From nanny to CEO, find out how Angie Cardona-Nelson turned an accidental auction bid into a successful e-waste resale empire.
Carrie Varoquiers
Chief Impact Officer
Workday
80 monitors. 400 file cabinets. 1,000 trash cans.
This wasn’t a planned inventory - it was a mistake. In 2008, newlyweds Angie Cardona-Nelson and her husband accidentally bid on a massive lot of office supplies while shopping for furniture for their new home. What could have been a financial disaster quickly turned into a masterclass in professional pivoting.
To avoid expensive storage fees, they spent their weekends hustling at flea markets and on Craigslist until a tip about metal recycling changed everything. “That’s the moment it clicked for us that this was a business opportunity,” Cardona-Nelson recalls. From those humble—and accidental—beginnings, eWaste Direct was born, proving that even a nanny with a mismatched auction lot can build a recycling empire.
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Seven years before that fateful auction, Cardona-Nelson had relocated to the U.S. from her home country of Colombia with a mission to learn English. She had previously studied international economics and decided to immerse herself in American culture and language by taking a job as an au pair.
Falling in love was never part of the original plan, but she met her future husband and the two eventually married. They moved into a new home with zero furnishings, which led them to the auction house where they hoped to find a few essentials. Instead, they walked away with a warehouse-sized inventory of office equipment.
The early days were defined by trial and error. After the auction mistake, they continued selling off their surplus and placed an ad on Craigslist offering to haul away old technology. Cardona-Nelson’s husband, who had recently left a career in the mortgage industry, spent his days driving across town in a rented truck picking up broken TVs and DVD players from residential neighborhoods.
Looking back, Cardona-Nelson admits they were initially operating at a loss because they weren't placing a value on their own time or tracking labor hours. Their big break finally arrived when a local business reached out for help disposing of electronics.
“We went to take a look and it was a ton of valuable stuff,” Cardona-Nelson remembers. To maintain a professional image, her husband recruited nephews and cousins to help and rented a larger truck for the pickup.
From that point forward, the couple shifted their focus from residential pickups to commercial recycling, and the business truly began to scale.
"I’m proud that I’m able to inspire women and immigrants and show how we can make a difference."
- Angie Cardona-Nelson
While Craigslist and flea markets provided their initial foundation, launching an eBay shop, Angie’s GreenGo Surplus, fundamentally changed their trajectory. The revenue generated from eBay allowed the company to hire staff to handle specialized tasks like sorting items, disassembling machines, photographing products, and managing global shipping.
This shift also allowed them to move from simple disposal to a more lucrative model centered on sustainability. “By year two, we really leaned into resale and sustainability, and that was a big bump for us,” Cardona-Nelson says. Their income eventually flipped from being 80% recycling-based to 80% resale-based.
Today, Cardona-Nelson is no longer a nanny. She and her husband operate a 10,000-square-foot facility, manage a fleet of trucks, and lead a team of thirteen full-time employees. The business is guided by a mission to divert tons of e-waste from landfills, and they plant a tree for every pickup and event they schedule.
The company has earned significant recognition, including Small Green Business of the Year (2010), eBay Small Business of the Year (2017), Outstanding Achievement Recognition from the Colombian Embassy.
As a successful woman in a male-dominated industry, Cardona-Nelson has used her platform to travel to Capitol Hill and the White House to advocate for small businesses. “I’m proud that I’m able to inspire women and immigrants and show how we can make a difference,” she says.
In addition to running a growing company, Cardona-Nelson is a mother of two who prioritizes work-life balance. To support her staff’s family life, the company recently implemented a four-day workweek. However, because her eBay store operates 24/7, she remains highly active in the business, often starting her day at 4 a.m. with a cup of Colombian coffee.
To keep the business efficient, she and her husband regularly attend online courses in social media marketing and entrepreneurship. Most recently, they have leaned heavily into AI training.
“AI won’t eliminate jobs for us; it’s making us more efficient so we can grow faster,” shares Cardona-Nelson.
By using AI, the couple has been able to create tracking systems and streamline workflows that allow them to focus on building processes rather than just "putting out fires".
"AI won’t eliminate jobs for us; it’s making us more efficient so we can grow faster."
- Angie Cardona-Nelson
Cardona-Nelson believes the biggest misconception about starting a business is the idea that you must be an expert before you begin. “A lot of people don’t follow their dreams because they think they’re not ready—and honestly, you’ll never be ready,” she says.
Her success came from building a community, seeking resources, and learning to delegate. Her advice for anyone considering a career pivot is to simply go for it. In the current "information era," she notes that there are countless tools and subscriptions available to make starting a business easier than ever. Her final word of encouragement?
"Follow your passion, jump in, and optimize along the way".
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