Homes across the globe are cluttered with outdated smartphones, forgotten tablets, and laptops rendered obsolete by relentless progress. For many, the question lingers: where do these remnants of modernity go? Some land in drawers, others in landfills, with little thought to their environmental toll or the lingering data they hold. The uncertainty around safe disposal or data security often leads to inaction.

Enter Erik Helgesen, co-founder of PayMore, a company that buys used electronics, securely wipes data, and resells or recycles them. By transforming the simple act of trading old devices into a model for sustainability, Helgesen has grown PayMore from a single shop in Massapequa, New York, into a network of 60 locations across North America, with plans to expand internationally.

In this conversation, Helgesen discusses the challenges of scaling a business rooted in sustainability and his vision for a world where e-waste becomes an opportunity rather than a burden.

🎧 Listen or watch the episode

👤 Interview with Eric Helgesen

Dunya Jovanovic: Let’s start with your story. Can you tell us about yourself and how PayMore came to be?
Eric Helgesen: Technology has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid, I was fascinated by electronics, which eventually became a lifelong pursuit. Several years ago, my partner and I recognized a gap in the market. People needed a local, accessible, and safe way to trade in electronics. That’s when the idea for PayMore was born. We started our first store in Massapequa, New York, where people could trade in their devices—phones, tablets, laptops, game systems, you name it. From the start, we saw the growth potential. But more importantly, we wanted to pair this business model with a meaningful environmental initiative. When people bring in electronics that no longer hold value, we offer recycling services to ensure proper e-waste disposal. Fast forward to today: we’ve grown to 60 stores across the U.S. and Canada, and we’re about to open our first store in London. Our mission has always been to make a difference in reducing e-waste while offering a valuable service to communities.

DJ: Why focus on e-waste? What makes it such an important part of your business?
EH: E-waste recycling is surprisingly inaccessible. Many people don’t know how to safely dispose of their devices or worry about data security when recycling. We wanted to change that by removing the barriers. At PayMore, you can bring in your devices, and we’ll handle the rest—whether it’s paying you for a trade-in or properly recycling items without resale value. We also ensure all data is wiped clean before devices are reused or recycled. The goal is to make e-waste management simple and accessible.

DJ: How do customers respond to your services?
EH: They’re incredibly receptive. For many, it’s an opportunity to declutter their homes while earning cash for old electronics. We’ve also incentivized recycling by offering payments when possible. Customers appreciate knowing their devices are either given a new life or recycled responsibly. It’s a win-win: less clutter for them and less waste for the planet.

DJ: Is there a high demand for reused electronics?
EH: Absolutely. We like to use the term “pre-loved” instead of “used,” and it resonates with customers. Not everyone needs the latest device. Yesterday’s tech can still meet today’s needs—whether for work, school, or everyday use. Buying pre-owned electronics saves customers money while reducing the demand for manufacturing new devices, which has a significant environmental impact. Plus, many customers trade in old devices and use the credit toward pre-owned ones, saving even more.

DJ: You’ve expanded significantly—from one store to 60, with a strong online presence. How do you manage both physical and digital channels?
EH: It’s all about balance. Around 80% of our business comes from e-commerce, where inventory moves quickly. The challenge is keeping enough stock available for local customers while fulfilling online demand. Our stores, however, offer a unique, personal experience. Customers can come in, see what we have, and even trade-in devices on the spot. Despite our strong online presence, the community aspect of our physical stores remains vital.

DJ: Balancing sustainability with profitability can be tough. How do you do it?
EH: Sustainability is core to our mission, even if it comes with added costs. For instance, recycling electronics that hold no value isn’t directly profitable, but we’re committed to providing it. On the profitability side, we ensure fair trade-in prices while maintaining a high volume of transactions. This approach allows us to scale and stay financially sustainable without compromising our green initiatives.

DJ Scaling a business like PayMore must come with challenges. What were some of the biggest ones?
EH: Developing our proprietary software was one of the biggest hurdles. There was no off-the-shelf solution for what we needed, so we had to build everything ourselves. From pricing engines to inventory management, we created a system that could handle every aspect of the business. It took years of trial and error, but now we have the Paymore OS, which powers everything from device testing to customer management. It’s been a game-changer for scaling.

DJ: How does your technology set you apart from competitors?
EH: Consistency and automation. The PayMore OS streamlines everything—from testing battery health to determining resale value—ensuring efficiency across all locations. Beyond the tech, though, our support system is a major differentiator. Our team has decades of experience, and their knowledge is always accessible to franchisees through our internal communication tools. It’s this combination of cutting-edge technology and unmatched expertise that sets us apart.

DJ: What’s next for PayMore?
EH: Growth. We have close to 50 stores in development and over 500 planned across three countries. We’re expanding aggressively in Europe, starting with London, and continuing to strengthen our footprint in North America. Our goal is to bring Paymore to every neighborhood, making electronics recycling and trade-ins as accessible as possible.

