Ladies and gentlemen please join
me in welcoming eager did he start

going.

I.

Think that soaking in the right.

Yes yes we're good good.

Thank you for
that wonderful introduction so

sure about a sophisticated English
accent I'll do my best and I'll try and

speak slowly something my U.S. business
colleague said to me when I write in

December with please slow it down to
go just slow it down a little bit or

understand what you're saying so thank you
for the imitation to come here today and

speak to you all I'm really excited about
doing this and I'm going to leave enough

room at the end of questions so save
some up during the presentation scribble

scribbling down the questions you have so
I can help you out then you want to know

about real world of business in the social
enterprise I bet it will books.

Title my presentation escape velocity from
startup to stay up and suspected from my

experience that it will books I come from
the kind of corporate world big corporate

entities big companies lots of people
very well established been going for

many years to a business that's only
ten years old when I joined it it was

seven years old U.K. business was about a
year and a half old when I joined that so

I got quite a shock coming to a startup
company I'd done lots of sort

of intrapreneur your roles within those
companies that I mentioned earlier that

this was a real proper start up this
company was started by people like you and

I were books was three Notre Dame
students who got together and

had some books left over from the end of
their studies and tried to sell them to

the next year of students and they found
they could and they sold in a discount to

the current new price and they thought
this is pretty cool it made some money.

So they went and asked their friends
if they could give them their books and

they'd sell their books for them as
well and that worked pretty well too in

the book so pretty fast and
they kept going eventually we got a sixty.

Five to eight million dollar company
in revenue from those very early seeds

ten years ago so it really is a startup
success and it really does come from

people just like you college people who
got stuck in found a place in the market

and developed a business and want to
share with you is the experience of being

in a company that's going through
not just the startup phase but

the stay up phase the point where you've
done the startup stablish the business

you growing fast you've got some new
people you brought in the existing people

who promoted from within and
now you're trying to stay there and

you try to grow to the next level skate
velocity great for you of the atmosphere.

Point that yes we go so this is for

those who I understand
the engineers in the room.

So you probably know the bit more about
this than I do understand the answers that

implement the second something like
that to get escape velocity This

is the theme of chosen where we need to go
and better what books gravity is holding

us back right now we've reached that point
where we need the next boost the next big

push on going to talk shit about that
is we go to the presentation today.

So this was a destructive
model back in two thousand and

three to two thousand and
five it's all the guys dreamt up.

Be Able Company with a real mission and
that was really important to them so

those of you who have studied that
be caught in fact could use but

a quick show of hands on who
is who has studied the core.

So few of you know what that is it's
basically an organization a nonprofit

organization that seeks out companies
who are sustainable in the way they

approach business and who approach
business in an appropriate way

the twenty first century you can make
a profit if you're a big call but

you need to do it in a thoughtful way and
they have a seventeen page.

Questionnaire that we have to lean on
a regular basis and answer correctly and

answer in the affirmative if
we're going to remain to be call.

And that keeps us very honest so

that helps us to run our company in
a very honest inappropriate way.

They jumped up the idea of getting books
by solving others paying now this was

a public libraries they figured out
that they went to public libraries and

asked them to give them the books and
along the wanted they could use those

books sell them and give a return back to
the libraries at that time the library

putting these books they didn't want
in the ground they were burying them

they were putting them in a landfill and
they were books came along and

said Don't do that we can reuse and
recycle we can repurpose these books and

we can build a business that can
make a profit at the same time.

We developed a business that knows which
ones to keep that's really important

today will process a million books a week
one million books going through our

warehouse in Indiana one million books
every single week we don't want all those

books some of those books we can sell
some of those books will never sell

some of those books will donate some
of those books people books for

Africa Africa will ask us to keep
set aside and send to them so

they can send these books out to Africa to
help children who don't have any books.

So we have to decide which ones to
keep that requires algorithms so

a lot of the work that was
done in these early days

was building a system we call in our
very own system built by the guys at but

it were books to do what we needed
to do to run a business out of that

came in you business which was
selling Indaba to other booksellers So

that was interesting out of
the business within our own business.

Knowing what price to charge again this
is very much a analytical piece of

work that you have to do you go out and
straight data from websites you find

out whether people pricing out and
then you price competitively against that

very important you have to
know what price to sell or.

