Why a SaaS business wants B Corp certification: ESG & ROI guide

In the summer of 2024, Purple became B Corp certified, joining the 9,500+ global businesses and 2,500+ UK businesses that have earned the badge of sustainability credibility.

Keep reading to find out what Purple CEO, Gavin Wheeldon, and SVP of Talent and Culture, Esther Park think about the certification and the value it brings to Purple.

The following piece is an edited version of the interview

To listen to the whole conversation, click on the play button below

Gavin, Esther, how did you first hear about B Lab and the B Corp certification? What got you excited about it?

GW: I listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot so it was always on my radar. I thought to myself “oh, that's interesting”! And I kept going back to it every now and then, thinking about whether it was the right time to go for it, while knowing it was something I definitely wanted to do, but we needed the right person to drive it, and that person was Esther.

EP: I had heard of B Corp when I worked for previous organizations, and they asked “is this something we should look at, or is it not?” I love the idea of working for an organization that cares about the bigger picture, and is driven by more than just making money. An organization that cares about its broader impact on the world.

What exactly persuaded you to pursue the certification? How did you see it as relevant to Purple?

GW: These things, whether it's B Corp or an ISO standard, represent that you're best in class, and if you want to be something it makes sense to understand what “best in class” looks like and aim for it. The B Corp certification itself recognizes that this is a journey, and it's also a way of measuring ourselves against the best companies in the world in this area.

EP: I remember overhearing a conversation about B Corp, and my ears pricked up: “that's something I would absolutely love, love to get involved with.” At the time, I'd been at Purple for about a year, so long enough to properly understand the business and so lead on earning the certification. Everything fell into place at the right time. I'm glad we went for it as although the process was full on, it was really rewarding.

GW: What was interesting was that we'd kicked off the process and realized that we were already pretty far ahead. We'd started having conversations with BGF, our investors and it turned out that they were on the journey too, which was a moment of serendipity you might say.

What do you think about the idea of consumers, and businesses “voting with their dollars” where they actively choose to purchase from, or work with companies that have high ethical standards like those represented by B Corp?

GW: I think it's not only consumers voting with their dollars, it's employees voting with their choices. I think people want to work at a purpose-driven business. And there's lots of research that shows, you can give monetary rewards, you can give other rewards, but people do more and work harder if they believe in what they're doing. They're excited about what they're doing and they feel like it's making a difference in the world. And I think that is as important. And, going back to the question of “why on earth would a SaaS business want to be a B Corp”, it's not really about people choosing to buy from us, but it's about people wanting to work with us and being motivated and driven by what they do every day.

And, although we're B2B, we're a little bit B2C too, as we've got millions of users logged onto Purple WiFi across the globe. And although we're not a brand they would immediately recognize, we hope to be in the future. If customers can see we're doing the right thing for the right reasons, that's a good thing.

How was the plan to seek B Corp certification received? Did you see any push back?

GW: It was embraced, and it actually led to quite a healthy debate. It's quite typical for board meetings to be all about the numbers but when Esther joined the board, everyone's step was lifted and the idea of becoming a certified B Corp was a very energizing subject.

EP: Everyone was really supportive of it, which was great. The key challenge I had to overcome was demonstrating that this huge undertaking and investment would be worthwhile long term. And it's been great to see that we've been able to demonstrate that. So, we put forward the business case that it was going to attract investors, help us attract and retain employees and appeal to customers and partners. And we've seen this in real-life, with customers and employees getting excited about it and enabling a different level of conversation about purpose beyond making profit.

GW: This isn't just something that is the right thing to do from a moral point of view, it has genuine business benefits.

There are a few B Corps in the SaaS sector but how is the certification relevant to Purple?

GW: I think it goes back to what I said earlier. I can understand why consumer-facing businesses would want to be B Corp certified because they want to attract a particular type of buyer who will vote with their dollar. It's also employees that vote with their effort, where they are motivated by working for a purpose-driven business. But this is just one of the many ROI benefits, and not the core reason why we chose to go through the process. In my mind, if you can do good business and good things at the same time, why wouldn't you?

EP: That was your starting point coming into this, wasn't it? That you wanted this business to be the best it can be, so how can we do business in the best possible way?

GW: Absolutely. I think if you go down the road of “we want a logo on the website or a check in a box,” it's the wrong approach. But if you do it to say we want to be the best and this is a measure of the best, that's far better. When we did the initial diagnostics we found that we were already in a pretty good place which was great to see, but even if we hadn't been, this is the right thing to do.

EP: I surprised myself once we started looking at it. I'd been thinking, “we're not a charity or a social enterprise so are we actually going to earn B Corp status?”. The more I learned, the more I saw that you can be a good business that delivers impact in lots of ways, and B Corp as a movement is all about how every type of business can have a positive impact. Gavin spoke about how as an employer, we can choose to be the best employer or not. From an environmental point of view, we process a lot of data so we can choose to care about that and do something about it, or not. One thing that was really rewarding for me was that we decided early on about working differently with non-profit and charitable customers. It was a straightforward decision by the Exec team to offer them preferential pricing, because we want to support these organizations to be successful.

Throughout the process, I learned that being a B Corp is fundamentally what we are as an organization. It really delighted me because it felt real. We are a B Corp, we're not pretending.

GW: That's exactly it. We were already a B Corp, we just didn't know we were.