Tagline
Everyone deserves a second chance, let's give prosperity an open door and your residues a second life.
Pitch us on your solution
Nowadays, 3D printing is known for being a useful tool for many industries, helping them grow and innovate; this technology has recently been popularized due to its many applications, to the point of being referred by many experts as the most likely beginner of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. But there's a problem with it, for many people, 3D printing is still unaffordable and inaccessible. In order to achieve a solution to this problem, Second chance designed cheaper and sustainable 3D printing devices that anyone could make, this, for bringing this industry and its possibilities closer to society.
Making technology approachable isn't our only purpose, acting against pollution is also our priority. Second chance's machines were designed to be built of recycled materials, also, the printers are intended to use filament made from of recycled plastic; contributing not only to a socioeconomic growth but also to saving the planet.
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What is the problem you are solving?
According to a report published by The Guardian (2018), since the 1950's, around 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide. This excessive amount of waste led us to the "world's trash crisis", a mounting waste problem, that impairs public health, pollutes the environment and threatens to drown poor countries in toxicity. Many industrialized nations desperately started searching for solutions to the problems that pollution brought along, which led them to end up sending their residues to developing countries, even though it's well known that throwing the garbage away isn't a long term solution.
Recycling is the most convenient action against this crisis, unfortunately, nowadays, this resource isn't feasible for everyone, there aren't enough recycling centers and resources worldwide. We needed innovation in order to correctly approach this conflict, Second chance believes that cheap 3D printing is the open door that recycling needs for creating prosperity across the world; people could turn their plastic waste into useful objects, our machines would make it possible. If everyone was able to recycle their residues, then they wouldn't be considered trash any longer, instead, they would allow the entry of successful businesses, capable of improving the quality of life of many people.
Who are you serving?
The project is aimed to improve the quality of life of all the people belonging to an upper-middle, lower-middle, or low socioeconomic status; mostly, those who live in a developing country (or in one that has been severely affected by pollution) and either, don't have a proper job or don't have access to whether local recycling centers or 3D printing services. Most of the machines' files will be Open-sourced, so anyone in the world (with internet access) could easily acquire them.
The 3D printing and recycling availability that we're pursuing, is intended to make global citizens able to create diverse objects, designed for improving their community's wellness. Opening the doors to 3D printing allows the population to get access to as many tools and resources they're able to build, the possibilities are limitless.
What is your solution?
Second Chance is an organization devoted to supplying communities with the accessible and innovative technology they need for improving their economy while acting against pollution. We designed machines devised to help turning PLA, ABS, PP, PET and HDPE plastic waste into 3D printed objects through a low-cost, simple and user-friendly process.
■Our mission, our promise.
As its name suggests, the project stands for helping offer second chances; second chances for the social inclusion, climate actions and shared prosperity that we urgently need, for improving our present and correcting mistakes from our past, creating a better world for us all. We want our machines to be available worldwide, bringing technology and recycling closer to people and, at the same time, offering them the opportunity to easily create 3D printed objects from their plastic residues; fighting the trash crisis with creativity and promoting an economic growth based on the chance of turning waste into a successful business. We want the whole world to join us in overcoming the social, economic and environmental barriers to development through innovation.
■Our vision, our dream.
Bringing people closer to 3D printing technology, for opening them the doors to this industry's benefits and possibilities; and simultaneously, creating a new and innovative recycling method based on this technology, offering a new industrial market only limited by people's creativity and imagination, is our main focus and desire. In a near future, we're also looking forward to create community "Second Chance" centers, with an improved capacity and services, so, the people who doesn't have the resources to build their own machines, can go there for cheaply printing whatever they want to.
■Our core values, our common ground.
•Excellence: Our actions always deliver exceptional results.
•Sustainability: We owe a debt of responsibility to the environment.
•Integrity: Every aspect of the business is conducted in a responsible and honourable way.
•Passion: We put our hearts and souls in everything we do.
•Inspiration: Encouraging people to innovate for overcoming obstacles is our main focus.
•Commitment: We are fully compromised with our mission.
•Inclusion: Every culture and society can participate in our project.
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Where is your solution team headquartered?
San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosi, MexicoOur solution's stage of development:
PrototypeSelect one of the below:
New application of an existing technologyDescribe what makes your solution innovative.
After a long journey, filled with hard work and imagination, we managed to create machines unlike to anything ever seen before, capable of allowing us to 3D print any object of our desire for only a small percentage of the cost (Around the 5%) of its competitors.
The project has designed 3 different types of machines: a shredder, a filament extruder machine and a 3D printer, each one, mostly made of recycled materials such as wood and plastic; the printer is particularly designed to work with filament made from recycled plastic (created through the extruder machine).
Our precise instructions and designs make the devices not only innovative, but also easy to make and use, in this way, we're aiming to help people get closer to the benefits that 3D printing and recycling have to offer.
Describe the core technology that your solution utilizes.