To know the economics of giving
if you can to donate books

you're going to be using Laurie sorry
trucks to take those books out.

To donate them and that costs you money
you don't get a return on it it's

a donation so you have to figure that out
you only have to donate in volume you have

to make sure that you donate the right
books make making sure when the book gets

there it's actually used
otherwise no point in doing it.

And you have to get economies of scale
across all functions I mean that's

business when I want to write economies
of scale you have to get on the scale and

you see in a moment we rushed really
fast to get those million books into

the warehouse every week that was
our primary goal that will books.

And to max my deductable market this
was important as well we've got

this think now it's fifty two marketplaces
at the moment we're all worldwide obvious

ones like Amazon but when you get into
Amazon you've got Imus in France when I

was in Germany you know Amazon dot com You
and this and Doc had a U.K. It's a league

spending they go on forever Brazil's
coming soon as well as e Bay Another

less known market places like Libras but
we're also on.

So maximize addressable market and
see partners who are customer focused

always that was really important we
weren't selling to the end user we weren't

a retailer or a High Street where we would
be the face the customer would see and

we would experience a customer
would get we're trading through

other people's marketplaces so
it's really important people like Amazon

who are totally customer focused
that is important for us.

And then seek venture investment
from aligned investors and

I'll spend some more time
on this in just a second.

So this is a typical start up investment
cycle the rocket fuel if you like

in this space ship that's going to
break free of the Earth's atmosphere

starting up at this end here with some
angels and the idea there's graduates will

back down they send you on the left
then the early customers then growth and

then expansion and
the venture capital piece is really really

important because you're going to go out
you're going to borrow X. amount of.

Money I think in our case it was for five
million dollars to make sure we can get

this economy at scale to really really
push on to really grow to power with

this idea this business model really bank
that initial success that we've had.

But when you do that you've got to be
sure that the person investing in you or

the people investing in you are aligned
with your values are aligned with what

you're trying to do have a goal horizon
for what they want from this investment

that is appropriate to what you want from
this investment and what you want from

the company and that's a very important
moment in the company's history.

Where you could argue we got it a little
bit right and we got it a little bit role

in the main it was OK but very very
important and any of you that go out and

start your own companies pause at this
piece long enough to really think about

who you're working with who's giving you
the money to grow your company is the most

important part of what
you do in the startup.

There.

So we raise the money and we went out and

we grew we grew real fast we got out of
books we had a sales team about twenty

four people I think it was all based
here now forever and they went out and

they signed up about four
thousand libraries really quick.

No one else in the market right then
we were getting out there fast getting

ourselves on the doorstep quickly
we put these things out boxes

you see these around Atlanta you may even
you may even have seen right get some logs

around the room and those are metal
bins with a sensor in the top so

we know when they're full and we collect
books and those from the public people who

don't want these books anymore it's like a
thrift shop where you've got the books off

this is the same thing and you put it
in a metal box about fifteen hundred

from East Coast to West Coast from
the north to the south they're everywhere

with them around Atlanta around
Indiana but they're everywhere.

We got ourselves a warehouse three
hundred thousand square feet.

About two hundred people in there it's
massive everybody goes there looks out for

us all these books five million books and
then.

Goes Wow It's just amazing I was used
to running high street groups of high

street bookstores like fifty bookstores
at a time and I would go and see these

bookstores and because we had was like
I know twenty thousand square feet.

And you had nowhere near this many books
and had it just it's just it's incredible

when you get in there so there was
the warehouse you build the warehouse

we put some trucks on the road because
putting trucks on the road meant we could

do the pick ups more effectively we did
the marketplaces we talked about and

we invested in our own website and around
the time we put together our own website

www dot com We also can be given
credit U.K. and we opened a U.K.

warehouse which is in Dunfermline
in Scotland over in the U.K..

Scotland is still in the U.K..

Just in case you missed that
nice doesn't tend to hurt so

we left in December you
know that we go back to.

So we haven't got the website in the U.K.
And we've now got about a million a half

books in the U.K. warehouse and it's a
very successful little business with high

margins than the U.S.
business which they're very proud of.

What else we got on that picture there's
the angel investors in the middle there

and then we put this in a sort Haitian
system into a warehouse in Indiana which

enabled us to take the waste books that we
didn't want from those million books for

processing a week and to wholesale them.

