Skip to main content

Good guy Kickstarter says no to IPO, becomes a public benefit corporation instead

Despite its best attempts at convincing us otherwise, it’s time to call a spade a spade: Technology is not a particularly altruistic industry. Certainly, hundreds upon thousands of startups and tech companies operate under the banner of changing the world or making the world a better place, but often it seems that the “problems” such organizations are trying to solve are more petty than they are pressing. Kickstarter, then, stands out as a breath of fresh air in an overcrowded space, and as of Sunday, the crowdfunding platform is reincorporating as a “public benefit corporation,” which means that they are now bound by law to make a “positive impact on society.” Kickstarter is no longer Kickstarter Inc. — world, meet Kickstarter PBC.

It’s a surprising move for the highly successful company that often serves as a jumping off point for companies that are, perhaps, less altruistically oriented. And in technology, an industry where a billion-dollar valuation and a million users seems to be everyone’s end goal, Kickstarter’s decision to become a public benefit corporation makes its mission and its values very clear — it’s not all about that coin.

Recommended Videos

“We don’t ever want to sell or go public,” Yancey Strickler, Kickstarter’s chief executive told the The New York Times, “That would push the company to make choices that we don’t think are in the best interest of the company.” Instead, Strickler and co-founder Perry Chen have made very clear what Kickstarter’s best interests are — in this case, helping bring creative projects to life, leveraging its unique position as crowdsourcers to aid the public. Under the public benefit corporation label, the company must include a socially responsible and impactful goal in its corporate charter, take public benefit into account in business decisions, and report on social impact.

Kickstarter’s homepage, which pays homage to the announcement, notes, “More and more voices are rejecting business as usual, and the pursuit of profit above all. Positive impact on society becomes part of a benefit corporation’s legally defined goals.” And in an email to its user base, the company said, “Radically, positive impact on society becomes part of a benefit corporation’s legally defined goals.” 

Maintaining full transparency, Kickstarter has posted its benefit corporation charter for all to see, and it spells out a “specific list of values and commitments” by which the company will abide. “We renew our longstanding commitment to arts and culture. We declare how we plan to conduct ourselves in situations that are often swayed by profit motives. And we newly commit to donate 5 percent of annual post-tax profits to arts education and organizations fighting inequality,” Kickstarter promises, “Every year, we’ll release an assessment of how we’re performing on the commitments we’ve made.”

It is telling that “not a single dissenting vote” was made by a Kickstarter shareholder when the time came to make the decision about reincorporating as a benefit corporation. As an organization that is based on community, risk-taking, and a leap of faith for the public good, it comes as little surprise that the people behind the company found their own values similarly aligned with those of a PBC. “From Kickstarter’s inception,” the company says, “We’ve focused on serving artists, creators, and audiences to help bring creative projects to life. Our new status as a benefit corporation hard-codes that mission at the deepest level possible to guide us, and future leaders of Kickstarter.”

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
ChatGPT’s awesome Deep Research gets a light version and goes free for all
Deep Research option for ChatGPT.

There’s a lot of AI hype floating around, and it seems every brand wants to cram it into their products. But there are a few remarkably useful tools, as well, though they are pretty expensive. ChatGPT’s Deep Research is one such feature, and it seems OpenAI is finally feeling a bit generous about it. 

The company has created a lightweight version of Deep Research that is powered by its new o4-mini language model. OpenAI says this variant is “more cost-efficient while preserving high quality.” More importantly, it is available to use for free without any subscription caveat. 

Read more
Star Wars legend Ian McDiarmid gets questions about the Emperor’s sex life
Ian McDiarmid as the Emperor in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

This weekend, the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 20th anniversary re-release had a much stronger performance than expected with $25 million and a second-place finish behind Sinners. Revenge of the Sith was the culmination of plans by Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) that led to the fall of the Jedi and his own ascension to emperor. Because McDiarmid's Emperor died in his first appearance -- 1983's Return of the Jedi -- Revenge of the Sith was supposed to be his live-action swan song. However, Palpatine's return in Star Wars: Episode IX -- The Rise of Skywalker left McDiarmid being asked questions about his character's comeback, particularly about his sex life and how he could have a granddaughter.

While speaking with Variety, McDiarmid noted that fans have asked him "slightly embarrassing questions" about Palpatine including "'Does this evil monster ever have sex?'"

Read more
Waymo and Toyota explore personally owned self-driving cars
Front three quarter view of the 2023 Toyota bZ4X.

Waymo and Toyota have announced they’re exploring a strategic collaboration—and one of the most exciting possibilities on the table is bringing fully-automated driving technology to personally owned vehicles.
Alphabet-owned Waymo has made its name with its robotaxi service, the only one currently operating in the U.S. Its vehicles, including Jaguars and Hyundai Ioniq 5s, have logged tens of millions of autonomous miles on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.
But shifting to personally owned self-driving cars is a much more complex challenge.
While safety regulations are expected to loosen under the Trump administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has so far taken a cautious approach to the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles. General Motors-backed Cruise robotaxi was forced to suspend operations in 2023 following a fatal collision.
While the partnership with Toyota is still in the early stages, Waymo says it will initially study how to merge its autonomous systems with the Japanese automaker’s consumer vehicle platforms.
In a recent call with analysts, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai signaled that Waymo is seriously considering expanding beyond ride-hailing fleets and into personal ownership. While nothing is confirmed, the partnership with Toyota adds credibility—and manufacturing muscle—to that vision.
Toyota brings decades of safety innovation to the table, including its widely adopted Toyota Safety Sense technology. Through its software division, Woven by Toyota, the company is also pushing into next-generation vehicle platforms. With Waymo, Toyota is now also looking at how automation can evolve beyond assisted driving and into full autonomy for individual drivers.
This move also turns up the heat on Tesla, which has long promised fully self-driving vehicles for consumers. While Tesla continues to refine its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, it remains supervised and hasn’t yet delivered on full autonomy. CEO Elon Musk is promising to launch some of its first robotaxis in Austin in June.
When it comes to self-driving cars, Waymo and Tesla are taking very different roads. Tesla aims to deliver affordability and scale with its camera, AI-based software. Waymo, by contrast, uses a more expensive technology relying on pre-mapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar and lidar (a laser-light radar), that regulators have been quicker to trust.

Read more