4 ms·
Not necessarily a killer app idea, but: I think there's an opportunity to redefine the idea of an employee-owned company. A company with an employee stock poo
by alexose 10y ago
Not necessarily a killer app idea, but:
I think there's an opportunity to redefine the idea of an employee-owned company. A company with an employee stock pool of 100%-- not 10%-- with no opportunities for dilution, non-voting shares, takeovers, or other financial tricks. Early employees would get more stock, but it would curve gently according with the growth the of the company, so that later employees would also end up with a meaningful share.
The company's charter could be codified in plain English, in an easily accessible, version-controlled markdown file. The board would be made up of some combination of elected employees and outside advisers.
This company would be at a serious disadvantage to raise money. It would have to be able to survive on slow, steady growth rather than VC cash infusions. On the other hand, I suspect it would have a big hiring advantage. The trick would be to attract employees who highly value equity but don't want to become founders themselves.
I bet there's a business model out there that exploits both these facets.
- daveguy 10y agoI think this is a thing. Registered as cooperatives. Even more liberal as customer owned like REI? Of course it could be they are just really good at selling that 10% stake. I do agree that is a potentially exciting organization. I think there are some market analysis companies that have significant employee ownership and most profits are returned as dividends to make for a very cooperative atmosphere.
- alexose 10y agoREI is an interesting example. It's a co-op in name, but the employees don't have much representation at the top. (See: http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/07/11/24328725/rei-workers-call-for-better-pay-and-working-conditions-consider-unionization http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/07/11/24328725/rei-work...). There are lots of great companies that are employee-owned (the Winco chain of grocery stores comes to mind), but I'm not aware of any in the tech startup world. I'd love to know about market research companies with an employee-owned model! If you know of any specifically, let me know. Google doesn't seem to be of much help.
- substack 10y agoWinco is a privately-held company with an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). Employees do not have voting rights. This is better than most private companies, but cooperatives provide voting rights in how the company is run which I think is more important.
- jhgjklj 10y agoCommunism over an interval instead of a constant.
- boltn 10y agocolony.io's beta just launched https://blog.colony.io/colony-beta-product-summary-2121a357d61d https://blog.colony.io/colony-beta-product-summary-2121a357d...