So we could say to books for Africa tell
us what would she want we could say to

Chad we do but rental student
rentals doesn't but she want Follett

anybody else who wanted to buy books
office we could sort those books now for

them set them aside and open up
a wholesale business so there's a third

business will be able to develop on
top of the initial core business.

Now you go through all this you go through
this growing a business members back ten

eleven years now you need a different
leader at each stage need to develop

the leadership of the company it's
very hard to keep the same focus in

the same style all the way through
from start up to stay up and

this kind of tries to work to capture some
of that you've got this scalable startup

leader who's on an aerial driven
learning in discovery superstar C.E.O.

person contribution twenty four seven
commitment I mean look at it looks

terrifying process hates and makes I
love that box I really am upset that

we have to lose that it moved to the right
of that that that box autocratic

star system into transition and
then finally the large company right now

we find ourselves with our leadership
with our C.E.O. sort of moving along here

in the rough in the middle there of
that between those last two boxes.

So the captain of the starship as we lift
off needs to develop as a car did from

Captain Kirk the same kind of thing.

As we look back at the company we realized
that maybe the same stuff that we embedded

in that in those early days the early
business model that was going to hold

us back we could already see the
gravitational pull on the company being

able to really break free and
become what it could be and

this is this I think if you've read Jim
Collins if you have a regime Collins do

do look him up he's a great author these
books been out for quite a while that

electors in the room remember when these
books are published but they're certainly

fairly fairly old now I think maybe ten
fifteen years old built to last at least.

And these are fantastic companies and

what books what Jim Collins says is the
foundation to any company that wants to be

built to last is how the business model
actually supports that objective.

And again if you're going to go out and

start a company think of think that way
said earlier think about the financials.

You put in place the investment that you
get make sure the line do what you want to

do this is part of that think about your
business model for the future can you

really expand this that's hard to do when
you're starting out but it's really really

well worth doing because when we looked
we found were things we needed to change.

Because we were here on
our investment cycle.

So we're kind of moving into that paying
off the series a shareholders that first

round of capital and

looking to move on to the next stage
talking to our series eight people and

discussing what it was they expected and
agreeing what it was they're going to get.

And then from that looking at what we had
in the tank to do our Nick stage of growth

so a critical moment about it were books
and that's happening it's been happening

now to the last four months Karen
happening for probably another month or

two yet and then we'll be through that
period that's where we are right now with

our eyes in the future on possible public
market listing some kind of private equity

deal down the track there the option
is that you don't do those things but

you actually take control back of
the company as a private concern.

So here we are right up to speed or
up to today as we look back and

say with some of the business model we
maybe would have chosen to do differently

to make sure this company
is built to last.

We're looking at paying back
the series and best as and

we're reviewing those book collection
sources there's fifteen hundred boxes and

we put them out we put them out in a rush
and many of them work really really really

well some haven't worked so
well some don't fill up with books and

when you go and collect them
there's not many books in there and

that is the case month after month and you
realize we're never going to get the books

out of this so we're going to do is drive
a truck there and drive a truck back with

very few books in for expenses to do that
so we're going to pull some of those boxes

out now taken back to base and
rethink where they're going to go next.

The four thousand libraries not all of
them turn a profit we found a case of one

library was selling us one box of books
the box about the size of the selector on

top of this lectern this anyone books
a box of books back from California

to Indiana by U.P.S.
on a regular basis and

if you imagine the cost of book if
there's like twenty books in that box

it's very hard to make any money out of
that once you get those books back to

the warehouse check out the ones you
don't want and sell the ones you do want.

So we're a social enterprise but
we're also a business where for

profit we have to make sure that
we're still going to make money

even while we do our best to do good
around the world as a side of the very

end where you'll see some of
that good that we've done.

And remain deals where we've
gone to publishers who

at the end of the book's lifecycle come to
us and they'll sell us remainder books and

then we'll go online and
we'll sell them online.

The benefits of scale it just takes
everything else we had to make sure that

we were having to make sure we got those
benefits we were negotiating with our

contracts because we've grown so fast some
of those relationships we put together in

the early days we've kind of outgrown
them and we certainly need to go back and

we negotiate that right because now we're
WAY bigger than we were back then when we

did those original deals and we're seeing
the prices to move things around going

down all the prices that we pay for
everything beginning to drop.

