A Vision for Growing and Supporting the Co-op Community

If you want people to take action, make the ask feel doable – if you don’t, they won’t. Frankly, right now it’s too hard to form a co-op in the U.S. There are a number of unique challenges facing potential co-op entrepreneurs:

POLICY: The United States has no federal cooperative policy nor enabling legislative framework, so regulations for worker cooperative formation vary widely by state, making it is necessary to monitor local regulations to provide timely, nuanced guidance.

ACCESS TO SERVICES: Co-op development services are currently essential to the startup of most new worker cooperatives, which creates a bottleneck for scaling cooperatives as a business model.

FORMAT: People seeking information on starting new co-ops encounter a multitude of documents, it can be difficult to know which materials are most relevant or to know how to assess their current position and what steps to take next. Information is often presented in English- language PDFs, which also presents barriers for language-access and meeting accessibility standards.

AWARENESS: When you look online for information on how to start businesses, co-ops aren’t as visible as they could be. There is a missed opportunity to market co-ops as a business model to potential entrepreneurs who are unfamiliar with the cooperative model through more accessible, user-friendly materials that make the process easier and connect them to the broader co-op community.

As opposed to other self-service materials, that are often static document (like a PDF), this will act as a kind of dynamic “living document” of co-op policy and resources. Because it is being built to be updated and customized, it can adapt to the shifting policy landscape and the regional differences that co-ops face in the United States due to the lack of a comprehensive federal policy.

Perhaps most importantly it will meet groups where they’re at by breaking down the process into more understandable and accessible steps, and connect them to service providers.

No, of course not! This platform cannot replace the invaluable work that co-op developers and professional associations that provide technical assistance (TA) support to workers looking to form a co-op. But we know that hiring a consultant can pose a significant financial commitment for new businesses in the formation stage that are not yet generating revenue, and not all groups have access to subsidized co-op development. This resource will provide self-service tools that can help identify what type of support groups need at low cost.

Our goal is for it to be a tool to help to ease the number of repeat questions that TA providers get and reduce bottlenecking due to limited capacity. So it can be a place to refer folks if they are at-capacity or it can also be used by TA providers to manage the work that they are doing with co-ops. They can create Advisor accounts where they have access to all the co-ops that they are working with who are using Launch.coop in their development process as a way to streamline their workflow as well. We see Launch.coop as being a resource for both groups looking to start co-ops and for co-op developers.

Worker co-ops are businesses where employees share ownership. They are based on the idea that the employees who do the work — the members — should also own and democratically govern it with one vote each. 

Cooperatives are structured around seven principles deeply rooted in democracy, economic participation, and sustainable growth of both the businesses and communities they serve. 

In this shared ownership structure, profits are shared with the people who directly support that business. Because of this, cooperative ownership has the potential to unlock ownership and wealth generation for so many traditionally excluded individuals and communities.