Team Repair is a startup using their innovative toy repair kits to inspire more children to pursue a career in STEM and tackle the e-waste crisis along the way. Each kit includes a gadget or toy that children learn to fix using Team Repair’s app, which is later returned, re-broken and sent off to a different child.
Team Repair was accepted into ReLondon’s Validate Your Model support stream in 2023. We took a deep dive into their plans and business model and offered recommendations for how they might improve and grow their business. Advice included taking a step-by-step approach to circularity by refocusing their early efforts away from sourcing the kits from unwanted electronics, and instead, ensuring that the kits made from new electronics were re-used as much as possible.
What was the challenge?
Recognising that full circularity would be a journey allowed the founders to focus on launching the business and creating a foundation upon which to build their circularity credentials over time.
The support also explored the topic of customer discovery, and Team Repair was challenged to consider who their customers and end users are and to shift their approach to target not only parents, but also the children themselves in their marketing efforts. This advice enabled Team Repair to refine their business plan and make necessary adjustments. Since receiving support, Team Repair has gone on to soft launch the business.
Megan Hale, Founder/Director, Team RepairIt was the first time somebody planned such a focused and personalised session to assist us.
Outcomes
Thanks to joining ReLondon’s circular SME community, they have been able to make important connections. In 2023, the business was accepted to the Heston in the Loop project; a partnership between ReLondon and the London Borough of Hounslow, which is working to create a circular, low-waste neighbourhood. Team Repair has been awarded a commercial contract to deliver training sessions direct to the community and to coach local teachers to train their pupils, which has not only allowed them to become a part of this circular neighbourhood network, but also gain a paid contract with a local authority.
Lessons learned
So what can we learn from Team Repair’s efforts? This business shows us that circularity can take different forms within the same business and, in many cases, should be approached as a journey. In this early stage, Team Repair encourages maximum use of their kits by providing access through a rental model that ensures kits are used again and again.
Down the road, they plan to move on to a ‘Using stuff again’ circular business model by sourcing the toys in their kits from waste. And of course, they have the additional circular benefit of developing repair skills within the next generation, which will become even more important as we transition to a circular economy as highlighted in ReLondon’s ‘The circular economy at work’ report on circular jobs and skills.
Learn more about Team Repair’s pioneering work and how to order classroom packs for schools and groups at their website.