And we need to professionalize everything
we do and I'll come back to that in just

a moment behave like a grown up there
was still a sense has been a scrappy

entrepreneur within the company but
we're at a point in our life stage where

we really need now to get on with
running the company like a real company.

Slightly painful to do that it sounds
weird to say it out loud to you guys but

it it is quite difficult to do when
you've been used to being able to behave

like a scrappy startup.

We're doing that pricing strategy I
mentioned and a third party market listing

strategy so we're thinking about could
we list on just some marketplaces.

Some marketplaces are more expensive
to list on than other marketplaces.

And reviewing a website strategy.

We're reviewing what we give and
focus what we can't have it what we can

excuse me we can have an impact so
we're all about telling stories right now.

I want to be able to say to people who
come to our website here are thirty

examples where we have spent money and
that money has done good and

here is the school we built it was the
lobby we built here is the library filled.

Many of our giving programs right
now are to larger organizations and

those large organizations don't tell us
exactly what they do with the money or

with the books that we donate.

And we're focusing on social media.

Altogether we're building a capability for
the future.

So as we looked at the challenge that
we're facing in they start up to stay up

we came back to people always come back to
people that's always where you go whenever

wherever you start you'll end up
here on looking at your teams and

your ability to deliver.

This was a economic Economist Intelligence
Unit survey from May two thousand and

twelve this is what
the C.E.O.'s worry about and

sure enough over it they send here
you've got insufficient talent and

inspiration leadership
within the organization and

we found that's where we were at we
had these great scrappy entrepreneurs

we had passionate driven people people
who had worn five or six different hats

as the company grew from nothing to become
the sixty eight million dollar company but

now we needed people with more
experience more knowledge capability.

And as I looked around to try and find out
how to communicate this to you how could I

explain this to you the thing I like
you don't again was Jim Collins in good

to great and he talks about this build
up and breakthrough approach and

he talks about discipline and I thought
this is awesome I've actually seen this in

Star research for
this presentation to you guys.

And.

It's clever about this is he
talked about disciplined and

we were kind of ill
disciplined start up we

didn't have that discipline we're having
too much fun to be very disciplined and

we realize we're going to pay back our
series as shareholders that we're going

to need to be a bit more disciplined
about it about things going forward.

I'll come back a little five
leadership in a minute and

also talk a bit more about
the head whole concept.

But the big one here is confront
the brutal facts that's really really

important we learned we had to get down
and dirty in all of our numbers we had to

really understand our business at
the detailed level we had to dig in deep

where we spending our money but we're up
payment terms this is really Monday boring

stuff stuff I remember from being the big
corporate and a bit of me was a bit

sad that we were having to do that in this
scrappy start up but we had to because

we're looking at our money to get
our cash flow much more closely.

We had to use a culture discipline
amongst the team so not just to have

a gut feeling about something but to
demonstrate things with facts use analysis

show outcomes make a pitch to
the colleagues in the team

some of whom have been friends for
a long long time.

And used technology accelerators so

we had used technology really well in the
early days and that it got us our growth

but technology changes real fast you have
to keep up with it have to keep changing

Indaba is no longer cutting edge we
actually sold in double quite recently.

And now we're looking at a different
solution from a third party

that will take it so the next level.

Those are take us into different
products than books so

we'll be able to diversify away from
books keep books diversify away from that

despite our risk a little bit more.

So his head whole concept and

what I liked about this was this
description piercing clarity and that's

the piece I took away from from that
that's what we're having to do is simply.

It's a great expression.

We're looking at everything.

We connect with this deeply passionate
piece because we want to be passionate

I joined but I will books back in the U.K.
at a time resolutions really for

the companies Apple and also Amazon and
I said to my son who was then twelve

I said these are the options in front of
me what should I do and he said Dad you've

always said that you wanted to go into
something where you could give something

back where you felt at the end of
the day you would achieve something.

Which blew me away a little
bit because he's twelve.

But I listen to him and I thought he's
right I do or do something like that and

that's what drew me to but I want books
people like that in Better World Books so

deeply passionate about what we do most
people to join us these professional

people I mentioned they come for that more
than one else because they're sick and

tired of being in a big corporate.

