Post #1416379

@floatybirb I have a couple decades experience in worker owned businesses. The pattern I saw was: a core group of founders would invest personal money and sweat equity into the company and do everything possible to keep it going. As the co grew, and some original people left, they had to hire new workers. The newbs were typically too inexperienced to make critical decisions, and not personally invested enough to work unpaid for the survival of the co. Eventually there’s just a couple old-timers and a whole crew of juniors with over-inflated sense of their own abilities. That’s when the ship hits the rocks. The one that I was in that’s still going is Rainbow Grocery in SF, and IMO the only reason they haven’t folded is because of the wealth of their established customer base. Short version: you can “easily” get yourself and your partners the education you need to build the business, but getting similar commitment from future employee/owners is nearly impossible.