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Ask HN: Why are employee-owned tech companies so rare?
11–13 of 13 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why are employee-owned tech companies so rare?
#12One reason I can think of is the amount of capital required. So basically when Microsoft or Apple started out, you didn't need a lot of capital to build a minimum viable product. There were not many tech products. Nowadays, it's it's obviously different. To come up with something innovative, you need to develop something for a longer time so that it's better than everything that's already out there.
Can't say I agree with this. Seems to me that it's never been easier, faster, or cheaper to make a useful tool or service. Obviously the world is a lot more competitive now, with a lot more people trying to make stuff. But a skilled developer could certainly make a project on the side while holding down a good job at a bigger company and release it independently and bootstrap it.
Re: Ask HN: Why are employee-owned tech companies so rare?
#13> Especially for companies that serve a small niche with a useful product that won't necessarily scale massively, why try and chase VC funding instead?
Those aren't the only two options, though. None of the companies that I've started have been employee-owned, but equally, none have taken any VC money either.
> employee ownership seems to be a model much more aligned
It certainly is, but it's also not the only possible model to get those benefits.
My companies have not been employee-owned because setting that up is itself expensive and time-consuming. It's something I'd consider once the business is mature, but while it's ramping up, my hands and funds are tied up with more urgent things.