Hi, Bruce,
We started as a for-profit only. The B-Corp option came to us as we spent more and more time in the Bay Area. We really like their focus on people, profit and planet. The B Corp also has a few VCs as members who are "patient" and give businesses like ours a longer horizon to reach profitability. We are looking for socially responsible investors who want to help kids and this was a good option for us.

As social venture entrepreneurs, we have been challenged to find people who want to help solve a social problem in the for-profit model. Most people who support these efforts are philanthropists and are used to donating vs investing. Two key people in the Bay Area recommended (during the same week) that we look at the hybrid model - one is Steve Blank, pretty well-known serial entrepreneur in SV who teachers Customer Discovery/Development (vs Product Development) at Stanford and Berkeley. The other, Mark Finser, wears a lot of hats but most notable is Chairman at RSF Global Finance in SF and partner at TBL Capital in Sausalito.

So, the hybrid model works a lot like the university model where the university does the R&D and then licenses it to a for-profit for commercialization. We now have two investment/donation options - those who feel more comfortable donating can do so through the non-profit, get their tax write-off, and know that the R&D we do there will be available to many organizations and will also be commercialized and help sustain the non-profit through royalties paid by the for-profit for the license. And, those who would prefer investing can do so through the for-profit and know that a portion of profits will be donated back to the non-profit. It's called "doing good and doing well."

I'm sure this is much, much more than you expected in an answer ;-) Thanks for listening!