Social Entrepreneurship

This story of a successful capitalist and his subsequent social entrepreneurship is a great reminder of the inner goodness that has come to define much of the world of American capitalism, and that is a very good thing.

An excerpt from the article from Philanthropy Magazine.

“Patrick Byrne is an entrepreneur—a self-described “rapacious capitalist.” His father, John J. Byrne, turned around auto-insurance giant GEICO. While he did, Warren Buffett began accumulating its stock, eventually purchasing the entire company. In the process, Mr. Buffett met 13-year-old Patrick, and he became what Mr. Byrne describes as “one of his life’s great teachers.” While a teenager, Mr. Byrne started his first business. He bought a wholesale lot of 500 pine trees—paying $8 each—and retailed them at Christmastime for $28 apiece.

“Mr. Byrne went on to Dartmouth College, where he earned his B.A. in philosophy and Asian studies. He won a Marshall Scholarship and received a master’s degree from Cambridge University. After picking up a certificate from Beijing Normal University, he returned to the States and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University. While in his 20s, he also pursued his dream of becoming a heavyweight boxer.

“Everything was put on hold when cancer struck. Mr. Byrne fought back, beating the disease three times. Afterward, he re-focused his energies on business, eventually serving as chairman, president, and CEO at Centricut, a manufacturer of industrial torch consumables, and later at Fechheimer Brothers, a Berkshire Hathaway–owned manufacturer of police, firefighter, and military uniforms.

“In 1999, Mr. Byrne bought a small, bankrupt firm that had been serving the flea-market industry. Four months later, he relaunched it as Overstock.com, an online retailer specializing in the discount liquidation of overstocked inventory. Under his leadership as chairman and CEO, the company’s annual revenues have soared, from $1.8 million a decade ago to approximately $900 million today. Mr. Byrne’s success in business has allowed him to support causes that create similar opportunities for others.

“Mr. Byrne works to reform American education through his service as chairman of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Founded by the late Nobel Prize–winning economist Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, the Friedman Foundation is the nation’s original advocate of school choice.

“Mr. Byrne also works extensively in the field of international development. In 2001, he launched Worldstock, a store within Overstock that sells handcrafted products from artisans in the developing world. An average of 60 percent of the sales price is passed back to the suppliers, generating more than $40 million to date for more than 10,000 craftsmen in the developing world.

“Since 2005, Mr. Byrne has built 22 private schools throughout Africa, India, Asia, and Latin America, all of which are structured around a profit-making enterprise to sustain their ongoing operations. Each of the schools is named for his mother, Dorothy Byrne. They have educated more than 7,000 students worldwide.

“Philanthropy spoke with Mr. Byrne about his background in developing countries, his work on behalf of school choice, and his use of for-profit entities to achieve charitable ends.”