I am super excited that Kickstarter is no longer an INC but rather now a PBC, a Public Benefit Corporation. This means the company has changed its Delaware charter to include its mission of supporting creators as pari passu with creating value for shareholders. I would encourage you all to read the new Kickstarter charter which lays out that mission and also this piece in the New York Times.
Benefit Corporations are a topic I care a great deal about and if you have been a long time reader of Continuations you know the history. I first found out about the movement in October 2011 and wrote my first blog post about it back then. I wrote a follow up post a year later in 2012 where I explicitly mention Kickstarter as a candidate for this.
I became involved in the effort to convince Delaware, where almost all venture backed companies are incorporated, to adopt a Public Benefit Corporation statute. That involved a trip down to Delaware and meeting with the corporate bar there as well as legislators and Leo Strine, the then Chancellor of the Delaware Chancery court.
Finally, I was thrilled to speak as then Governor Markell signed the bill into law. All the credit hough should go to the fine folks at B Lab, who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for many more years before that. They were the ones who got the ball rolling, got this adopted in many other states before Delaware and finally coordinated all the work that went into the Delaware legislation and its continued revision.
There are other venture backed companies that are Public Benefit Corporations such as Alt Schools. But Kickstarter is the first venture backed business that is profitable and has achieved scale that has converted. I look forward to many more venture backed businesses choosing this path!
