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 …
Alternative Finance
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
Thoughts from a new economies’ attorney: distinguishing cooperative governing structure
In my previous posts, I discuss how traditional businesses and cooperatives diverge from a capital (and return on capital) point-of-view. Another common misconception is that cooperatives function like nonprofits, typically from the perspective of governance structure. They don’t. Cooperatives are businesses, and, as such, business principles and governance, and business governing structure apply to them. …
Thoughts from a new economies’ attorney: patterns that create different kinds of (business) ownership – cooperative capital
In my last post, I talked about how capital looks like in a traditional business. As a recap, traditionally, capital is invested in the business with a goal of extracting profits and controlling how the business is done – the more money an investor (owner or shareholder) puts in the business, (i) the more return …
Thoughts from a new economies’ attorney: patterns that create different kinds of (business) ownership – traditional capital investment
If you are reading this post, chances are you are an innovator, you are looking for guidance on alternative business forms, you run or are part of a mission-driven organization, you are considering adopting democratic governance models in your business or nonprofit, or some combination of those. I have to alert you that this is …
Capital Basics: Five Categories of Financing
The Jason Wiener, p.c. blog has a significant and growing section on raising capital for a business. This post will go back to the basics and briefly describe the five categories of financing: debt, equity, convertible debt, grants, and rewards-based fundraising. Most types of fundraising fall within one or more of these areas. Debt: Debt …
SEC Adopts Temporary Rules to Loosen Crowdfunding Regulation in Light of COVID-19
In recognition of the particular effect of COVID-19 on small businesses, the SEC issued temporary rules earlier this month to allow small businesses greater access to interstate crowdfunding. The federal requirements for crowdfunding, called Regulation Crowdfunding or Regulation CF, had slow approval processes and arduous requirements which made it difficult for small businesses to access …
Cuba and Cooperatives (Part 3): Social, Economic, Racial, Gender and Sexual Justice Through Constitutional Reform
Information derives from a lecture by Cuban Criminal Justice and Cooperative Attorney Oldalys Perex Martinez, on January 15, 2020 We’re mainly taught in the U.S. that Cuba is “ruled” by a militaristic, one-party, authoritarian regime (e.g. links intentionally omitted). The on-the-ground perspective in Cuba is quite different; so too are the facts. Cuba’s people democratically …
