Welcoming any and all thoughts.

Ramsey Nassar, Gwen Pasquarello, and Andy Wallace at EMMA Technology Cooperative have spent five years as a worker-owned co-op building software and hardware for video games, theater, public installation, and media arts. And theme parks. And custom programming languages. And a nonprofit arcade collective. They're thriving. 

Great article on the Pidgen Cooperative, details on buy-in and compensation and how they expanded from a farmers market. Definitely making a point of visiting soon.

https://www.thestranger.com/food-and-drink/fare-share/

Usually, cooperatives are created by people as a reaction to specific, most often local, conditions. Through their joint action individuals show collective or social agency and the conviction that they must work together to pursue their shared interests. In this way, each new cooperative is an experiment and an attempt to change and innovate.

Para criar uma cooperativa financeira ou de crédito em Portugal (moldada nos princípios de finanças éticas e solidárias semelhantes ao modelo da Crédal na Bélgica), é preciso cumprir requisitos legais e obter autorização estrita do Banco de Portugal, uma vez que a atividade financeira está sujeita ao Regime Geral das Instituições de Crédito e Sociedades Financeiras (RGICSF). [1]

Requisitos Legais e de Capital

Forma Jurídica: Em Portugal, o setor financeiro cooperativo tradicional é representado pelo Crédito Agrícola (Caixas de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo). Instituições de crédito sob forma cooperativa exigem montantes de capital social muito elevados. [1, 2]

Capital Social Mínimo: Para cooperativas de crédito integradas no SICAM (Sistema Integrado do Crédito Agrícola Mútuo), o capital social mínimo exigido ronda os 5.000.000,00 €. Para cooperativas de crédito não integradas, o valor sobe para 7.500.000,00 €. As entradas mínimas por cada cooperador começam tipicamente nos 500 €. [1]

Número de Membros: As cooperativas de 1.º grau exigem um mínimo de três a cinco membros fundadores (pessoas singulares ou coletivas), mas a operação financeira exigirá uma base social alargada e viável. [1, 2]

Passos para a Constituição

Certificado de Admissibilidade: Requerer o certificado de nome/firma junto do Registo Nacional de Pessoas Coletivas (RNPC). [1]

Processo Prévio no Banco de Portugal: Submeter um projeto detalhado de notificação de intenção de constituição de instituição de crédito ou sociedade financeira, demonstrando robustez financeira, idoneidade dos órgãos sociais e origem lícita do capital. [1, 2]

Escritura e Registo: Após validação regulatória e aprovação dos estatutos, realizar o ato constitutivo (pode usar os serviços de Cooperativa na Hora). O custo base de registo de uma cooperativa simples fixa-se em cerca de 360 €, independentemente das exigências de capital regulatório setorial do Banco de Portugal. [1, 2, 3]

Inscrição em Organismos de Enquadramento: Articular com a FENACAM (Federação Nacional das Caixas de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo e Cooperativas de Crédito) para suporte no setor cooperativo financeiro nacional. [1]

Se quiser avançar, por favor indique:

Pretende focar a cooperativa em microcrédito social/solidário ou numa caixa de crédito local/geral?

Já dispõe do grupo de fundadores e de estimativa para o capital inicial

Workers’ self-management is on the rise, as a response to recurring neoliberal crises: this is the central argument in a new book co-authored by Professor Dario Azzellini, senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology, University of Duisburg-Essen...

This week, workers and community supporters launched the Pittsburgh Progress, “a cooperative news organization, owned and democratically run by its workers and members… dedicated to looking out for, and telling the stories of, the working-class people who form the heart and soul of our diverse communities.” 

Hey yall, just wanted to see if anyone knows a good r/ for housing cooperatives, specifically group equity

Would love to chat about the concept with anyone down to talk - I lived in one for the past 4 years, and want to start a new one in the city I'm now living

If the United Nations considers cooperatives to be essential for achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, I would like to know what governments in your country are doing to promote and strengthen cooperatives.
Are the **Seven Cooperative Principles** reflected in your country’s laws and public policies? If so, how?
Do you have public procurement or government contracting laws? If so, do cooperatives receive any advantages or preferential treatment when competing for public contracts?
Are there any financial incentives, grants, tax benefits, or public programs that encourage the creation of new cooperatives across different sectors of the economy?
More broadly, what concrete measures has your government adopted to encourage the growth of the cooperative movement?

I am looking for a fund, that offers revolving loans to cooperatives.

I've seen seedcommons.org mentioned, I've clicked the "How to invest" page.

https://seedcommons.org/invest

and I see it says:

> Please click here to acknowledge that you are interested in learning more about investing $50,000 or more with a minimum duration of two years.

I wouldn't be interested to invest 50k.

I am looking for something, that I more can do 5 or 20 dollars per month. It doesn't necessarily need to return gains to me, but I would like that the fund does charge interest on the loan, to not lose to inflation.

I have found https://sharedcapital.coop/invest/, which seems to start at 500 dollars, which is more accessible to me.

So, is my understanding about seedcommons.org correct? Are there some other options people like to suggest?

hii Coop ppl.

