BuyBackWorld loves the time frame we live in. In the 2000′s we had the “dotcom” bubble where any website that went up on the internet became a hit. After that settled down a little bit, we got hit with a credit bubble which leads us to the world we live in today. BuyBackWorld is the prodigious child of these past two major world changing events; an internet company that helps people earn extra cash in a time of recession. We like to think of ourselves as an ‘evolutionary revolution’ – where reUse and reCommerce play vital roles. Pretty cool, huh?

Every week new gadgets hit the shelves. With all those new inventions, an older one is replaced. If you’re anything like the people we know, you have to have that new gadget as soon as it comes out – whether it’s the new  iPhone, iPad or iPod or just a new laptop or calculator for back to school purposes, your old electronic gets replaced. Chances are it just sits in your closet or desk drawer collecting dust – BuyBackWorld wants to change that – and with your help we can. Why not get paid for your old electronics?

That is exactly the thought process that led two young entrepreneurs to launch BuyBackWorld. While working as young Wall St. executives, co-founders Andreas Leptourgos and Steven Francess often wondered what happened to the fleets of smartphones their banks upgraded every 18 months. If their friends were any indication, most people wanted nothing to do with their old gadget as soon as a new one was announced. What’s worse was most people had no idea what to do with their old electronics.

Then a funny thing happened. While travelling overseas, Leptourgos was often approached by people to see his cell phone and often times was asked if he would sell it to them. Francess had witnessed this same dynamic on the secondary markets and together they had found a solution that could reduce electronic waste through reuse. Through some more thorough market research, they realized just because one person was done with their old electronic doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t find a use for it.

Leveraging their knowledge of how the financial markets worked, Leptourgos and Francess set out to commoditize the used electronics market which would produce an instant quote pricing engine to drive their website. Enter the concept and birth of BuyBackWorld.com

Steve and Andreas formally co-founded BuyBackWorld 2009.  The inspiration for the idea of paying consumers and businesses cash for their old technology came several years prior to that, however, as Steve and Andreas took notice of the growing overabundance of electronic devices sitting idle in homes and offices across the country.  They realized that a second life could be given to many of these idle devices and that the current marketplace in the US lacked an easy-to-use, reliable platform that offered users fair cash incentives for their old technology.  They also realized the important need to keep obsolete electronics out of landfills through responsible recycling as the issue of electronic waste had been a growing problem in a society that was constantly updating its technology.  

Together, they envisioned offering consumers and businesses a “cash for electronics” buying service with a seamless customer experience that offered fair and accurate price quotes, speedy payment times, free shipping, a zero landfill policy, and data erasure for privacy protection.  They believed that providing an honest, trustworthy, and easy-to-use service that offered fair financial incentives and delivered on its promises would motivate businesses and consumers to breathe a second life into their used electronics. From this, the “Go Green, Get Green” initiative that empowers the company’s philosophy was born.