We're always looking forward to making existing technology more esthetic and impressive, sometimes adding some worthless features in our devices just for giving them a more modern and imposing appearance, resulting in them being more attractive and gaining a more valuable place in the market; but, how often do we adapt our advances in order to help society overcome their challenges? Second chance devised how to convert the 3D printing industry into a fruitful community-scaled business, bringing people closer to this technology's benefits for just a small amount of the cost.
After combining our knowledge in mechanical engineering, electronics and informatics with some imagination, we've managed to create new shredder, filament extruder and 3D printer models made from recycled and inexpensive materials; designed for converting plastic residues into useful objects through a simple process: the human-powered shredder turns the plastic waste into pellets, which will then be turned into filament through the extruder, this filament is afterwards used by the printer for creating the desired objects.
The machines were designed to be built by the customers using the files, precise instructions and resources that they soon will be able to find on our website; each machine will cost less than 40 dollars to make (although, we're still approaching to cut even more our costs), which makes them much more accessible to the public than its adversaries.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Why do you expect your solution to address the problem?
●Activities -->
○Opening of the Second Chance's community centers: we're managing to create 3D printing facilities worldwide.
◆Publication of the machines' design: After start selling the starter kits, the instructions and resources for assembling our machines will become available online.
◇Creation of the 3D scanning application: we're designing a mobile application able to real-time scan objects for turning them into CAD files.
●Outputs -->
○Making the project even more approachable by allowing low-income individuals, lacking of resources, to cheaply 3D print anything they want to.
◆Bringing 3D printing closer to society, allowing people to take advantage of its benefits while fighting plastic pollution.
◇Facilitating and acceleraring the process of turning objects into CAD files.
●Short-term outcomes -->
○3D printing accessibility: the creation of the centers will make 3D printing more approachable.
◆Recycling approachability: the machines will help people turning their plastic into useful objects
◇Improvements on the 3D printing industry: easing the creation of CAD files would save people great amounts of time and energy.
●Medium-term outcomes -->
○Employability: the opening of the establishments will be accompanied by employment creation.
◆Plastic waste reduction: easy recycling would eventually reduce plastic residues.
◇Innovation: this improvements allow the creation of new applications for this technology.
●Long-term outcomes -->
○Economic growth: the level of prosperity and quality of life on a region increases.
◆Environmental improvement: the plastic reduction would solve part of the soil and water pollution problems, ameliorating the quality of the environment.
◇Life improvement: innovation pursues making our lives easier and better.
Select the key characteristics of the population your solution serves.
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
How many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?
The project is still prototyping, hence, it isn't open to the general public yet (but soon will be); we're still researching and fundraising, notwithstanding it's our intention to start being available (online) to every single Anglophone (Nearly 360 millions of native speakers and 2 billion people fluent in the language worldwide) and Hispanophone (More than 400 millions of native speakers and almost 600 million people fluent in the language worldwide) country throughout the following year. We're planning to expand our horizons even more during the next five years, with the creation of Second chance's community centers; which consist of worldwide located establishments, equipped with bigger and more capable machines, managed by at least one of our representatives (online-recruited people who obtained a license to operate our centers, demonstrating to be capable of doing so) with the objective of making our project even more approachable worldwide, allowing low-income individuals, who don't have the facilities and resources for assembling their own machines, to cheaply print anything they want to.
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
All through the following year, we're planning to get into the "growth" phase of the project, to start selling our starter kits and to make all the machines' files available on our website (in both English and Spanish).
As mentioned before, during the next five years, we want to open our Second chance's community centers (previously described) for making our project even more accessible worldwide.
What are the barriers that currently exist for you to accomplish your goals for the next year and for the next five years?
Right now the idea is still in its prototype phase, even though, we're really close to achieving the pilot phase; we were authorized to install our devices in our local investigation center as long as some printing quality details (in which we're currently working) were improved, enabling the machines to start being used for research purposes. This design improvement could be considered as one of our obstacles, despite, we will easily overcome this challenge soon.
Throughout the year, we want to lead the project into its growth stage, the problem is that we don't have enough money yet to start commercializing our starter kits, (global shipping and manufacturing is expensive in Mexico) which consist of a set of specialized pieces used for the building of our machines (motherboard, motion components, extruder, etc.). The importance of these kits radicates in the fact that most of the mechanical pieces used for building our machines can be hard to find or expensive in some countries and if users are unable to obtain them, the project could lose part of its reliability and viability.
We want to keep our project approachable and advantageous, for that reason, we've already contacted Asian manufacturers to fabricate our kits for a low price, but we still can't pay them the necessary starter amount. We're looking forward to associating with them to lower our costs, but we need turn into a well-consolidated business for doing so, which is another challenge.
How are you planning to overcome these barriers?
Working hard on the improvement of our machines' design for refining them as much as possible before its launching and fundraising in order to take the next step in our company, jumping into the growth stage and starting to be globally available. After that, we will gradually open our community centers for being more even more approachable to the society.