The resource engine is that cash
generation I talked about being the best

Everybody should try and be if you try
to be the best at what they do and

that's all companies should try and do at
least in one aspect of what they do so for

us our input is getting those books in
a process is process in the books in

a warehouse and the output is being on the
all these marketplaces that we're on and

being really good at pricing those books
and selling those books what we best than

there is a something within each of those
little steps where we are the best we can

be the best and that's something we're
looking at really closely right now.

The other thing he mentions there is some
discipline to say no thank you so what's

really good about scrappy startups is you
love looking at new opportunities and

new things we almost became
addicted to new stuff so

everybody would want a new project and
actually as we made these changes pivot

we did lose a few people
who love new stuff so

much that they didn't like this place we
were going to right now we're being much

more introverted much more back to basics
and these guys are saying well actually we

we want to go somewhere where you can keep
doing new stuff and that's a challenge.

Your business is well and you keep those
real high high performers and those

superstars who only want change who only
want new stuff who only want new projects

we've had to learn to say no thank
you to some of those opportunities.

In the thing that Jim Collins mentioned
that there was Level five leadership and

again this already struck a chord with
me this moves up from highly capable

individual to contributing member to
competent manager to effective leader and

then to this executive role at the top
of the company in this group of

people top of the company who ensure
ensuring greatness through a paradoxical

blend of personal humility and
professional will I love that.

We in the leadership team learned we have
still had a will we couldn't just delegate

we couldn't just coach we couldn't just
encourage We couldn't just the city

we actually needed to have more will
read to say we're going to do this

this is going to happen I want your
contribution but we're going to take this

direction we're going to get this done
we're going to achieve this we're going to

hit this number you have to have a will
and that was interesting for me.

Along with the person community to
know to know your place in the world.

And then this is the thing we've very
recently done we've had a bit of

a leadership shake up of a leadership
change in our organization.

Because we believe that we need to get
the right people on board right people

in the team and then decide where to go
that list of things I put up on there for

you for two thousand and thirteen two
thousand and fourteen that came from this

new a group who were put together to take
us forward into the next direction and

that's quite a different approach to the
to the traditional approach if you like

deciding what you want to do and
then lining up a group of people going and

hiring them to go and
do it different style.

So this is an image from a Soyuz
rocket looking back as it

breaks through the Earth's
atmosphere achieves that.

The last city.

And as I look at that now so

we could do a Better World Books And
I think what we've learned is that you've

got to get the right finance structure the
right time so we've had that first round

with paying that first round back we're
looking at refinancing for the future at

the moment we need to make sure we have
that aligned with we want to be in five or

ten years time we'll get the right
investors to ensure that happens.

We need the right leadership style
the right time we don't need that

entrepreneurial leader anymore that's not
our style now we need to move on from that

to develop the company
to take the next level

which might involve acquisition as well.

We need the right business focus at the
right time so you remember I said we want

to got the books first but we're not
the warehouse first I mean at the books

then we went off and
we did the marketing for the website up.

And and so on.

And it's always cash all the time and
I know you've probably heard this so

many We're getting cash is king It
really is anybody trying to persuade you

otherwise don't believe them they're
lying cash is always going to be king.

And we're trying to do is keep
the vision of our founders in place

all the way through we've still got one of
the original founders in fact about two

founders one's on the board and one is
an executive team and still plays a role.

He still plays a role in the company so
they're still very much in the business

and they've been also standing to one side
a little bit and letting people like me

come in and help to develop the business
that's been really useful for me none of

us are being crowded out by those
found as they supported us.

And I promise you some numbers at the end.

This is what we've achieved so
I look at that and I look at the things

are wrestling with right now as we try and
go from the start up to stare at me.

And you look back at that and

go what we've done already there's so
much more we can do but

we've already got a lot done we've raised
eighteen thousand eighteen million excuse.

Eighteen million dollars
literacy in libraries

We've donated almost fifteen
million books now worldwide.

Million books processed a week
is the revenue number and

almost two hundred employees now
in the U.S. and the U.K. and

we achieved that status of
being a founding member.

So I promised time for questions at
the end that's in my presentation.

Thank you very much for listening and
I would like to question

thank.

I think you're speaking.

So we're getting you're talking about you
give the metaphor about the rabbit hole

you back in you the next push what
do you think was your biggest.

Fear in my work.

What was your biggest like.