DJ: Any advice for other entrepreneurs building mission-driven businesses?
EH: Stay persistent. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on solving real problems and constantly refine your processes. If you stay committed to your mission, the growth will follow.

DJ: Lastly, where can our listeners learn more about Paymore?
EH: You can visit us at paymore.com. We’re also active on LinkedIn, where you can connect with me and the other founders. If we're in your area, you can also stop by one of our stores. We’re always happy to meet new customers and help them with their electronics needs!

📝 Full episode transcript

Dunya Jovanovic (00:03.197)
Welcome to the Green New Perspective Podcast! It's lovely to have you here, Eric.

Erik Helgesen (00:09.058)
Thanks for having me.

Dunya Jovanovic (00:10.601)
So for starters, can you tell our audience a bit more about yourself and how did you fight it, Paymo? What led you to that?

Erik Helgesen (00:18.414)
Great, yeah, so myself, I've been in the tech arena my whole life, even as a child. I was fascinated by technology and electronics and that led to the kind of lifelong love for it. several years ago, my partner and I, we realized that there was a need for electronics trade-in business that was local, accessible, easy and safe. We started a

We started our first Paymore store in Massapequa, New York. And that's a store that people could come into and locally trade in their devices like phones, tablets, laptops, game systems. We quickly realized at that point that this is something that needed to be in all of the cities and states out there. with that, we coupled in a very big green initiative. When people come in and trade something in and it doesn't have any value or...

they are looking to recycle electronics, we offer that service for them. So as we built the business, we started with one store. Now we have 60 operating stores in the United States and Canada. We're opening our first store in London as well. We have a strong focus on e-waste removal in our local communities. So it all started with one small store in Massapiqua and the mission that we could make a difference in.

the reduction of e-waste and also it provides a service, much needed service, trading services, and now we're here and we're growing very quickly.

Dunya Jovanovic (01:49.823)
So why the focus on e-waste reduction? Can we talk about that a bit more?

Erik Helgesen (01:54.274)
Yeah, exactly. So it's just not something that's accessible. people want to do it. They want to recycle their electronics. They don't know how or where or if it's safe. have data on those devices. we took it upon ourselves to develop these programs locally that people can easily find us. in your neighborhoods or we'll be there shortly. You can walk in. You can bring these devices in. We can pay you for them. If we can't, if there's no value, we will.

take the steps to properly recycle them and data wipe them. it was something that, know, talking to friends, talking to family, having that first business there in Massapigal, we realized that there are barriers to recycling and we're trying to remove them as we continue to expand. So that's why we got there.

Dunya Jovanovic (02:40.293)
And how do people react when they see our offers?

Erik Helgesen (02:44.536)
They love it. know, it's something that, you know, we're offering them a service to declutter their homes on top of it. So, you know, gather all those gadgets, electronics from phones, tablets, laptops, doesn't matter what it is, bring it in. Let's see if we can get you paid. So we're incentivizing the public to recycle, but let's see if we can get you paid and give that device a new life. So that's one less device that's manufactured, right? So we can reuse that. Let's put it in someone else's hands, but let's first wipe it. Let's make sure that you feel comfortable.

Dunya Jovanovic (02:45.79)
haha

Erik Helgesen (03:13.784)
we take it, we either remarket it or we recycle it. But either way, the customers love it and it's a much needed service and really coupling that recycling side to it and that green initiative in the low communities has been huge for us.

Dunya Jovanovic (03:26.853)
How does the reuse part works? Are people interested in buying reused electronics?

Erik Helgesen (03:32.236)
Absolutely, absolutely. So, you know a lot of people Again, there may be there may be somewhat of a barrier to buying pre-owned We don't like to say used but pre-loved the pre-owned You know the technology moves so fast and you know yesterday's favorites are still functional, you know The new the new iPhones great everyone loves it But there are several models underneath that will get you through the workday or through school or what have you just fine And you could save a lot of money our customers have incredible savings coming in

shopping with us and you know they're doing justice for the planet on top of it again because they're reducing the need to manufacture one more device even if we can you know make the significant change there for one we're doing our jobs but you know when people come in and trade in devices to us they trade towards these devices too so they're either saving even more it's it's an all-around great great thing for the consumer

Dunya Jovanovic (04:23.391)
So you have both physical stores and a growing online presence. How do you balance those channels and what's unique about your approach to scaling both?

Erik Helgesen (04:36.632)
So the only challenge we have is that our inventory through our proprietary system sells so quickly online. Our e-commerce side of things is about 80 % of our business. We're doing our best to keep the inventory local, but before somebody can walk in and buy it, oftentimes it's being packaged up and shipped out through our online web store and various other channels. So the challenge has been keeping the balance for the retail side of things.

