When you’re a smaller company, you don’t always have the luxury of being able to focus on making money and promoting causes at the same time, you need to choose one. However, if you’re determined to do both, you always split your company in two, a for-profit half that’s dedicated to making money and a non-profit half that promotes causes. That’s exactly what secure messaging app maker Wickr has done.
Secure messaging app maker Wickr is splitting itself into two units — a for-profit company as well as a nonprofit arm that will focus on using the technology for human rights aims. Founder Nico Sell will lead the newly established Wickr Foundation, while investor and former investment banker Mark Fields will lead the for-profit Wickr, with that unit aimed at applying the underlying technology in Wickr to solve problems for large businesses. Wickr will also continue to commercially develop the existing secure messaging app, Fields said. “There really seemed to be two distinct markets and missions that we were going after,” Sell said in an interview. “Both needed their own focus. This allows me to keep focusing on the things I am really passionate about — kids, human rights, etc.” Fields, meanwhile, will focus on turning Wickr into a substantially larger revenue-generating entity. The company has dabbled in ways to commercialize its efforts, including a deal with Mexico’s Iusacell and efforts to license its technology to other messaging services.