My God.

Between you know like first of original
objectives and you're like the new Jack is

thirteen and fourteen what was the hardest
to accomplish when you find the biggest

difficulty in getting that next place
in either of those are right from there

I think it was thank you question
I think it was getting from.

The excitement of of growth to
realising we had to stop and

actually look at what we had done because
the temptation is to keep growing we've

had revenue growth year after year
since we came into existence we've

never been down year one year we've always
been up by ten fifteen twenty percent and

that gets you into a mindset
that will always happen and

all your problems will be solved if
you just keep growing so I think the.

The initial issue we had was saying we
just need to stop and look at some of

the stuff we're building behind us because
when you look over your shoulder it's not

all rosy the stuff even the revenues
growing like crazy the stuff we're getting

wrong we need to fix it so it was that
moment we stopped and said Let's to go

brush over.

You mentioned Jim Collins and how a lot
of his American Airlines went but

over all the birds in your co-chair and
I wanted to.

Do you believe that YOU
have achieved level five.

It's a great question and
I think we I think we're getting there

I think we're going through that process
right now it's part of that discovery we

took over a shoulder we said we need to
change where we lead because we have we've

gone from having those entrepreneurial
leaders who were following me and

then run off into the distance to
people who are much more vision and

mission aligned to where we need to
be in the future which is that level

five style leadership where
we're giving room but

with ensuring our will is very much
there I was brought up in the management

training in the eighty's it's all about
coaching and stuff like that and so

you know I was tried to be a delegate
when I try to to let people go but

certainly the feeling I've had
experience of what Jim Collins has done

is you need to sell exact your will
on what what's going to cheat so

no we're not there yet.

And I think you're exactly right.

I think using popularity with e-books
Rotax those are just reading like

how do you think the company will adjust
in those instead of hardbacks and

I think less are being done and now it's
a great question that's new things we're

looking at right now is in the US the
fiction market was fourteen percent down

last year nonfiction was about flat So
what seems to be happening is people

are reading the fiction on a Kindle or
an e-book device reading device.

Still reading the nonfiction there when
there's a coffee table books are still

reading physical books like that so what
we have to look at we don't need to keep

as many of the fiction books we currently
get we stopped accepting quite so

many of them and that's led us to go
to libraries and say Would you mind

preflighting so
pre-scan ing some of what you send us so

not all of it comes back to us and what
we're trying to do is figure out a way

where we could get them recycling
revenue by then recycling locally so

we can line up the recycling they can go
and take the fiction books that we don't

want the Lhari gets income we
still get the books we do want.

Thank you.

You might say you briefly talk
about donating bucks to Africa and

I was wondering if you did that.

Asia and
if not you had planned on doing that and

it ends in yeah we've done it to
quite a bit and we've had a number

of our we have this thing called a leap
grant where we put aside money that isn't

allocated to a given charity we put it
into a big pot and then once again we have

six grants that we dedicate about
fifteen thousand dollars each and

we send we use that as a grant for
libraries and

libraries to apply for and some of
the guys that one that are being out in.

South America less so but yeah definition.

Over here with so many boxes and then.

Around the world I guess we're done
Asian like I've seen your model boxes on

campus our dens and you know how
they're tracking taking care of so

that books don't languish in donation
purgatory in those locations or.

Donation focus for let's use that.

You know.

We have a sense inside it's
a value metric sense and it.

No it was when a box is filling up so
it's a very nice a device for

the laser on it but it seems to us
really clever when they sold it to us.

It tells us the box is filling up so
we get a message a text message

that says you need twenty me and then we
send a truck to empty the box so it's rare

that they end up in Bogota and we do
however if we haven't heard from a box for

a period of time we'll go out
to that box and empty it anyway

just in case the sensors broken we
we still get people bring it up and

they'll say your box is overflowing you
sing about it please which is a nightmare

you know we don't want it to happen but
it can happen.

For you every time you
talked about the job

means there actually have ever
said on this album in me where he

talked about social media to do with their
advice every time he goes and what do you

want to do with the social media Yes
great question so we we spent previously.

Hundred twenty thousand a year on a P.R.

campaign and we looked at that really
closely and said Is that really giving us

what we what we need is that getting this
the return that we need my view is it

doesn't my view is that social media is
where it's at these statements because

it's cool I think because you can have
a conversation that's much more real

with with people who are using what you
do in our case the buying books office or

they're supporting what we do with
the charity money that we spend so

I think social media is where we should be
at which is and our money on doing that so

we're just starting that right now.

My my social media guy was over at the B.

corps retreat a couple weeks ago hooking
up with people who are in other because

to try and find ways that we
can link up with that and

have more of a community within the
community and then go out to the world and

talk about what we're all doing.

I think it's really cool if you don't
just wanted some clarification So

you mentioned that you don't.

Books are going to different continents
and Africa where countries specifically.

On East Africa use is along
that area that's a book for

Africa we work with very closely they've
got people on the ground who execute so

we don't do anything ourselves in country
because people who are stablished.

Ways of getting in the country from the
ports so we work with those guys right so

that brings me to my other question so how
does your company see itself I guess being

more active in the community involvement
process it's one thing to have these

books and you know to different countries
but do you feel that there is more that

you know us knew as a collective in terms
of actually you know being on the field or

being where these books are been donated
and maybe helping certain mission

is there yeah there are there's only so
many of us and

the people work now warehouse forgot
most employees are warehouse workers.

And many of them they've never
actually been outside Indiana

you know where they where they live and
where they work

what we're going to do is introduce as
part of the social media process and

sort of string money away from P.R.
We're going to create.

Grants which people in
the White House can apply for so

if they've got something every passion
about the sample I give you is in the U.K.

warehouse we did this we had a guy
who this again is an example in

Africa rather than the U.S.
because he's not in the U.S. as well.

There was a.

Set up in Africa where they were
using soccer to get access to

young people who had trouble
reading didn't enjoy reading.

And he said I want to make some
books to these guys can you pay for

me to put a pile of books together and
send them to these guys they were just

charities we never heard of them before
we had nothing to do with them before

we talk about traffic and
they didn't know about them but

because it was a number employees
were able to say Yeah we'll do it so

we put together a pallet he sent them out
and he was thrilled he got pictures back.

He's since been promoted twice within
a warehouse because the guys so

engaged the company so from a business
point to me business point of view as well

as from a social point of view and police
point of view it was an amazing outcome so

I want to do more of that we're
also going to do more work.

I'm trying to change the ground process
and some of it happens actually

in the local community so a library
can choose who gets the money and

make that local to that library perhaps
local schools that need help and

they can donate books like to that
school in the community in the States or

in the U.K. as well.

Yeah you know one of the things you
hear a lot in the survey community

as do you learn from investors
is creating an exit plan so

you're talking here the you
wish knew you would early on or

that needs to be in your D.N.A. that you
want to build a company that last so

my question to you is an exit plan
in conflict with social enterprise.

That's a brilliant question

it's one I've been wrestling
with the last twelve months.

It shouldn't be it need be it
doesn't have to be but it Candy.

It really shouldn't be in conflict I think
as long as the issue is if you're doing

a startup if you're creating a startup and
it's a social enterprise are you really

have the right mindset at that point in
your in your business to make the right

call from an investment standpoint that is
aligned with your underlying values those

core social values that you have led
you to set that company up I think

a lot of what I've said is about bringing
on the right people during the growth of

the company that person is most important
the very beginning to say just make sure

what's right questions just make sure that
the detail that's in the agreement for

the exit plan is aligned with
what you want to achieve and

if you've chosen the right investor
that's really really important and

I would never have known that
before joining but it will books.

Great.
It's a great question because I've been

wrestling with the last twelve months.

That would be that would be
a difficult question to answer and so.

We've got great investors they've they've
stuck with this from the beginning.

Many of them are local investors a number
of different investors many local

to Indiana many of them know
the guys that started the company.

With the biggest investment they have in
a fairly small investment round and then.

And with the most successful by far and
that creates pressure on then

in terms of what they want to do with
that funk to pay back their investors so

it's the actual shape of the investment
you've got to really be careful about but

I wouldn't criticize them for that Greg.

I'm a questionnaire here and you mention
that the warehouses has over five million

books in it in your price and we're
million books a week so whatever process

do you know used to like filter through
on the books I mean you mentioned but

then when the books are processed
How do you know just.

