Hey buddy! I’m excited to catch up next week. 
Thanks for the question.
The B Corp certification process was rewarding and I’m glad we decided to do it. There are two big steps: legal changes and the certification process.
The legal change is converting from a Delaware C-corp to a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation (PBC). Many states support some form of PBC these days. I won’t get into the specifics, as they may vary by state, but what I love about the PBC in principle is that you have three fiduciaries: customers, beneficiaries of your public benefit (in our case the small business community), and shareholders. In a C-corp you only have one fiduciary: shareholders. We’ve always made decisions with all three fiduciaries in mind, so it felt like the PBC was a better fit for our company.
The certification process is much easier than a HIPAA or SOC-2 audit, but similar in that much of it is about documenting process and procedure. I like that it forced us to get creative and create a few new programs in the company that enable us to give back. For instance:
- We make a $10 donation to the Nature Conservancy and plant a tree for every new customer
- We started Help Scout for Good, with the ultimate goal of giving away at least 1% of ARR
The only thing I didn’t love about certification was that it seemed a little unfair to a company that’s fully remote and doesn’t manufacture any physical goods. I’d love to see some improvements made in that area, but ultimately we were still able to get a high enough score to be certified.
All of the above are challenging in that they are time-consuming. But as a company we felt it was a worthwhile investment and I have no regrets.