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Matches my experience. Except I operate a tech co-op; the employees are owners or potential owners. Management serves at the pleasure of the owners. Really incr

Matches my experience. Except I operate a tech co-op; the employees are owners or potential owners. Management serves at the pleasure of the owners. Really increases the trust factor. This way management is just another skill, not a rank. That also sets those expectations properly.

vsareto 7y ago
How many tech co-ops have you run into? This is a rare thing from my experience and I need to read more about it
- nickbauman 7y ago
  There are a couple I've run into. Technically any ESOP company has some degree of employee ownership, but is actually just a company with a different sort of pension plan. I believe in full employee ownership. You really have to believe in the owner-worker model and commit to it. And you can't have owner-workers who are only there because of the benefits: there's a burden in running a company. Management works for you, not the other way around. So you have to be really responsible. Everyone is counting on you. You don't abdicate any decisions.
yurishimo 7y ago
Super curious to hear about your co-op experience and any docs you may have about getting started. If I ever come up with an idea that gains traction I would like to run a co-op model.
- nickbauman 7y ago
  I read the book "The Company We Keep" by John Abrams, about creating employee-owned company because I was interested in taking my software engineering skills to something other than the Startup/VC or consulting firm model of getting people to work together for a common purpose and still be profitable. I also wanted to run a business where I'm not screwing the people that work for me. Whether that's a founder taking a few (hundred) million and everyone else losing their jobs eventually or a "staff augmentation" consulting firm where you have someone taking 3 out of seven dollars per hour from you for processing a check. Then I discovered the Mondragon Corporation, the largest co-operative in the world, with 13 billion in revenues per year. MC has launched and average of 3 startups every year in an 80+ year track record. Only two have ever failed. So far the co-op shows both promise and pitfalls in ways I didn't anticipate. I think the promise overrides the pitfalls so far. I get to work with people whose little kids I want to see go to college.

vsareto 7y ago

How many tech co-ops have you run into? This is a rare thing from my experience and I need to read more about it

nickbauman 7y ago
There are a couple I've run into. Technically any ESOP company has some degree of employee ownership, but is actually just a company with a different sort of pension plan. I believe in full employee ownership. You really have to believe in the owner-worker model and commit to it. And you can't have owner-workers who are only there because of the benefits: there's a burden in running a company. Management works for you, not the other way around. So you have to be really responsible. Everyone is counting on you. You don't abdicate any decisions.

yurishimo 7y ago

Super curious to hear about your co-op experience and any docs you may have about getting started. If I ever come up with an idea that gains traction I would like to run a co-op model.

nickbauman 7y ago
I read the book "The Company We Keep" by John Abrams, about creating employee-owned company because I was interested in taking my software engineering skills to something other than the Startup/VC or consulting firm model of getting people to work together for a common purpose and still be profitable. I also wanted to run a business where I'm not screwing the people that work for me. Whether that's a founder taking a few (hundred) million and everyone else losing their jobs eventually or a "staff augmentation" consulting firm where you have someone taking 3 out of seven dollars per hour from you for processing a check. Then I discovered the Mondragon Corporation, the largest co-operative in the world, with 13 billion in revenues per year. MC has launched and average of 3 startups every year in an 80+ year track record. Only two have ever failed. So far the co-op shows both promise and pitfalls in ways I didn't anticipate. I think the promise overrides the pitfalls so far. I get to work with people whose little kids I want to see go to college.