Building organizations that deliver positive societal impact at scale is extremely challenging. Doing so while also placing equal focus on profitability can seem nearly impossible at first glance. What people often fail to realize though, is that for many companies, scaling impact can and should scale profit alongside it. Unfortunately, most for-profit company leaders choose not to prioritize impact because they think impact is counter to their  obligation to maximize shareholder value.  We disagree.

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Hunsicker is joining a new wave of companies embracing the legal structure of a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) as a foundation for companies to deliver both profit and impact.  In its most simplistic definition, a PBC is a for-profit corporate entity that has also adopted a public benefit purpose, and as a PBC, a company must consider its social & environmental impacts alongside its objective to maximize shareholder value when making key decisions. Essentially, PBC’s must make decisions through a different, wider lens than traditional corporate leaders. Specifically, they must ensure that the choices they make are evenly aligned with delivering on their public benefit purpose AND maximizing value for their shareholders. 

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As the Vice President of Finance at Hunsicker, with a rigorous background in P&L Management, you might be surprised to know that I lobbied hard for our team to incorporate under the PBC structure. But in reality, my professional journey led me to see the strong upside to this innovative structure, despite its unorthodox nature.Unlike many of my peers in the startup ecosystem, I took a different route to arrive here. I didn’t begin my journey with a burning desire to be part of the next great startup that would redefine (insert industry of choice), nor did I start life with a passion for entrepreneurship. Instead, I began as so many others do, on rung 1 of a very tall corporate ladder.  I spent the next 10 years aggressively scaling that ladder though and learning many lessons that ultimately lead me to where I am today.

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My employer was one of the country’s largest carriers of Medicare Advantage plans, which is a privatized version of Medicare; the industry as a whole provides health insurance benefits to over 30 million Americans. In my role(s) as a strategic finance executive at this company, I was charged with balancing growth and profitability to optimize financial results.

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You probably just cringed when you read the word “profitability” written so close to the phrase “health insurance”, and that’s a natural response. What I learned very quickly though, was that profitability didn’t have to come at the expense of the well being of the members that we insured. 

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For quick background, a health insurance company’s P&L statement is actually pretty simple when you break it down into the main pieces: 

Premium(Revenue) - Medical & Pharmacy Claims Paid - Overhead Expenses = Profit

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People often think that an insurance company generates its profits by finding creative ways to avoid paying claims, and I'm certainly not going to suggest that the insurance companies don’t employ this strategy. But there is another way to maximize that equation. Claims can also be reduced (and profitability increased) by connecting insured members with the resources that they need to achieve their best health. When done effectively, this allows members to access the care and support they need when and where they need it. In short,  Healthier members = Higher Profits. This was a true example whereby expanded profits aligned with community impact. 

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As I aggressively pursued this approach to cost reduction and profit expansion, I  noticed a  trend: the most innovative solutions for improving our members’ health were coming from startups. In a period of only a few years I led contract negotiations and built relationships with dozens of these startups, and I quickly saw the impact of their work on our members’ lives, and on our profitability. These interactions were my first foray into the startup ecosystem and they became somewhat of a double lightbulb moment for me: Lightbulb #1: Impact drives Profit, Lightbulb #2: The best vehicles to effect real change often come through startups.

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Not long after these realizations, I left my position on an exploratory path that ultimately led me to Hunsicker where I’m thrilled to be part of the team’s approach to building companies that  deliver profit AND impact.

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Given Hunsicker’s mission, it was a no-brainer that our company would be structured as a Public Benefit Corporation, and it was critical that we began our journey as a PBC to ensure that the principles of Impact and Profit were woven into the fabric of our operations from day 1. 

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Many other companies have taken a similar approach in recent years. Perhaps most notably, Mark Cuban’s CostPlus Drugs Company which launched as a PBC in January of 2022. Cuban and his Co-Founder Alexander Oshmyansky chose to take on a $500B+ industry and leverage a legal structure which signaled to the market that they would not hold profitability as their only north star. Instead they’ve shown that they can simultaneously prioritize consumer impact. Most seasoned venture investors would scoff at this approach, but in this case, the proof is in the pudding. Despite having only launched in January 2022, CostPlus Drugs is on track to record a net profit in 2023, just one year after launch. This is light years faster than a typical venture backed company.

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Cuban and Oshmyansky are a high profile example, but they’re joined by many other startups who’ve either launched their companies initially as PBC’s or have converted them in recent years. At Hunsicker, we’re thrilled to see this trend developing, and are extremely proud to be in such good company with our fellow Public Benefit Corporations who are scaling impact and profit.