A document to help you start a tech cooperative

From one of the annotations:

> I'm fundamentally opposed to making people buy their way into the company, it feels like a scam to me. You don't have to demonstrate your value "to" the company -- we each as individuals hold far more value than this taxable structure that can be dissolved when it no longer benefits the members. Also, whatever value a person has is being brought by their skills, thinking, and experience, not by cash. You aren't creative with cash.

I strongly disagree with this. People who have 'skin in the game' are much more likely to perform well than people for who joining up is a freebie and it's a lot easier to take someone on board than it is to remove them again if they don't work out in a collective like this. In fact, they might demand to be bought out and before you know it you're in court even though your 'collective rules' were made on the assumption that everybody would always be nice and play nice.

This would also allow them to reduce the candidacy period to something more reasonable, now you are essentially asked to give up a year of your life on the gamble you will be accepted. Better to put down some money then, which you can recover if and when you leave, hopefully with a bonus because the company has appreciated in value.

Also: people change over time.

I've seen this in practice in one of my own companies, the people who actually put money down for their shares were all hard workers and super dependable, the people that got their shares 'for free' (or in some cases with money borrowed from the company) were a lot less likely to work hard and were the first to run off when there was a speedbump (which we weathered).

On another note: I'm investing in a company that is a strange cross between a traditional company and a cooperative like this. It's been running for the better part of 10 years now, it's also a consultancy business and it's one of the most interesting companies that I've ever dealt with. The CEO is a very inspiring young man who manages to make all the employees of the company stakeholders, who has made it possible to account for project based income to be fairly distributed amongst the employees and who is now in the process of streamlining all this so the idea can be applied to other companies.

I really should do a write-up on that company and their story one of these days, it's been fascinating to see this idea take root and flourish over the years.

I'd love to read about this. Been trying to create this kind of worker owned firm in the media space for many years now. Am close to getting it but it's been tough for the reasons that you are talking about: people who aren't fully in it.

It's taken Sander, the CEO of the company I'm referring to a decade and several iterations to get it right. What's even more amazing to me is that their company culture is improving over time rather than getting worse (and that's with an increase in headcount).

I mean absolutely no offense by this, but the logo has an uncanny resemblance to DickButt. Maybe change the logo? Or, not, if it's not a problem.

I don't know what I would do if I were in your position and someone pointed this out to me.

Some brands do that on purpose. I remember a paint stripper product called EZ Stripper where all the commercials had some very busty woman in a very tight T-shirt with EZ Stripper emblazoned across her boobs.

Sex sells and all that.