Company: BuyMyTronics.com (A DBA for Hana LLC).

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP

INITIAL LIGHT BULB: In November 2006, Maui transplant and avid snowboarder Brett Mosley was working a "mind-numbing" job as a financial analyst when fate intervened. "Lo and behold, my iPod broke," he said. "I didn't want to throw it away."

Mosley realized he was not alone in his quandary and started buying broken iPods off craigslist, fixing them himself and reselling them on craigslist. "The margins were really good," he said. Soon, Mosley was buying and selling 30 or 40 iPods a month, so he and since-departed co-founder Jeremy Cohen set up a website, BuyMyBrokeniPod.com, last April. Bloggers quickly took hold of it, followed by the New York Times and other major publications, and business boomed.

"The concept--a broken iPod for money--sells itself," Mosley said of the company's quick start "Most people are not inclined to fix things. For me, it's common sense. I've been taking apart things since I was a kid."

Now 26 and president and CEO of a rapidly rising small business, Mosley has since expanded into Microsoft Zune MP3 players, iPhones, game consoles and cell phones as BuyMyBrokeniPod.com has become the broader BuyMyTronics.com. The company plans to start repairing laptops and digital cameras.

IN A NUTSHELL: Bucking the throwaway cultural norms, Mosley has established his company as a leading repair shop for gadgets of the 21st century. Consumers with broken gadgets fill out an online form about its condition, receive an offer automatically, and mail it to the Denver shop. BuyMyTronics.com typically pays up to $70 for a busted video iPod and $200 for a broken iPhone.

Customers are paid upon receipt of their busted iPod, Zune or other consumer electronic. Mosley and two technicians on staff then part out some gadgets to fix others, which are ultimately sold through eBay and to wholesale accounts. Only in two cases (or about 1 percent of transactions) were the broken items totally unsalvageable, Mosley said.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

BuyMyTronics.com has now taken in...