Select an option below:
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofitHow many people work on your solution team?
Due to the fact that the solution is still in the "prototype phase", the C.E.O. of the organization is currently the only full-time participant of the project. Nevertheless, Second chance is expected to employ around 10 full-time workers as soon as the solution reaches its "growth" stage.
The project is a collaboration between its creator, 3 fully prepared and committed scientific researchers, who are part-time working into helping improve the machines' functioning and the project's viability, and 2 advisors.
For how many years have you been working on your solution?
The idea of the project emerged about a year ago, although, the prototypes weren't complete until a month before the solution's submission.
Why are you and your team best-placed to deliver this solution?
Every Second Chance's team member is a hardworking person who cares about this world and its people. The C.E.O of Second Chance is a young creator of 2 startups, she's a commited student who wants to change the world through innovation. All the part-time collaborators of the organization are dedicated and honorable Master's degree and doctorate students at our local research center, IPICYT; we're all working into achieving the success this project deserves.
With what organizations are you currently partnering, if any? How are you working with them?
There are currently 2 organizations supporting our solution: the recognized research center IPICYT, A.C., and the science divulgation group LaBGeek. The IPICYT lent us their installations and equipment for conducting the research needed to improve our project; meanwhile, LaBGeek is currently helping us with Second Chance's diffusion.
What is your business model?
The company was born to provide an innovative solution to the main environmental, social and economic problems that haunt modern society; nevertheless, our business model is made in such a way that we can obtain revenues from it.
•Business plan:
As mentioned before, we first want to contact the providers of the starter kits; after managing to negotiate with them, we will publish our machines' plans online and start to sell our products (kits).
At the moment of reaching more than 500,000 users, once we get known by our excellent labor and reliability, we will inaugurate our first Second Chance community center (previously described), launching with it our "Second Chance license". The license will consist of a membership (yearly paid by the user) given to customers that demonstrate to be capable enough for operating one of our centers at their community; we will provide them with new machines' models (constantly being updated and improved), technological resources and maintenance, among other resources.
At the same time, we will also make a "Premium" subscription available on our site, uploading some new machine models and CAD files that will only be available to the users if they acquire this new feature.
It's also important to mention that during this period, we're planning to launch a 3D scanning application to make people able to turn any object into a CAD file just by scanning it with their smartphone. This will also generate good revenues.
•Business model:
What is your path to financial sustainability?
Our core work is designed for avoiding collapse despite of running out of money.
The company is economic, being an online business supported on the customer's interactions and maintaining its staff a small unit, cutting out some major expenses such as renting and maintenance.
We're currently working with a Fee-for-service revenue model, although, as we mentioned before, previous to the start of our items' sale and to the machines' online availability, we're looking forward to negotiating with the suppliers of the kits for maintaining strong stakeholder relationships, reducing our costs and obtaining cheaper worldwide shipping.
The association consists of redirecting our clients to their company's website, following the Market linkage revenue model; they would sale the starter kits on our companies' common website for then giving us a determined amount of the commission. If they accept our negotiation, the supply of our products would have a better control and, if we ran out of money for buying the kits, the provider would still be able to sale them allowing us to maintain our agreed commission and keeping our financial sustainability intact.
In case of not accepting the alliance, we would ask the providers to manufacture just a determined number of starter kits depending on our users' demand. The CAD files will always be available online, so it could be considered as an insurance for the customer that the project will continue working, no matter the situation.
Why are you applying to Solve?
For obtaining guidance, resources, support and experience. Second Chance certainly believes that Solve has the potential to provide us with useful advices that will turn our project into its best version and to help us overcoming the obstacles that currently limit our growth stage.
What types of connections and partnerships would be most catalytic for your solution?
If you would like to apply for the GM Prize on Community-Driven Innovation, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.
We're offering minorities and underrepresented members of the community an opportunity to overcome their obstacles, to approach technology and create employment opportunities while managing to save the planet. All of this, made possible through innovation and STEM knowledge.
If you would like to apply for the Innovation for Women Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.
I'm a young female inventor, sadly, in my country it's hard to be heard when you're in my position, it costs you the double of efforts to make a change in your community. I know better than anyone what it feels like to be excluded, to feel vulnerable and to witness the lack of opportunities that we face everyday, that's the main reason why this solution is designed for giving inclusion the open door that it needs; any woman or man in the world can join us, our community centers will employ anyone who is capable of correctly managing the job, despite of their socioeconomic position and gender.
If you would like to apply for the Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.
As we mentioned before, Second Chance is an organization devoted to supply communities with the accessible and innovative 3D printing technology they need for improving their economy while acting against pollution. Our machines, designed for turning plastic waste into useful objects, don't only save the planet, but also create employment opportunities that lead to economic growth in a determined society.
Solution Team
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Ilse N. Goepfert C.E.O. of Second Chance and Imperium, Second Chance
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Our Solution
Second chance (4 change)