B Corporations were well represented in the last edition of Entrepreneur Magazine, and our own CEO, Mark Fischer, was quoted in this article:
The Right Financing
Another reason to do the B Corp self-assessment early on is to partner with investors who share your goals. “Do not wait until after you’ve raised capital,” Sampselle advises. The time to sell shareholders on your social mission is before you take their money, not after.Mark Fischer, CEO of Inspire Commerce, concurs. His Boulder, Colo., tech company donates 10 percent of gross revenue to charities, gives employees one of the three board seats and turns away any customer it can’t help save money. (“We probably send three merchants away for every merchant we sign up,” he says.)
Before he raised $500,000 from friends, family, angels and industry contacts last year, Fischer got his B Corp certification. “Without that, there would be issues,” he says. For added measure, he makes mention of the company’s B Corp status–and its responsibility to customers, employees, community and shareholders alike–right in its subscription agreement and term sheet.
It may seem like extra effort to ensure that your business stays on mission. But for B Corp devotees, that’s the point. “Being a B Corp is not a marketing ploy,” Fischer says. “It really is a different way of being in the world.”
To read the full article: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227099