Why we are a Benefit Corporation
Bridge for Billions is the online incubator for early-stage entrepreneurs globally to launch successful businesses, by enabling them to structure and refine their ideas step by step with a mentor.
Since our genesis at Carnegie Mellon University in 2013, Bridge for Billions’ mission is to make sure that no worthy entrepreneurial idea fails because of a lack of business mentoring.
When we thought about what legal structure made more sense for our social enterprise, we had the following questions in mind: How could we combine the ability to seek profits while also protecting our purpose to serve society? That’s when we thought about Benefit Corporations.
“In the United States, a benefit corporation is a type of for-profit corporate entity, authorized by 30 U.S. states that includes positive impact on society and the environment in addition to profit as its legally defined goals.”
It was the perfect match for Bridge for Billions! A for-profit company providing legal protection to balance financial and non-financial interests, and enabling us to direct our core operations towards creating social impact. That’s why in August 2015, we legally registered as a Benefit Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In short, Benefit Corporation is for us a mean to create value from values.
Some additional advantages that influenced our decision for this legal form include:
- Putting your money where you mouth is: Benefit Corporation include more than just profit in decision-making, legally protecting your social mission.
- Spark the interest of investors: Benefit Corporations are attractive to both impact investors/socially responsible funds, and more traditional investors; and enable you to seek capital from a wider spectrum of investors.
- Increased attractivity for talents: according to Deloitte’s Millennial survey “Millennials will grow to 75% of the workforce by 2025, 77% say their “company’s purpose was part of the reason they chose to work there.”
- Leading the change! Becoming a Benefit Corporation is joining a movement that is at the forefront of environmental and social innovation, and following the lead of highly admired companies such as Patagonia, Kickstarter, Plum Organics, etc.
Read below our Benefit Corporation Mission Statement:
“Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to find viable and sustainable ways to generate their own income, and to use this as a means of spurring on further economic development within their communities. We admire the expertise, ambition, and courage of those who have the motivation and passion to change their lives and communities, but who lack access to the necessary resources and support to truly take off.
We aim to strengthen the information-sharing infrastructure of entrepreneurship in low resource areas, in order to foster openness and transparency. We enable support from areas of resource abundance to have a greater impact in resource shortage localities.
Bridge for Billions is an online platform that delivers proprietary, effective, on the cloud business planning tools and virtual mentoring from volunteer professionals (Support Agents) to entrepreneurs in countries all around the world. We connect passionate individuals ready to share their knowledge and experience with pre-filtered early-stage entrepreneurs without the access to the traditional mentoring resources. Bridge for Billions gives talented and motivated entrepreneurs the visibility that they deserve, and the support and structure they need to succeed.
Using our automated Business Creation Tools that provide a guided experience, the team works together online step by step from problem statement through execution. Our incubator approach enables us to create mutually beneficial and productive skill-based volunteering experiences at unprecedented scale and cost-efficiency.”
Learn more about becoming a Benefit Corporation on http://benefitcorp.net/
Interested in our online incubator? Want to evaluate and develop your business ideas or support promising entrepreneurs with your skills? Apply to our incubation program here, and keep an eye open on our Twitter and Facebook feeds!
