold. Africa leads the world in mobile wallets with 60% of the market. The addressable market is incomparably greater, because there is lack of micro-seed funding and upskilling to allow for the sale of 2nd hand tech outside the urban hubs.

We can create a global franchise of micro enterprises, training cohorts in basic laptop and mobile repair and retrofitting in the Global South, with a pipeline of old devices and reusable parts from the glut of devices that go to waste or just sit at home in the Global North. This model allows us to combine microfinance and grassroots empowerment with economies of scale and collective bargaining, providing a route for a hardware reuse and repair shop in every village, in virtually every part of the world.

Meanwhile extending device life is the single most impactful hardware environmental gain we could have, far more than hardware optimisation, reducing the demand for manufacture and therefore extraction, and dramatically cutting the embodied carbon of each device that gets made.

We have a laptop repair and reuse seller in Nigeria on our exploratory volunteer team, and some supporting expertise. If this project could benefit from a Founder In Residence, whether from this consultative group or outside it, it would take relatively little capital to potentially achieve massive profit, with no current global competitors and an enormous addressable market to gain.

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