Well, then there’s a business idea for another co-op right there: one that does nothing but connect potential co-op founders. A marketplace of ideas and abilities, if you will.
Also, your co-founders will contribute time as well as capital to free you. The challenge then becomes decision-making. IMHO, if you can come to terms with relinquishing control, you can be part of a successful business in a co-op easier than in a classical setup.
Yes, I agree, it is very hard. I’ve talked to a lot of founders and was working on getting a company off the ground myself.
The perspective and the idea of a co-op however is completely different from what you describe: to distribute the hardships, the risks and rewards right from the start onto many shoulders. There’s no more “my company, my sacrifices” etc. It’s all we.
Not every business needs to expand, though. There are quite constrained markets for very specialized goods or services. I know several B2B companies that have 10-20 employees, serve several dozens up to few hundred rather small, regional customers, and they’re perfectly happy with that.
FWIW, according to this site, 24% of Germans are co-op members. The number of co-op employees is only a fraction of this, however.
I’m currently educating myself on how to create a co-op shares portfolio for some long-term investment.
Because it runs counter to basic democratic values. Here’s what Schäfer & Raumann, two professional change managers, had to say in 2009 on the topic of business vs. politics:
“[A political system’s] committees are characterized by a culture of discourse and decision-making processes in which proportional representation, the principle of fairness, the consideration of wings, majority and minority interests as well as idea of political consensus and the finding of compromise formulas are important.”
That makes politics very different from both business and science. They also note that good managers make for bad politicians, and vice versa. Unfortunately, I cannot find the source online anymore.
It’s kind of ok as a news aggregator, especially for non-US news. The comments have long gone to hell, however. I stop reading threads after encountering the 10th or so “/s”, which usually happens a few seconds in.
It’s all gone electronic very recently, but the “pink” medicine is considered optional in a way. It’s mostly QOL-improving stuff like aspirin or ibuprofen. It used to be free, but the decision has been made to further disadvantage the poorest part of society for which 5 € can make quite a difference.
There was a high-profile public murder case some years back in my area. Police stated the alleged killer wore an eye-catching band-aid smack in the middle of his face. Now for several days, I kept looking out for some dude with a band-aid until it occurred to me that the guy probably ripped it off immediately after the hit and it just might have been a red herring from the beginning. Nobody was ever caught.
My parents are the complete opposite of yours and I always felt like I had no role model to imitate. The thing is, you have to find your own way. And the one thing all parents need to teach their kids is independent thinking. Unfortunately, that also makes them harder to control, so many parents work actively against that.
I was thinking it’s a Pretty Hate Machine.
Yeah, take your hands off of them!
To live and die in Japan, that’s the place to beeee…
Strange how in polite French society, there are no female cats. Similar to rabbits in Spain…
I was told to better not call a Brazilian girl “garota” even though in Portugal, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Most humans are born with orifices, I think that counts.
X and Bluesky are tools, nothing else.
Maybe I’m stating the obvious here, but Mastodon simply doesn’t have a lot of marketing muscle behind it.