Our Mission
Two problems, one platform.
We exist because the robotics equipment supply chain is broken for everyone.
Problem 01 · E-Waste
Functional equipment deserves a better outcome than a landfill.
Thousands of motors, controllers, sensors, and structural components pile up in storage rooms or head to landfills. This equipment is expensive to make and often still works. It should be building robots, not gathering dust.
Problem 02 · The Access Gap
This isn't a talent gap. It's an access gap.
A VEX IQ starter kit costs $300 to $500. An FRC season costs $6,000 to $10,000 or more. Title I schools, which serve students from low-income families, rarely have that budget. The result: robotics programs thrive in wealthy districts and almost nowhere else.
Our Mission
We keep good robotics parts building.
The Builders Exchange is a free platform that gets surplus robotics equipment to the teams that need it. Donors list the parts they no longer use, teams tell us what they are looking for, and we make the match. There is no cost, and nothing goes to waste. Good parts simply end up back in the hands of builders who will put them to work.
The Gap We Fill
- ✕FIRST Robotics gives cash grants, but grants can't move surplus parts.
- ✕DonorsChoose crowdfunds new supplies, but nobody redistributes what already exists.
- ✕Teams upgrade and have nowhere to send their old parts.
- ✕Companies retire R&D hardware with no good option.
- ✕E-waste orgs receive robotics equipment they can't repurpose.
- ✓The Builders Exchange is the missing link.
The Mission