At Jason Wiener | p.c., we are honored to work alongside mission-driven founders building a more equitable economy. This includes leaders like the team at A Fairer Society (AFS), who are reimagining how businesses are structured, governed, and owned. Building on a deep commitment to cooperative principles, AFS is pioneering a multi-entity structure that places workers at the center of decision-making and economic returns – linking the act of working to the act of owning in a legally enforceable and genuinely transformative way.

Learn how AFS navigated uncharted legal territory to build a first-of-its-kind cooperative ecosystem – and how our team helped design a governance and membership framework grounded in sociocratic principles, worker ownership, and values-aligned enterprise.

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Employee Ownership Trusts and Perpetual Purpose Trusts are gaining buzz as mission-driven alternatives to ESOPs and traditional exits, but are they right for your business? Before committing to a fundamental re-wiring of ownership, control, and economic rights, every founder needs to ask the hard questions. Jason Wiener breaks down how these structures actually work, where they shine, and when simpler alternatives may serve you better.

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Cooperative founders often shoulder outsized risk, including unpaid labor, personal cash, and emotional strain, without clear guidance on fair compensation. In this plain-language guide, Jason Wiener and Jenny Kassan explore how dynamic equity can reward real contributions over time while staying true to cooperative principles. They outline practical, coop-friendly models that balance fairness, legality, and long-term mission.

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In this Members Only video, Jason Wiener speaks with Kate Smith and Claire Christensen of Gimme Coffee about the company’s transition to worker ownership. They share lessons from converting a 25-year-old coffee business into a cooperative, including governance challenges, cultural shifts, and how centering workers has strengthened Gimme’s mission, workplace, and connection to the Ithaca community.

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In our latest Members Only interview, Jason Wiener talks with Eli Allen, co-founder of Wild Blue Studios, an artist-owned co-op reshaping creative work in games, TV, and film. Eli shares how shared ownership fosters agency, accountability, and sustainability in an industry often defined by burnout. A thoughtful look at how cooperative models can build fairer, more resilient studios—and a better creative future.

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We’re excited to launch our brand new video series, “Members Only," where we interview clients about the impact of shared ownership and the cooperative business model. In our first interview, Jason Wiener speaks with Shane Gring, Co-Founder of Certainly, a new worker-owned cooperative offering marketing and technology strategy to help cerficiation leaders do more business online. Learn how their reorganization to a coop has resulted in a healthier, fairer workplace and more inclusive, efficient certification programs.

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Colorado’s new Alternate Equity Structures (AES) are reshaping employee ownership. By going beyond traditional stock, AES give workers real stakes – whether through profit interests, phantom equity, or stock options – while requiring genuine rights and participation. This new blog post, by Jason Wiener, explores how AES work, why they matter, and how companies can creatively overcome governance challenges to build sustainable, shared ownership.

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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.

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Eric Ries's new book, Incorruptible, offers a model charter for protecting companies from "financial gravity," the pressure to prioritize investors over mission. Senior Attorney Jenny Kassan breaks down key provisions, including mission shares, Class M Director voting power, and founder supervoting shares, then goes a step further. She argues that charter provisions alone aren't enough; the real key to staying incorruptible lies in how a company structures its investment terms from the start.

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