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Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

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Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#12

Post by jboynyc »

zt wrote: post #8

I don't want to draw out a tenuous claim: but in some ways most tech companies (and particularly early-stage startups) are more like cooperatives than has historically been the case in corporations. As Sam Altman's recent article on employee equity points to, being liberal with ownership is considered a virtue in technology companies. Long-gone are the days where you can build a technology company and keep all the ow…

Ownership is one part of the model, and I think you have a point that it's more diffused in many startups. However, I'm not sure democratic control of the business is part of the startup model. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they tend to create a traditional management structure with CEOs, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#16

Post by IndieDevClub »

When the new equity crowdfunding rules go into effect, I was thinking a more interesting model could involve equity. Every person in a "startup cooperative" could own a piece of everyone else's startup. It might help minimize the risk with doing a startup if you own a small piece of a number of other companies.

Re: Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

#19

Post by Ologn »

Most of the tech examples I know of in the US are small, boutique, often ephemeral consulting companies started among a few friends. Often the formal structure is a standard partnership or corporation with shares evenly divided. If the partners get along, are smart about things and the market is good, they often do quite well while they last. Many of the companies are kind of transitory - doing web page design and the like in the late 1990s, and then when the market dries up, the partners close the business and go their separate ways. Or sometimes one partner is hired by the company he is consulting for, another moves across the country following his girlfriend, and the remaining partners agree to wind down the business.
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