Our inventory is always changing. We have just the coolest stuff from the old Nintendo systems all the way up to the new iPhone. So there's always something to see at one of our stores for sure.

Dunya Jovanovic (05:16.745)
talking about balancing, so how do you balance sustainability and profitability?

Erik Helgesen (05:22.968)
So the sustainability side could also come at a cost for us. That's something that we're doing for the community. The profitability side is that we do our best to offer the top trading prices, but obviously we have to make some money on that. That's our core business. So really just finding value in what people have. And that could be from the old digital camera all the way up to the latest GoPro, in between the gaming, whatever it may be.

Dunya Jovanovic (05:27.634)
Okay.

Erik Helgesen (05:49.464)
just making fair deals and getting that spread that's fair for everybody on it, we're very high volume and that allows us to be profitable because we're taking in so many different types of electronics. We're not just looking for the best device from you. We're looking to help you, we're looking to declutter, we're looking to see if we can find value in whatever you bring us in terms of the electronics realm. So allowing us to buy a lot helps us in scale to be able to be profitable.

Dunya Jovanovic (06:16.959)
So you've mentioned that you grew from one store to 60 stores plus the online presence. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while scaling Paymore?

Erik Helgesen (06:29.806)
Being as though that we've written and developed all of our software and technology was a big challenge because we're one of one. No one else is doing what we're doing. So there wasn't something or someone, a software product that we could pull off the shelf or somebody to consult for us. We've been doing this for 20 years. We've only really been franchising for a few years.

but the growth is now happening. So people are saying, it's an overnight success that really took 20 years, but we've developed our software product throughout the years. So every time we made a mistake, we wrapped some tech around it, we fixed it, we saw an opportunity, we built tech around it. So now we have an operating system that's fully proprietary that is scaling across multiple different stacks that we own here. So that's been a little challenging, but...

Dunya Jovanovic (07:01.918)
Ha ha.

Erik Helgesen (07:23.84)
I come from that background, it came a little natural for me, but at the same time, that's really what the challenge was.

Dunya Jovanovic (07:32.297)
So you develop the tech to help you run the stores, right?

Erik Helgesen (07:35.854)
Correct, so our technology is everything from a pricing engine to where to put these things, how to test them, how to process them, how to list them, all the way down to how to photograph them and inventory them, customer management, you name it, it's all powered by the Paymore OS.

Dunya Jovanovic (07:51.623)
and how did it help your business grow?

Erik Helgesen (07:55.896)
consistency and automation. There's a lot to this business. Buying, selling, trading seems like a simple thing, which often it is, but when you get down to battery health of hundreds of different types of devices and conditions and which devices can run what softwares and interact with what applications and what you need to do there, you need that automation and you need these things, the problems that have previously been fixed need to continue to scale.

to get us to the place of where we need to be.

Dunya Jovanovic (08:26.929)
And you mentioned that the tech helped you differentiate from other resale businesses on the market. Is that the only thing?

Erik Helgesen (08:35.18)
I know, you know, I mean the technology is massive, but one of the things that doesn't get enough love in discussions is our support system and our corporate staff. We've been through 20 years of this business. So, you these guys and girls that have been with us for this time, I mean, there's nothing that we haven't seen. haven't, you know, bought, sold, traded, dropped, repaired, shipped out, got lost, found it, resold it, doesn't matter what it is.

So they're active at all times in our company chat that we've also developed. So we're always with our franchisees, our staff, our managers, and that support and experience is really right up there with our tech, in my opinion.

Dunya Jovanovic (09:17.455)
and you've mentioned that you have just recently franchised. So what strategies has worked best for you?

Erik Helgesen (09:25.262)
aligning with the right partners, right? So we brought on the top franchise sales company in the planet, in my opinion, that's Francemark. And they've assisted us and gotten to us where we need to be in terms of a sales side. And we've partnered with the best marketing, with the best PR, with the best third party there. And we've kept our support and our tech in house.

Dunya Jovanovic (09:27.565)
huh.

Dunya Jovanovic (09:47.623)
And in terms of marketing, when communicating what you do, what strategies turn out to be the best ones for you? How did you get your customers with storytelling or any copywriting strategies, especially?

Erik Helgesen (10:02.126)
So this has been something over the years that we've perfected. We lean on Google for a lot of that. We have a great relationship with them. We were just over in their offices the last few days. So we do a lot of inbound marketing with them. But really, it's the customer and the referral. 70 % to 75 % of the time, if a customer is in one of our stores, they're coming back and they're telling a friend. So that's really the word of mouth has been huge for us.

because of all the differentiating factors in our customer experience and how well we have it down. internet marketing has been huge and we've had a few influencers that have helped out, but ultimately it's the word of mouth and our partnerships with Google.

