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Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

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Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#51

Post by bitsweet »

Joeboy wrote: post #35
bitsweet wrote: post #10

http://assemblymade.com could be considered a global software coop

I don't see any indication of that on that website that they're constituted as anything other than a straightforward for-profit company.

To me, the powerful idea of a co-op is that it brings together many people with skills that compliment each other, all contributing to something where sum is greater then the parts. The result, if they are successful, is they do generate profit and each contributor takes home their full share. This is what Assembly is trying to enable...but Assembly is really a platform for creating co-ops around software products.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#52

Post by jboynyc »

nickbauman wrote: post #42

I tried to form a worker cooperative for IT workers a few years ago. I thought the idea of providing health insurance, 401k, business insurance and even a bench would be something my fellow engineers would be interested in since it was better than going it alone. As long as they knew that what they paid into the coop was going straight to the support of each other. Economies of scale and all. But to do it you have to…

> How the heck have these IT coops gotten started, then?

I can't tell you on the basis of empirical knowledge of concrete cases, but in theory (e.g., Elinor Ostrom's work on the commons) you need some lower-level guarantor of trust (such as a shared culture) for higher-level institutions that can solve these kinds of collective action dilemmas to develop.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#53

Post by evunveot »

jawns wrote: post #29

Not a direct response to OP's question, but I wanted to give some general background info on worker cooperatives and coops in general. A cooperative is type of a business entity that does not have outside shareholders. Rather, its members are its owners. So, in the case of a worker cooperative, the people who work for the business are its member-owners. (In the case of a consumer cooperative, its patrons are its memb…

> One is that you have to raise all of your capital from your members, rather than relying on outside investment.

Actually, it is possible to raise outside capital. One way is a traditional bank loan, though that usually requires collateral. There's also "patient capital" available from some institutions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_capital

http://coopcapital.coop/coopcapital

We also have a National Cooperative Bank in the US, created by an act of Congress and later privatized (as a co-op, naturally), that specializes in banking services and loans for cooperative enterprises. They may not be completely up-to-speed on worker cooperatives, however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cooperative_Bank

A really interesting option is a direct public offering, where you can sell non-voting shares to individuals while avoiding most of the legal implications of an IPO, as long as you comply with various restrictions and raise a limited amount of money. There's a case study about a pickle company that transitioned to a worker co-op by buying out the previous owners that way:

http://www.buylocalfood.org/real-pickles-financing-case-stud...

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#54

Post by jboynyc »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #41

I have thought about this a lot lately, but couldn't find anything in Munich, Germany where I'm based. If anyone's interested, it would be nice to have a chat.

I just took a look in the Genossenschaftsregister (GnR) for Munich and came across a few coops in the IT sector (e.g., http://www.7-it.de/genossenschaft/mitglied-werden.html).

Not sure if they fit your profile, but it might be worth taking a look: https://www.handelsregister.de/rp_web/mask.do

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#55

Post by FinnLewis »

I am part of Agile Collective (http://agilecollective.com/), a UK base web development company governed as a workers co-op. We are 7 permanent members, up from 6 when founded in 2011. We are a company limited by shares, and we do have a structure in which we have two type of shares: member shares, one for each member, and equity shares which can be used to raise capital. Only the member shares have any voting power in governance, so contrary to what jawns said, you can have outside shareholders. We are still for profit, and do share profits with members, but the main point is that the members have the decision making power, not equity share holders. (We don't actually have any external equity share holders, but it is an interesting area for consideration if trying to raise money to expand.)

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#58

Post by platz »

jawns wrote: post #29

Not a direct response to OP's question, but I wanted to give some general background info on worker cooperatives and coops in general. A cooperative is type of a business entity that does not have outside shareholders. Rather, its members are its owners. So, in the case of a worker cooperative, the people who work for the business are its member-owners. (In the case of a consumer cooperative, its patrons are its memb…

Surely there must be some difference between a co-op and a private company without shareholders (i.e. funding can't be the only difference)

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#60

Post by jawns »

platz wrote: post #58
jawns wrote: post #29

Not a direct response to OP's question, but I wanted to give some general background info on worker cooperatives and coops in general. A cooperative is type of a business entity that does not have outside shareholders. Rather, its members are its owners. So, in the case of a worker cooperative, the people who work for the business are its member-owners. (In the case of a consumer cooperative, its patrons are its memb…

Surely there must be some difference between a co-op and a private company without shareholders (i.e. funding can't be the only difference)

All private companies have shareholders. The shares they own are just not publicly traded shares. "Shareholders" is, in this context, the same as "owners," and all private companies have owners.

So, what's the difference between a coop and a private, for-profit company in which everyone who works for the company owns the same portion of the company and gets an equal say in decision making? Not much practical difference, really, although with a coop, those things are enshrined, whereas with a private company, they're optional.

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