Shawna Stiver | Founder/CEO, Kind Co.

The Idea: Right now there are 34 states that recognize benefit corporations as a legal structure for a business. Iowa is not one of them. The benefits for companies to pursue this status are increased transparency and accountability to their mission, which in turn increase consumers’ trust to buy, work with and/or start their own. The status shows people that there are businesses out there that care about more than the bottom line. They care about their employees, communities, the environment, innovation, etc. And Iowa is lacking in having these businesses because of a gap in consumer knowledge and the inability to register as a benefit corporation or obtain B-corp status. At last check, there’s legislation working on this but I’d love to see it passed. >