Welcome to our Members Only video series, where we interview clients about the impact of shared ownership and the cooperative business model. Come along to hear from owners and cooperators about their challenges and experiences.

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In our very first Members Only interview, Jason Wiener spoke with Shane Gring, Co-Founder and first Board President of Certainly, a cooperative formed in January 2025 with the help of JWPC.

Certainly is a marketing and technology strategy company that helps certification leaders do more business online, advancing better organizations, better buildings, and better cities. After experiencing opaque pay and top-down decisions under prior ownership, they reorganized to distributed ownership and democratic governance model as a way of aligning structure with values.

According to Shane, Certainly’s newfound identity has also become a key strategic differentiator. By leading as a worker-coop, prospects and clients now feel an elevated sense of trust, with fewer hidden layers, less bait-and-switch, and a commitment that projects are being carried by worker-owners with a direct stake in their success.

In working with JWPC, Shane described the experience a confidence-building. He cited our depth in cooperative law, with a clear roadmap and flexibility to customize within multi-state guardrails. Instead of a template, we co-designed governance to fit their goals: voting, patronage profit-sharing, and compensation schemes that matched their operating reality. Six months in, members report real work-life balance and less anxiety around expectations.

2025 has been designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Cooperatives, with the theme that cooperatives build a better world. This is “certainly” the case with Certainly and their coop model which delivers change both upstream –through healthier, fairer workplaces – and downstream – through more inclusive, efficient certification programs.

👉 Watch the full interview on JWPC’s YouTube channel.