TRANSATLANTIC ENTREPRENEUR PARTNERSHIP
The Rise of B-Corps and Social Entrepreneurs
Making Money While Doing Good
BY ASHLEY CLARK
T
here have always been individuals
and groups who have made it their
mission to solve the world’s many (and changing) problems, but it is only
in recent years that a trend has grown for
for-profit businesses to pursue a social or
environmental mission. What has driven
this trend, and what can we expect to see
from it in the coming years?
What Is Social
Entrepreneurship?
The term “social entrepreneurship”
came into popular use in the 1980s.
Traditionally, the work of social entrepreneurs involved some amount of risk
and little profit. Yet recently, for-profit
companies with a “double bottom line”
or “triple bottom line” have emerged,
bringing new attention and investment to
the sector. “We found and liked the term
‘not-just-for-profit,’ and that was our beginning as a social impact venture,” says
Mauricio Meza, co-founder of Komodo,
a company which creates products that
allow disabled users to use mainstream
technology more easily.
Companies started by social entrepreneurs might do anything from running
a network of free coding clubs for kids
to creating durable, affordable vehicles
for Africa’s mass market. The motivation
usually comes from seeing a social need
that coincides with a gap in the market. Social entrepreneur Chris Janssen
founded Textbooks for Change when
he saw a need in Rwanda and a way to
combine his passion for entrepreneurship with a social mission. “I believe that
using the power of business as a force for
good will ultimately change the world,”
on environmental profit. These companies make money and benefit their shareholders, while at the same time keeping a
strong commitment to social and/or environmental benefits.
Two US business classifications that
have come into use in recent years have
made having a DBL/TBL easier—Benefit
Corporation and L3C designations allow
companies to not only solve social problems, but also gain customer loyalty and
trust, and more easily attract social impact
investors. Additionally, a Pennsylvania
non-profit, B Lab offers third-party certification of B-Corp status to businesses
around the world. Recently Etsy, one of
New York’s largest B-Corps, filed for IPO,
making it the city’s only publicly listed
B-Corp so far.
Benefit Corporation Status, first passed
in Maryland in 2010, is a legal classification for businesses with a triple bottom line. The company receives cer