Cracked It - Mobile phone repair for social good
by Startacus Admin
Cracked It, is a social enterprise staffed by young ex-offenders and at-risk youths, teaching them marketable phone repair skills and providing the means and opportunity to make money.
For things that can cost insane amounts of money, smartphones certainly tend to break a lot. Did you drop your phone? The screen is broken. Sit on it? The screen’s broken. Look at it too hard? Screen’s broken. Now you have to go trekking through town to find a place to repair it, or pay to send it off and have the people who should have built it better in the first place repair it.
Seemingly unrelated: 85% of violent offenders in the UK are aged between 16 and 29, and these young people are also more likely to be victims of crime. 
Often, these young people feel forced into crime either to provide for themselves and their family or simply due to their environment. They become trapped and need a way out.
Cracked It is a social enterprise bringing these two problems together to create a solution.
It is staffed by young ex-offenders and at-risk youths, teaching them marketable phone repair skills and providing the means and opportunity to make money. Cracked It offers repair clinics to large workplaces, pop-up shops where employees can conveniently have their phones repaired in 90 minutes or less, for a more reasonable price than elsewhere, with a 3-month warranty and the knowledge that their convenience has contributed to genuine social good.
As well as the repair clinics, Cracked It offers training programmes. The repair bootcamp teaches young people to repair phones, providing real-world experience of doing so, as well as breaking down attitudinal barriers to work. The team building workshops bring in a team of up to 10 of your employees to learn to repair phones together, complete with challenges and competition.
Cracked It has a multitude of awards and accolades already, including O2 Think Big Award, 2015; being hailed as ‘London’s Best iPhone Fixers’ by the London Evening Standard, 2017; Fellowship Award from School for Social Entrepreneurs, 2017; International Visitor Leader Award from the US Department of State, 2017; and Social Enterprise of the Year, 2018 (among many others).
So you don’t need to take our word for it that Cracked It is an impactful force for positive change. Book them!
If you like the sound of this social enterprise, you might want to read up on:
Bigmoose - great coffee served with social good.
Beam - crowdfunding to help homeless people get into employment.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
The lowdown on Corporate Social Responsibility - what it is and some of the key ways that it can have a positive impact on our society...
Need some support to validate your startup and get investor-ready? Applications are now open for the Raise Accelerator programme which will give you just that...
Podcast publishing startup Auddy is on a mission to support podcast creators with the editorial, promotional, and commercial support they need...
Sid Madge, founder of Meee shares his tips on starting as you mean to go on, by getting the very best from your staff in 60 seconds
Transforming how we consume fashion - By Rotation is a peer-to-peer fashion rental app that will empower you to do good for your wardrobe, your wallet and planet
Bwalya Kasase, Business Process Consultant at Rebel Energy shares insights on how the renewable energy supplier uses digital workers to improve the customer experience
Peppy secures major investment to help scale its existing menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood support, and support the introduction of a range of new services.
One Year No Beer, the alcohol-free support service fundraises to scale its business following reports indicating huge surge in alcohol-related deaths since Covid.
The lowdown on Junk Kouture, the Irish-based global platform that's on a mission to unleash the creative brilliance of young people
Considering selling your startup's tech innovation to the healthcare industry? These tips from Evelyne Priestman, Health Economist, Health Enterprise East should help...
Published on: 18th July 2018
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- Early stage tech startups sought for Raise Autumn Accelerator Programme 2nd Aug 2021 Need some support to validate your startup and get investor-ready? Applications are now open for the Raise Accelerator programme which will give you just that...
- Peppy Raises £6.6M for its digital health platform 27th Jul 2021 Peppy secures major investment to help scale its existing menopause, fertility, pregnancy and early parenthood support, and support the introduction of a range of new services.
- One Year No Beer launches new £500K crowdfunding campaign 26th Jul 2021 One Year No Beer, the alcohol-free support service fundraises to scale its business following reports indicating huge surge in alcohol-related deaths since Covid.
- Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m funding from UKRI 22nd Jul 2021 Major boost for the NI economy as nanotechnology consortium, Smart Nano NI awarded £42.4m by the Strength in Places Fund to support development of new technology for medical devices, communication and data storage.
