How It All Began
Paul Newman with GSB co-founders Sean Marx and Mike Hannigan
at the Most Generous Companies in America Awards
Buddies Sean Marx and Mike Hannigan worked in the business supply industry for years, and though they both enjoyed great success, they yearned to give something back. So these long-time do-gooders started pondering how they could combine their business skills and values to cook up their own company.
The “Aha! Moment” came as Mike cooked dinner one night. Opening a jar of Newman’s Own spaghetti sauce, he thought, “Hey, if Paul Newman can do it, so can we! We might not have his baby blues, but we know sure know business products!”
So in 1991 Mike and Sean combined savings to found a company based on Newman's Own, a company that would sell quality products for less and give the profits back to the community. GSB began in Mike's living room, but soon outgrew those digs, moving into larger quarters, and before long became the West Coast's largest independent office supplier, with corporate offices in three cities, serving businesses nationwide from 40 distribution centers.
We’ve earned loads of kudos for our business success and philanthropic mission. Out of more than 400 companies, Paul Newman himself along with Marian Wright Edelman, John Kennedy, Jr., and other luminaries voted GSB one of America’s most generous companies. Inc. magazine named us one of the fastest growing companies in America numerous times, and we’re consistently recognized as one of the Bay Area's top givers, winning the Philanthropy Summit’s Community Change and Impact Award and the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Outstanding Corporate Grantmaker Award. We’ve been featured in media from the New York Times to Forbes.
Give Something Back continues to grow and delight customers with our dependability, outstanding customer service and superstore prices on a huge array of office supplies, including more than 5,000 green products. And it’s all because of Paul Newman’s delicious idea, for which we and our community are forever grateful.
