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Comment by psoots | Hacker News Reader

You're making some assumptions. Why can't programmers be workers in the coop and be part of the equation? Why can't forms of capital available to other startups be available to coops?

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> Why can't forms of capital available to other startups be available to coops?

... because then it wouldn't be a co-op. The whole point of a co-op is that it is owned by the workers/producers/consumers instead of equity investors.

As long as the members co-operators own 50%+1 you can take external funding - doesn't always workout as Poptel found

Hmm, they probably could be. But it may be difficult to recruit and retain good ones. Coops tend to have a compressed salary spectrum, which is good for lower wage workers like taco drivers, and bad for higher wage workers like programmers.

Actually, there are a lot of high wage workers like programmers who opt to work in co-ops because the ownership model aligns with their values and they find the work both financially and also intellectually and emotionally fulfilling. You need look no further than Ampled.com, which has a robust team of "contributors" who are all working to build and improve the platform on a volunteer basis. Ampled has built a system to track everyone's contributions which will be honored down the road once the co-op has more $ in the bank. And these are top notch folks who have come from Kickstarter and other related platforms (and who also clearly have a lot of economic privilege to be able to work in this arrangement for the time-being).

Agreed, people who believe it ideologically will be attracted. It just seems like that would still make it hard to recruit if the money is much worse, though -- there are only so many people willing to take a huge pay cut.

I would personally give up half of my income to work at a cooperative. Weirdly enough, I don't see many cooperatives hiring software engineers specifically.

You're in luck! Driver's Seat Co-op is currently hiring for a software engineer and UX/UI designer. The founders are smart and committed and also just really thoughtful and kind guys. https://www.driversseat.co/careers

Thank you! Seems like a great opportunity. Applied :)

Does depend on coop - a fully flat worker coop is very rare

Not fully flat, no; just compressed.

Why would a VC invest in a co-op? What would be the exit strategy that would allow them to be paid off at the multiple needed to compensate for the risk? In a worker-owned co-op, there is none, so they won’t have access to venture capital as Uber could raise.

They can get different types of financing perhaps.

Unless they use revenue-based financing, a VC wouldn't invest in co-ops. As you point out, their need for an exit strategy that revolves around an increase in the price of equity doesn't align well with co-ops striving for building longer-term wealth for their community. That's why we see co-ops funded through loan funds, angel investment, and a new breed of equity funds trying to fill the gap, like The Equitable Economy Fund (https://www.equitablefund.net/)

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