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Founders of Patron, Warby Parker and Shake Shack On Growing Rich--And Doing Good

This article is more than 9 years old.

"The great thing about capitalism is that it's a system that works," says Danny Meyer, the restaurateur and founder of Union Square Hospitality Group. "And there's nothing in the doctrine of capitalism that says you need to be a greedy bastard." Building a business is tough, as Meyer would readily admit. But as he and three other entrepreneurs (John Paul DeJoria, Neil Blumenthal and Lauren Bush Lauren) dicussed at the FORBES Under 30 Summit in Philadelphia today, it's possible to grow wealthy through constructing a company--and accomplish some good along the way.

Meyer, founder of Union Square Hospitality. 

"You gotta start with a purpose. Why are you doing this? I wanted to open a restaurant that was going to be my favorite restaurant. I wanted a restaurant where they treated you nicely, but you didn't have to dress in a tuxedo like the maitre d.

I wasn't thinking about disruption. Everyone talks about disruption today. When I was growing up, that's what got you in the principal's office.

Let's take Shake Shack. The only reason we started it was that we wanted to create a community-wealth venture. We put the first in a dangerous park in New York. One everyone passed by. And one of the reasons we wanted to have a hot dog cart there was to attract people to the park. We lost money for two years, then made $7,000 the third year. The fourth year we said, Let's build a kiosk. Soon this little kiosk was attracting thousands of people a week. There's a business, but it only started as a way to build the community.

As for failure, I had to close our Indian restaurant Tabla after 12 years. It just couldn't pay the bills. But I gave everyone three-months notice, instead of letting people find out about the closing the way you usually do: showing up one day to a padlocked restaurant. And we put on a job fair--inviting all of our other restaurants and our alumni--for the staff who lost their jobs. Failure makes you bolder for your next success."

John Paul Dejoria, founder of Patron Spirits and John Paul Mitchell haircare. 

"I started my first company with $750. We believe in business that if you have a high-quality product, you have a good chance. We knew we wanted to share, so as soon as we started making a profit, we started sharing it. Not just monetarily. Everything we did was to benefit the customers at the very end, not the profit.

We went beyond the bottom line in other ways. Every bottle of Patron today is from recycled glass. You ought to be able to make a nice profit and also do something to change the world. It's very lucrative. And there's an energy on this planet that makes you move along if you do both."

Lauren Bush Lauren, CEO of FEED. 

"I've faced the challenge of making our impact as big and as sustainable as possible. FEED has served nicely as a consumer-facing, do-good solution. We have a brand and impact. I wake up every day and love who I do it with. I love the mission. It's about feeding people who are hungry, who I truly empathize with. I feel blessed that I combine my love of entrepreneurism with this mechanism to give back."

Neil Blumenthal, founder of Warby Parker, which gives away a pair of its eyeglasses for every pair sold.

"At Warby Parker, we're mostly motivated by the fact that we love having to go work everyday. This means having a positive impact. We didn’t want to have a job where you wanted to hit the snooze button.

We think our mission contributes to customer loyalty. It makes you more likely to tell your friends about it. We don’t have to spend that much on marketing. It’s a great form of customer acquisition. And a great way to acquire staff. It really does help us to recruit and retain top talent. I still interview everyone who comes to work at Warby Parker, and the No. 1 reason people want to come work for us is because of our mission."

This has been edited and condensed.

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