BCs | Venture for Better
Are B-Corporations for Startups?
VCs — take our 3 minute survey on B-Corps.
Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing Kickstarter co-founder Yancy Strickler speak about Kickstarter’s decision to become a B-Corporation. I, like Yancy, am someone who hopes that humans — and our fictional-construct corporations — can work towards fixing issues like global warming, racial and gender disparities, and third-world human mistreatment.
Naturally, I find the idea of the B-Corporation very intriguing. I would like to advise more of my clients to become B-Corps so that we can save the world!
What, you may ask, is a B-Corp?
Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
From BCorporation.net — Certified B Corporation
The big idea is this: B-Corps can consider a multitude of considerations in making business decisions — not simply maximizing shareholder value.
However, as I think about counseling my own startup clients, and knowing VC-incentives coalesce around maximizing return for LPs, I am interested to know what the VC community thinks about B-Corps and the companies that structure as one. The question then becomes: does a startup lose points or even get kicked off a VC’s stack of decks if the startup has decided to incorporate as a B-Corp rather than a C-Corp?
I have begun to reach out to VCs across the country to get some insight into this question. I will post some of their reactions here as they filter in and eventually come to some conclusions, so stay in touch. As I update this post, I will ping our Lyceum Labs partner Pearlbend Ventures Twitter account (@pearlbend) so please follow us there and check back on this post in the future.
VCs | If you would like to put in your two cents on this pressing question, you can do so on our Typeform: here.
Founders | If you have any questions regarding B-Corps, or any letter Corps, you can connect with me at www.thelomaxlawfirm.com/partner.
More info on Medium about B-Corps: www.bcorporation.net or B Lab here on Medium.
