Better World Books, born in a University of Notre Dame dorm room a decade ago, has grown into a global model of for-profit social enterprises and a high-volume contributor to the Michiana economy.
The company, which traces its roots to the Half.com sale of some leftover textbooks lying around the dorm room as the 2001 school year ended, had $64 million in revenue last year and employs 317 people at its 300,000 square feet of warehouse space on Currant Road in Mishawaka.
In fall 2002, the founders, Xavier Helgesen, Kreece Fuchs and Jeff Kurtzaman, partnered with Notre Dame's Robinson Learning Center to organize and run a book drive at the university. That drive collected more than 2,000 books and raised $10,000 for the Robinson Community Learning Center.
"We had no idea what we were getting into," says Fuchs. "At that point we thought this was pretty cool and amazing that we got that many books.
"We were thinking ahead a little bit but never dreamed we'd have the breadth we have now."
In 2003, Better World Books expanded to other Midwestern schools, including Purdue, Michigan and Indiana universities, and earned close to $10,000 for its new partner, Books for Africa.
Since then, it has raised more than $2.6 million for Books for Africa and millions more for other partners, including Room to Read, the National Center for Family Literacy and Worldfund.
The founders also won the 2003 Social Venture Competition at the Mendoza College of Business, a $7,000 prize.
In 2004, the company reached $1 million in sales and David Murphy, a Notre Dame graduate and a judge in the Mendoza Business Plan Competition who had become a mentor to the founders, became president and CEO. Murphy, who left in 2011, is now associate dean of entrepreneurship for the Colleges of Science and Engineering at Notre Dame.
"From the very beginning, this was always about a scalable business," Murphy says, because more success would raise more money for literacy partners
and keep more books out of landfills. "We always had this
attitude that we wanted to run
a first-rate, top-notch business. We never tried to put too much stock in the fact that we were a social enterprise. We were ruthless in terms of execution.
"We knew that these online marketplaces were going to continue to proliferate. The vision was always to develop a full-scale bookstore online where people could come to get any book they wanted. In doing so, they would be doing good."
The company launched betterworldbooks.com as an information site, then attracted outside investment to make it a sophisticated e-commerce site. In addition to used books, customers can purchase new books, books from other sellers and e-books.
Better World Books has opened an operation in Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as a
retail store in Goshen in 2008, and an outlet store at the warehouse in 2009. The company bought its warehouse last year and is investing in an automation system that will double capacity, to 260,000 books per day.
Green-and-white drop boxes, pioneered in Michiana and Atlanta, are spreading across the country, from the East Coast as far west as Colorado, to make book donation convenient in neighborhoods.
Better World Books has raised more than $14 million for libraries and literacy and donated more than 9 million books, among more than 100 million books re-used or recycled.
The company, the subject
of case studies by Harvard
Business School and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, was named Most Promising Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Business Week and one of the Top 25 Responsibility Pioneers by Tim Magazine, both in 2009.
"We've also received some great recognition over the years," says John Ujda, vice president
of marketing, including ranking in the Inc. 500/5000 Fast Growing Company. The company last year climbed to No. 250 in the Internet Retailer Top 500
eRetailer list.
Andy Perlmutter, who became CEO in July 2011, says he expects the company to sustain its leadership both in its industry and in upholding its values.
Perlmutter, who had started two successful companies as an entrepreneur and worked as a consultant with large firms, was attracted to Better World Books' "triple bottom line" that integrates family, corporate and philanthropic life.
"You're doing good by the sheer nature of doing well," he says. "I want to grow as fast as the growth-oriented companies on Wall Street. I want to deliver the best of the impact of nonprofits and social enterprises," as well as provide an employee-friendly workplace and promote environmental sustainability.
"I think we need to be that poster child that proves you can do it simultaneously and deliver without sacrificing any of those areas. The reality is the do-good component of who we are is so embedded into our business and so material to our culture that I think we do bear the burden of proving out that you can grow a business in a sustainable way that can be very market-competitive."
Better World Books
Address: 55740 Currant Road, Mishawaka
Phone: 574-252-5303
Website: www.betterworldbooks.com
Number of employees: More than 400 (including locations in Mishawaka, Atlanta, Scotland)
History of business: Founded in 2003 in South Bend