Dunya Jovanovic (10:46.513)
And do feel that people react well on the sustainability side of the messaging? Or are they just want to ditch their additional tech or tech that they are having in their houses?

Erik Helgesen (10:57.71)
Great question. So all of our customers are different. you know, when we're in these meetings talking about who's our customer and who's our target demographic, it's really everybody. And everybody has a different time or need at the moment for what they're doing with their electronics. Some people want to just cash it in and get the highest price and leave. And other people will come in and say, hey, know, this is great that you guys are off for recycling. There's nowhere for me to do this. You know, I don't want to wait for the town recycling program.

that you guys are wiping in front of us, it's really a mix. It's a healthy mix. We have everyone from the soccer mom coming in with the video games to the business crowd who coming in upgrading their old company's laptops. So it's really a big mix.

Dunya Jovanovic (11:43.295)
Yeah, well, everyone is using tech, so I guess that's... So this landscape, tech and electronic landscape is constantly evolving, so how do you stay ahead of the industry trends?

Erik Helgesen (11:57.998)
So that is just, again, part of the technology and the wide-ranging staff that we have across all of our stores. So 60 stores, a couple people per store. 90 % of that staff is so obsessed with technology that they're always chatting about the new thing and CES just kind of completed and we've had all these discussions, so that helps. But the way that our software system works is it's a live crowdsourced.

system. So it's taking what's happening in real time and it's analyzing it and pushing it back down to the next staff member, whether that's in Texas or California or New York. So any buying and selling trends are automatically being ciphered back down. So that keeps us pretty well on top of things.

Dunya Jovanovic (12:44.221)
And have you seen any consumer behavior differences between the markets?

Erik Helgesen (12:50.094)
Sure, mean it's you know things are always changing in their perspectives. You know we've seen a lot of customers coming in and saying hey you know I was gonna mail this device out. Can you kind of match this today and wipe it in front of me because I'm nervous to send it. I don't know where it's going. There's a random websites offering me you know a ton of money for this and we'll kind of guide them and hold their hand and say hey you know we could this is a fair price for this. We'll pay it, we'll match it, we'll beat it, we'll wipe it right in front of you. You don't have to do that.

Plus the money is being put back into the community. We have local staff here. So we've seen a lot of that and we're really gaining market share in the communities rather than having these devices mailed out.

Dunya Jovanovic (13:33.503)
Cool. And do you have something else to share? Like what's next for Paymore in terms of growth innovation?

Erik Helgesen (13:40.824)
Well, I we have the 60 stores that are open. We have another close to 50 that are in lease right now that are being opened. We have over 500 locations in development in three different countries. We are continuing to expand globally. We're coming to a neighborhood near you and we would love for you to come in and check us out. Maybe bring some devices or just meet our staff. All of our stores are locally owned and operated and we're here to.

Do the right thing by it, give you the most amount of trade and help you recycle whatever you need to recycle safely.

Dunya Jovanovic (14:14.077)
and what keeps you motivated as a leader in space.

Erik Helgesen (14:17.934)
Seeing the growth of the franchisees, being able to take my love for tech and build for the franchisees, which trickles down into more jobs and wealth creation through everybody, and especially being involved in communities that I can interact in from afar. So I'm able to chat with the local commerce in a different state and help them with their recycling efforts and other things.

Dunya Jovanovic (14:18.835)
Yeah.

Erik Helgesen (14:47.355)
It's very rewarding in that fact.

Dunya Jovanovic (14:50.587)
And what advice would you have for other founders trying to scale or start mission-driven businesses?

Erik Helgesen (14:58.712)
Just keep going, you know, don't give up. I it's a little cliche, but it takes time. And, you know, if you continue to chip away at it and fix your problems and automate things, you know, the growth will come as long as you stay focused on a mission. And that's what we've done here.

Dunya Jovanovic (15:17.029)
and since this is relatively short podcast, may I ask you where can our audience learn more about you or pay more or get in touch with you if they want to after listening to the show?

Erik Helgesen (15:33.057)
Great, well, you can go to paymore.com, which is www.paymore.com, spelled just the way it sounds. And you could reach us, the founders, on LinkedIn. You could find us. I'm sure our names will be in the text here. But we should have a local store near you. If not, there should be one coming soon.

Dunya Jovanovic (15:52.699)
You've mentioned there's some opening in Europe as well,

Erik Helgesen (15:57.056)
Yes, our first store is in England, right outside of London there in an area called Luton. And we're going to be aggressively expanding there. We just opened two stores as well in Canada and we have another dozen or so that are ready to go.

Dunya Jovanovic (16:14.665)
great to hear. Well, Eric, thank you for being my guest here at the Green New Perspective podcast, and I wish you all the best and grow your business even more.

Erik Helgesen (16:23.704)
Thank you, appreciate it, thanks so much.