Why is BigFilter a public benefit corporation?

We aim to deliver public benefits on a scale similar to the largest technology platforms in existence today. This demands significant capital and carries significant risk.

To succeed, we must not only grow rapidly, operate sustainably, compete with incumbents, and manage risks to ourselves — we must manage the risks involved in providing powerful information networks to people around the globe (such as the Rohingya genocide and Cambridge Analytica scandal.)

For-profit corporations lack the strong governance needed to accomplish this, while non-profits have difficulty sustaining themselves at scale.

To address this, we incorporated BigFilter as Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, a modern form of corporate structure designed to balance the financial interests of investors, the best interests of stakeholders, and delivery of a specific public benefit. In our case, that public benefit is, "... to inspire & create socially-responsible, evidence-based solutions to the global information crisis."

To learn more about the structure, you can read §362 of the Delaware Code, which contains this concise and precise summary:

A “public benefit corporation” is a for-profit corporation organized under and subject to the requirements of this chapter that is intended to produce a public benefit or public benefits and to operate in a responsible and sustainable manner. To that end, a public benefit corporation shall be managed in a manner that balances the stockholders’ pecuniary interests, the best interests of those materially affected by the corporation’s conduct, and the public benefit or public benefits identified in its certificate of incorporation.