If your cooperative or limited cooperative association (LCA) is transacting business outside its state of formation, it likely needs to register as a “foreign entity” in that other state. While this is a standard requirement for LLCs and corporations, LCAs and cooperatives face additional complexities due to the varied and often unfamiliar cooperative statutes …
Jason Wiener
New Colorado Legislation Supercharges Employee Ownership with Tax Incentives
Colorado just passed HB25-1021—a landmark law expanding tax incentives for businesses transitioning to employee ownership. Starting in 2027, business owners can subtract capital gains, worker co-ops can deduct up to $1M in income, and nonprofits and advisors are newly eligible for support credits. It’s a major win for inclusive, locally rooted economies and the employee ownership movement.
Mad Markets – Legal Infrastructure for Innovating Impact Investing in Organic Food Systems
At Jason Wiener|p.c., we are honored to work alongside founders who are advancing a more equitable, climate-aligned economy—leaders like Alex Heilman and Phil Taylor, co-founders of Mad Markets. Building on the success of the Mad Cap spin-off from their parent company Mad Agriculture, which has supported over 100 farmers transition to regenerative practices across 30,000 acres, Mad Markets represents an innovative evolution in sustainable agriculture financing.
Learn how Mad Markets navigated a tough investment climate to close a transformative deal—and how our team helped design a scalable legal framework to fuel a new era of mission-driven acquisitions in sustainable food through a values-driven investment fund.
The Oxford Symposium on Employee Ownership
I recently returned from the Oxford Symposium on Employee Ownership, where I was one of 120 hand selected attendees. I joined fellow Colorado Employee Ownership Commissioners, Doug Dell, Jen Briggs and Stephanie Gripne as one of the largest delegations from around the world. We gathered in hallowed halls of Oxford University to discuss the current …
Overcoming Challenges: Navigating Employee Ownership Conversions
Employee ownership can be a powerful tool for businesses, providing a wealth of benefits such as increased productivity, higher job satisfaction, and improved financial performance. However, transitioning to this model can come with its unique set of challenges. Here, we outline some common hurdles in employee ownership conversions and provide practical strategies to address them. …
Reflections on MAPS Psychedelic Science 2023
The largest convening relating to psychedelics anywhere in the world at any point in known history took place at the Colorado Convention Center from June 19-23. With a few weeks to integrate the immensity of the experience, I have some personal and professional reflections to share: The multi-disciplinary and cross-sector nature of the psychedelics “space” …
Patagonia “Exits to Climate”: A Win for Capitalism, But a Mixed Bag for Stakeholder Governance
I, like most, was delighted to read the news that Patagonia’s shareholders decided to give away ownership of the company to benefit the climate and not private equity, a strategic buyer, or public capital markets. We’ve written extensively on mechanisms for mission protection in corporate entities. It appears that the Chouinard family, which owned …
VC Investment into Democratic, Worker-Owned PBC
What does it feel like when traditional notions of worker-ownership come face to face with venture capital and a deal gets hammered out? As you might expect, pretty exciting and hopeful. One of our clients came to us a little more than a year ago as a group of workers and friends who left …
Co-ops and Capital
A few weeks ago, I presented to the Colorado Employee Ownership Commission about co-ops and capital formation strategies and options. Here is the presentation. If you’d like to learn more about the subject, or design your own cooperative’s capital strategy, you can book a bespoke consulting session with me, HERE.
Vlog: Mission Outcomes Convertible Series Preferred Term Sheet
I have been working for over a year on a template impact oriented term sheet with the above captioned mouthful of a name. Here is a loom explainer on what it’s all about. Email us if you’d like to learn more, or want to consider deploying it. Episode 1 Episode 2
