He Started A Side Hustle On Facebook At 15 – Now It's A $1.6M Nonprofit Changing Thousands Of Lives: 'The Margins Were Insane'

Dylan Zajac's journey to bridging the digital divide began with skateboards, thrift shops and a knack for refurbishing computers. Now 21, Zajac is the founder of Computers 4 People, a nonprofit that has donated over 3,668 computers to individuals and organizations in need while diverting 55,000 pounds of e-waste from landfills. 

In an interview with Young Entrepreneur, Zajac shared how his teenage side hustle turned into a mission empowering thousands to connect to the digital world.

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"I started out by skating around Brooklyn with my high school friends, visiting thrift stores for fun," Zajac told Young Entrepreneur. "We'd often hit three or more shops in a day, hunting for old computers we could negotiate down and take home on skateboards." 

In his bedroom-turned-workshop, Zajac taught himself how to repair and resell these machines through platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace. "The margins were insane, sometimes as high as 80%," he shared.

 What began as a hobby quickly grew into a profitable venture. Still, Zajac soon noticed two glaring issues: the environmental toll of discarded electronics and the massive gap in digital access worldwide.

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UNITAR reported that 2022 global e-waste hit 62 million tonnes – enough to fill 1.55 million 40-ton trucks circling the Earth. Yet only 22.3% of this waste was recycled, leaving the majority to pollute the planet. 

Meanwhile, nearly 2.6 billion people remain offline, missing opportunities for education and employment, according to Reuters. Recognizing the overlap between these crises, Zajac channeled his skills into a larger purpose.

In 2019, as a high school sophomore, Zajac founded Computers 4 People. "I used online tutorials to figure out how to incorporate, file for 501(c) (3) status and draft bylaws," he said. 

The mission: collect used computers from individuals and companies, refurbish them and distribute them to people in need. By the time he started college at Babson the nonprofit was well on its way to making an impact.

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Building Computers 4 People came with its own set of challenges, especially balancing nonprofit leadership with school. "There's really no such thing as balance; you just have to make it work," Zajac told the publication. 

Critics doubted the sustainability of his model once he went to college, but Zajac defied expectations by designing systems to automate inventory, donor relations and grant reporting. "I created proprietary systems that allowed us to scale and run efficiently," he explained.

Securing funding and donations remains a hurdle, but partnerships with Fortune 100 and 500 companies and $1.6 million in grants and donations have helped the nonprofit thrive. "The demand is overwhelming, but diversifying our funding sources has allowed us to expand," Zajac said.

For Zajac, the rewards are personal. "I love solving tough problems and seeing the life-changing impacts of our programs," he shared. When asked about advice for aspiring changemakers, he emphasized action over hesitation: "Don't overthink every step. Act fast, make decisions quickly and keep moving forward."

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