I don’t know exactly what goes into the decision between for-profit vs nonprofit, or whether Conjecture’s for-profit status was the right decision, but I do want to suggest that it’s not as simple as “for-profit means I plan to make money, nonprofit means I plan to benefit the world”.
I used to work at a nonprofit in the military-industrial complex in the USA; there was almost no day-to-day difference between what we were doing versus what (certain units within) for-profits like Raytheon were doing. Our CEO still had a big salary, we still were under pressure to maximize revenues and minimize costs, we competed head-to-head for many of the same customers, etc.
If there’s a for-profit that has only a small set of investors/shareholders, and none of them are pressuring the firm to have a present or future profit (as I assume is the case for Conjecture), then I think there isn’t really a huge philosophical difference between that versus a nonprofit; I think it just amounts to various tax and regulatory advantages and disadvantages that trade off against each other. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong.
I don’t know exactly what goes into the decision between for-profit vs nonprofit, or whether Conjecture’s for-profit status was the right decision, but I do want to suggest that it’s not as simple as “for-profit means I plan to make money, nonprofit means I plan to benefit the world”.
I used to work at a nonprofit in the military-industrial complex in the USA; there was almost no day-to-day difference between what we were doing versus what (certain units within) for-profits like Raytheon were doing. Our CEO still had a big salary, we still were under pressure to maximize revenues and minimize costs, we competed head-to-head for many of the same customers, etc.
If there’s a for-profit that has only a small set of investors/shareholders, and none of them are pressuring the firm to have a present or future profit (as I assume is the case for Conjecture), then I think there isn’t really a huge philosophical difference between that versus a nonprofit; I think it just amounts to various tax and regulatory advantages and disadvantages that trade off against each other. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong.