Post #875144
2026-03-31 00:00 UTC
Replies (12)
-
@GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai 2026-03-31 01:51
@floatybirb If you wanna look for resources as well as direct experience, you can also look up democracy at work It’s a website dedicated to cooperatives. I think if you look through the website, you can find the part of the organization that helps mentor workers cooperative https://www.democracyatwork.info/
-
@TheresaReason@socialbc.ca 2026-03-31 02:14
@floatybirb we have an org here in Southern BC that was created specifically to help set up and run coops.they may have relevant resources for you? Uccc.coop
-
@femme_mal@mstdn.social 2026-03-31 02:17
@floatybirb One of the organizations that has a lot of resources related to establishing co-ops is the California Center for Cooperative Development. They were helpful when I was doing research a few years ago on worker-run cooperatives. If you're not in California you'll still have to do research into your state/province's regulations regarding co-ops, but CCCD offers a lot of information from which you can ask better questions. Good luck! https://cccd.coop/
-
@wyatt_h_knott@mstdn.social 2026-03-31 02:26
@floatybirb I know that one of the longest running worker owned and run ag supply places here, Gardener's Warehouse, is going out of business due to bankruptcy. Been around since I was a kid, 40+ years, they took it from a private to a worker owned biz, and then ultimately mis-managed it into the ground, apparently. 🤷♂️
-
@Steve@social.coop 2026-03-31 02:28
@floatybirb I started a worker co-op, and I still work there, 16 years later. There's definitely a learning curve, but I could never go back to working at a conventional business. I was lucky to have older, established co-ops around to give me guidance and encouragement. Do you have anyone nearby?
-
@schwinghamer@mstdn.social 2026-03-31 03:37
@floatybirb the Glitter Bean Café in Halifax
-
@Moss@beige.party 2026-03-31 03:44
@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.
-
@stillgreenmoss@whistlepig.social 2026-03-31 03:52
@floatybirb Me and two others started @bunkcomputer and we're still doing it! It is I think stressful to talk about publicly, because (in the US) you either take out loans up front to start, which is horrifying, or put in your own money and work without pay until it's profitable, which is differently horrifying and is what we're doing. Along the way we've had many people tell us "you shouldn't work without pay, find a way to pay yourselves as soon as you can." And we were just like...how? No one had a compelling answer other than "business loans", which was a hard pass for us. I'm sure that some people take grants, some people structure their project as both a worker cooperative and a non-profit and then look for larger non-profit grants, some people fund-raise from their communities. We did not like those options. So I would say the challenge is getting started, because where does the money come from? It's either the bank, your pocket, or your community, and they all feel differently bad. Because what if it doesn't work out? What we're doing is local alternatives to big tech, both public services and B2B. How did it go? It's going good I think! The "getting clients" part is daunting for us, because we're all mostly computer touchers and sales is so very social. Did it pull in enough money to pay the bills? Not yet. What were the conflicts in organizing it? The three current members started this coop because we were all really values and vision-aligned, so we've not had any major conflicts yet. Do you still work there? Yes! What were the major challenges? Money, insurance, finding coop-competent legal support, finding the time to work on the coop while working other jobs, and honestly the complex pricing schemes of some open-core software. Was anything surprising about the process of it all? I think I'm too far in it to be able to answer this effectively right now. Maybe the most surprising part is seeing that you really can just do stuff, like incorporate a business and start a coop and start running computing infrastructure for people :)
-
@jugglinmike@hachyderm.io 2026-03-31 04:38
@floatybirb https://e2c.how/ has case-studies! My co-op's interview is still pending, but we wrote about it here, too https://www.bocoup.com/blog/bocoup-is-now-worker-owned
-
@radiotea@mastodon.scot 2026-03-31 07:04
@floatybirb started a very small cooperative with 2 others just over a year ago. Conflicts have been few and almost resolved themselves, have aimed for a consensus based culture. That said, the more people and diverging views there are, the harder thus probably becomes. Still working on pulling in enough money to pay the bills 😅
-
@cavyherd@wandering.shop 2026-04-01 05:23
@floatybirb Questions like this remind me of what I've heard about Mondragon Corporation. Not US, so maybe of limited relevance, but I gather it's been a going concern for quite a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation
-
@epicdemiologist@wandering.shop 2026-04-01 11:44
@floatybirb Local examples--the folks in the top photo did our floor replacement! https://flagpole.com/news/news-features/2025/11/05/employee-co-ops-can-save-local-businesses-when-owners-retire/