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> find out a way of guaranteeing that this trust would never be betrayed

I have no idea how to solve this. The pressure to cash out just gets stronger as the business succeeds more. Even starting the "business" as a non-profit is no guarantee, as we've seen with OpenAI!

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You could certainly create a pro-user EULA that specifically locks in your company's ideals and forbids reneging on them in the future. This is essentially what the GPL is - it's an end user license agreement that is exceptionally user friendly.

Pro-user EULAs just aren't popular because they limit future monetization paths for the company, but it sounds like that is exactly what you want.

Agreed. This is the hardest problem and I don't know how to solve it either.

Would it be possible to structure the company so that it can never be sold in this fashion?

Maybe something related with prediction markets, like punishing the company heavily if it ever betrays these core values. Just thinking out loud.

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