Getting to Scale

CHAPTER FOURFinance Your Independence

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BY NOW, virtually every mission-driven entrepreneur knows the sad ending to the tale of Ben & Jerry’s: the forced sale of one of the country’s premier socially responsible businesses to a giant multinational clearly focused on the financial bottom line.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield actually made their fatal mistake 16 years before the company’s sale to Unilever, when they decided to raise capital by selling shares of stock to their loyal Vermont customers. From there, it was only a matter of time before ...