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<h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><font size="3">one guy from usc</font></h1><h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><font size="3">=</font></h1><h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><font size="3">forbes</font></h1><h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">What, exactly, is the appeal of the Flexible Purpose Corporation? Why would a company choose to adopt it?</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">I’ve wondered about that question for a while. After all, the corporate form, which was passed into law in California at the same time as Benefit Corporation legislation in January, doesn’t go anywhere near as far as the latter in baking into a company’s legal incorporation ways to protect a social mission.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">Specifically, Flexible Purpose Corporations don’t have to meet a “general purpose benefit”, that has a “material positive impact on society and the environment,” as Benefit Corporations do. Instead, they can pursue “special purpose” activities that have a public benefit. And directors aren’t obligated to consider those benefits in their decisions.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">But Matt Harrison, president of Prometheus Civic Technologies in Irvine, Calif., has an answer.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">When Harrison, who says he was the first company to register as a Flexible Purpose Corporation, heard about the corporate structure, he knew it was what he was looking for.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">His company is a for-profit subsidiary of an organization he founded in 2003 called <a title="Prometheus Institute" href="http://theprometheusinstitute.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Prometheus Institute</a>.</span> It’s aimed at pioneering technology able to increase civic engagement, especially among younger people. The objective is to use mobile technology to provide tools with which people can work for public policy change. To that end, Harrison and his colleagues developed an app, DIY Democracy, which connects individuals with government officials and, of course, as a result, can help boost civic engagement.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">Then, he decided to form a for-profit arm to develop and sell more software. (Specifically, the mission is to create “new media that reduces the burden of government on the people.”) So, when he heard about the Flexible Purpose “It was perfect for what we were trying to do–build a business with a social mission,” he says.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">But here’s the point. Harrison considered the Benefit Corporation but decided against it. The reason has to do with the annual assessments B Corporations have to produce. According to Harrison, that’s a tough nut to crack in his case. “I think that works when you have a really well-defined goal, like reducing carbon emissions,” he says. “You can come up with a mechanism for evaluating that. But trying to reduce the burden of government on the people–no organization can quantify that.”</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">You could argue that Harrison still could have taken the Benefit Corporation route, thereby taking advantage of its legal protections. Also that he could do a perfectly fine job of assessment using, say, B Lab’s B Corporation standard.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">Still, it raises other questions. Namely, how to quantify and evaluate a social enterprise’s non-financial results. There are now various methods for doing so. But Harrison’s decision underscores just how complicated that assessment process can be, particularly in certain cases. Specifically, how do you quantify a broad and pretty nebulous mission?</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">Benefit Corporations can choose whatever third-party standard they want to assess their results, the idea being that the market, in effect, will decide which is the best choice. But it certainly would be nice if there were one all-encompassing, universally accepted LEED-like standard for all social enterprises.</p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 18px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 24px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal;">Harrison also has been able to raise money since incorporating, about $1.2 million last spring from a foundation run by a member of the nonprofit’s board. He’s raising more money now.</p></h1><h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><font size="3">
</font></h1><h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><font size="3"></font></h1><h1 class="h1_first" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><font size="3">Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)</font><div class="right" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/prometheus-civic-technologies-prociv/edit_overview" title="edit" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);"><font size="3">edit</font></a></div></h1><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Prometheus Civic Technologies, FPC, is a California Flexible Purpose Corporation. The company builds software to reduce the burden of government on the people. Founded in 2012, the company is currently in stealth mode.</p><h2 style="margin: 0px; padding: 1em 0px; font-size: 1.3em; position: relative; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Recent Milestones<div class="right" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/prometheus-civic-technologies-prociv/edit_milestones" title="edit" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">edit</a></div></h2><ul id="milestones" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><li class="milestone_funding_round" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><div class="milestone_favicon" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px 8px 4px 0px; float: left;"><img alt="Dollar" class="milestone_favicon" src="http://ec2-107-22-191-133.compute-1.amazonaws.com/images/dollar.png" style="border: 0px;" /></div><div class="milestone_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px;"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/prometheus-civic-technologies-prociv" title="Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)</a> received $1.19M in Series A funding. (4/10/12)</div><div class="meta_milestone" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; font-style: italic; font-size: x-small; color: gray;">Posted 7/6/12 at 10:58am</div></li><li class="milestone_relationship" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><div class="milestone_favicon" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px 8px 4px 0px; float: left;"><img alt="Check" class="milestone_favicon" src="http://ec2-107-22-191-133.compute-1.amazonaws.com/images/check.png" style="border: 0px;" /></div><div class="milestone_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px;"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/prometheus-civic-technologies-prociv" title="Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)</a> added <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/mike-matz" title="Mike Matz" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Mike Matz</a> as CTO. (1/3/12)</div><div class="meta_milestone" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; font-style: italic; font-size: x-small; color: gray;">Posted 7/6/12 at 11:47am</div></li><li class="milestone_relationship" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><div class="milestone_favicon" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px 8px 4px 0px; float: left;"><img alt="Check" class="milestone_favicon" src="http://ec2-107-22-191-133.compute-1.amazonaws.com/images/check.png" style="border: 0px;" /></div><div class="milestone_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px;"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/prometheus-civic-technologies-prociv" title="Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)</a> added <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/matt-harrison" title="Matt Harrison" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Matt Harrison</a> as President. (1/3/12)</div><div class="meta_milestone" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; font-style: italic; font-size: x-small; color: gray;">Posted 7/6/12 at 10:58am</div></li><li class="milestone_relationship" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><div class="milestone_favicon" style="margin: 0px; padding: 6px 8px 4px 0px; float: left;"><img alt="Check" class="milestone_favicon" src="http://ec2-107-22-191-133.compute-1.amazonaws.com/images/check.png" style="border: 0px;" /></div><div class="milestone_text" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px;"><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/prometheus-civic-technologies-prociv" title="Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Prometheus Civic Technologies (ProCiv)</a> added <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/justin-hartfield" title="Justin Hartfield" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(25, 85, 141);">Justin Hartfield</a> as Vice President. (1/3/12)</div><div class="meta_milestone" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 24px; font-style: italic; font-size: x-small; color: gray;">Posted 7/6/12 at 11:48am</div></li></ul><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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