Piling up and then we get the book never
goes out is that sneaker Somani and

then you filter it out and what do
you do and then if someone number one

particular book it's our biggest challenge
operationally it's really tough so

we I was in the warehouse of the day and
I found a book and.

Pick the book up on my smartphone and
I scan the barcode on the book to see what

price it was and it was like seventy
eight dollars and I went back and

it had dust on it so I went back inside I
looked up on the system and went to get

this book five years ago I was thinking
one has a stake in the shelf ideas to have

it be priced at a price we're never going
to sell it you know and you get those

things happen because it's five million
books you can't manage on the basis of

that one book gives you a picture you
can't manage on that one alone so what we

do is we we have various systems that we
use to kind of color code the warehouses.

Tell us where the current
hot spots are for

books that we haven't sold we've had for
a period of time and then we go and

we clear those areas out whether
the majority of the color code is right so

it's more efficient to do it that way so
that's how we handle it but

we have to use analysis we have to use
all the way and we scan every book.

Because we give money back to
the library so give us the book

every book that comes in we have to
know where it came from as well as.

Record the fact we got the book and
then we have to also recalled

the condition of the book for
those five million books that

were different conditions you have
different copies of the same book but

it is different conditions from
different libraries it's endless So

yeah that's what they built in dub.

It's got to have a question about
the business model and how.

It Better World Books it says that you
answer to all stakeholders equally and

I wonder theoretically Is it possible for
you to operate at a loss in

which that obviously there's a social
mission in that you have and

through these literacy programs and
through these donations

you could theoretically get yourself into
a situation in which you're operating

at a loss is that something that is
possible considering that it is a for

profit company or in order to save
the business if it were to get

in that I appreciate in this hypothetical
with you scale back those commitments

so that you can survive well Pico we're
trying to damage triple bottom line

company we're trying to show that you can
operate at a profit and do social good at

the same time if you if we got ourselves
into a situation where the business was

going to go under you'd have to say
well if we didn't exist to morrow.

What would be missing from from
the world put it that way.

And we would probably have to go to
beneficiaries not a conversation

with them about that situation and
go from there but you know my.

Show executives team executives job

is to make sure that never happens that's
what we have to do like any other company

you have to run into profit
if you're a company.

Now And last question.

But it's got this axis we're really all
those last few questions you've got and

that has to be when you Bester invest
in the business they're looking for

that maximize their right return
correct and so when you find it best or

you have to fund investor that sort meek
animal that maybe is not necessarily going

to revenue I mean return investment
because you know you give away two

million dollars and that's it comes
they're going to go into the investors.

I guess what I have really
two parts two questions one

from an operational standpoint how do you.

Mean the social mission and
the profit mission and

making operational decisions when
recognizing the son says you may think

we're going to social mission or going to.

The reduce the well possibilities for
your presenters and I guess a second more

the question is do you draw your customers
from the same investors that other for

profits go after ours or sort of
a special class of investor that look

specifically for the social enterprise
opportunity thank you great question so

I think that would be cool so she helps us
find investors that make it different to

your usual investor so
that to answer the last question first.

Day Today we have we find a system to make
a choice sometimes between profitability

and social good and

we we just have to make sure that we
said we come to make those decisions

we own it back so we look at both we
wait them out and then we look back and

we look forward to seeing what making we
make sure the balance we're doing good and

making a profit so it's very hard to
describe any other way than in that way

that's example I could give is the Yad
decide to tell more stories it's.

To lead us to be able to demonstrate a lot
more good with the money that we currently

donate we donate money blind at the moment
we often give money without any.

Requirement on the people we give the
money to that demonstrable they've done

with the money and we think that's
probably an appropriate we should be

asking for more stuff back videos pictures
whatever it might be it might be that

the balance of all of that is that we we
donate less in that particular example

that what we do donate we can demonstrate
we did good something happened yeah and

and then there's sort of the question
about localization we can also demonstrate

that we're doing more good locally in
communities in the United States in

the U.K. to help with literacy rates
over here and over in the U.K.

as well so it's a balancing act all the
time and that's actually the exciting part

in the piskies me awake at night compared
to the corporates I came from in

the corporates is one thing to do you have
just make money for the shareholders and

for the company and for
the ever was on top of the company.

It's different with a company like this
a social enterprise you have to make money

but you have to do it in such a way that
you you do you do good for people as well.

As much for coming sky appreciate them.