Why Kickstarter Became a Public Benefit Corporation (Video)

Meet Kickstarter co-founder and CEO Yancey Strickler. Timothy Lord asked Yancey about Kickstarter's recent move to become a Public Benefit Corporation, which is, according to Wikipedia, "a specific type of corporation that allows for public benefit to be a charter purpose in addition to the traditional corporate goal of maximizing profit for shareholders."

This corporate restructuring has no tax advantages, and creates a slight increase in paperwork, Yancey says. So why did they do it? Please view the video (or read the transcript, which has more info than the video) to find out.

Comments

If you're so altruistic, why pick Delaware?

[mrchaotica]

They talk about choosing this corporate structure (in part) to prevent themselves from exploiting tax loopholes, yet they incorporated in Delaware (rather than the state their main office is actually in -- New York, apparently), which could be construed as exploiting loopholes (at least regulatory, if not directly tax-related) in and of itself. What gives?

Maximizing profits is a public benefit

[trout007]

A company that maximizes profits in a free market is much better for society than one operating at a loss. A profitable company is meeting societies needs in a cost efficient way. A company operating at a loss is wasting resources.