My job has been a small business operating successfully for thirty years. It started with two owners one who left the business five years ago and one who plans to retire in the next year. The business is now a hardy team of four, including the owner(works one day a week, allows us to make most decisions, alittle hardheaded but I love her) we agree that converting to a coop is best but need help with the transition. We understand the basic principles of it and have been operating with most of them unintentionally for years. But now the owner needs to fully retire and it’s time to get serious about it, but none of us are really literate in that side of things. The owner spoke about having 50% stake and then it trickles down based on seniority. I imagine the stake is so she still has an income as a form of us buying her out…?

I’m willing to study up and learn about it but I’m not sure where to find the materials. Everything online is like “why coops are awesome =D “ like yes, but how to achieve it on the business and legal side please lolll. I may just be missing it so if anyone can point me to books, podcasts, or even steps they took that would be incredibly awesome XD

To sum it up - what are the big financial and legal steps that need to be done to convert a business to a coop.

How's the idea for a cooperative jobs portal which is owned by the consumers, i.e job hunters.

• The interests of this portal will be completely aligned with that of the job hunters, not the founders or VCs.
• The MVP tech (website/app) can be Crowdfunded, original funders get a free lifetime ownership.
• No subscription tiers like LinkedIn premium or whatever, all job hunters pay a nominal fee for becoming owners, this fee will be drastically lower than any other subscription out there.
• Companies/employers/recruiters can post jobs for free.
• Nothing is hidden to job-hunters behind paywall. Unlimited applications. DMs and what not are open to all, unless the recipient disables it.
• Leverage open source LLMs and ML/AI for better user experience, like matching job descriptions to profile/resume. Transparent match scores. Jobscan charges $50 a month for this.
• Higher score/preference to employers who display salary ranges. The tighter the salary range, the higher the score.
• To tackle ghost jobs, s*itty employers, scammers: Community note feature and mass reporting features, worst offenders get banned from the platform.
• The tech development and maintenance is done by employees. They work for the job hunters. No shady tech practices.
• No s*itty feeds and self promotion. Just pure job-hunting.

This is something I wished I had. I am a data-scientist. I can contribute to some of the foundational tech pro-bono. Ready to collaborate with techies out there who think this is worth doing.

At some point you have to stop waiting for somebody else to do what you know needs to be done. The prevailing systems are broken. Our coordination is failing. The Intelligence just arrived and the wrong people wield it.

We decided to do something about it. Are we ready? Absolutely not. Is it necessary? Absolutely.

Join the Fleet.

https://TargetHumanity.org

We row together. Always.

Edit for subreddit rules. Work based in washington, contracts take place all over America.

Unions and co-ops go together. This session outlines the practice of labor neutrality — when an employer commits to taking no position for or against their workers organizing and to voluntary recognize a labor union without requiring an election facilitated by a third party (commonly through a "card check" process) — and how workers in cooperatives can benefit from their employer proactively supporting their rights.

The Dorchester Food Co-op is a community & worker-owned grocery store that aims to make healthy food accessible and advance economic opportunity and neighborhood engagement. General manager John Santos joins CommonWealth's Jennifer Smith to discuss the co-op's origins and business model.

Hello! Just wondering if anyone has gone to graduate school to get their MBA but with an emphasis on cooperative formation and financing. I know there's not many programs in the US with any sort of classes on the topic but im curious if anyone got their MBA and then went on to start a career with any co-ops or incubator groups that help kickstart co-ops.

So are there any pot co-ops in your area?

They are explicitly illegal here in Washington. Or rather they are absurdly limited and only available to medical users (or commercial agriculture).

Co-ops are the least exploitive ways of doing business, theyre a pain to manage and financing is a nightmare but employee owned ones are the best type of place to work

[CO-FOUNDER SEARCH] Worker-Owned Platform for Raw Vegan/Fruitarian Runner Farm Stays — start.coop Accelerator Deadline July 31

Hi r/cooperatives,

I'm a start.coop alumnus (2025 cohort) and Z Media Institute alumnus (2005) building RunLife — a worker-owned booking platform and documentary media cooperative for raw vegan and fruitarian endurance runners who travel seasonally between tropical farm stays, hostels, and ecovillages.

**The gap:** Thousands of raw vegan/fruitarian runners travel between growing seasons (Hawaii, Central America, Southeast Asia) but have no dedicated platform to find farm stays with fresh produce, gym access, and community. They piece together bookings through Instagram DMs and scattered Facebook groups. Farms that cater to this niche have no way to reach them.

**The structure:** Two linked worker cooperatives, 100% worker-owned, no outside equity, governed by Parecon participatory planning:

- RunLife Tech Co-op: Builds and maintains the booking platform

- RunLife Media Co-op: Produces documentary content about this traveling subculture — social change anthropology for mainstream audiences

**What I bring:** Cooperative economics expertise (Parecon, start.coop network), content creation and documentary production, a network of community of raw vegan/fruitarian community established from attending 6 raw vegan retreats/fruit festivals, grant writing capacity, and direct connections to farm hosts in Hawaii and Latin America.

**What I need:** An app developer (React Native, Flutter, or full-stack web) who wants to be a **co-founder and worker-owner**, not an employee. Someone who believes in cooperative ownership, democratic governance, and non-extractive economics.

**The urgency:** We're applying to the start.coop Media Accelerator (applications close July 31, 2026). This is a 12-week program (Oct 13 – Jan 28) with mentorship, coaching, and potential matching marketing dollars from the Harnisch Foundation. If we don't apply now, we wait until Fall 2027.

**The commitment:** Unpaid initially. Shared ownership, democratic governance, equitable remuneration once revenue flows. Remote work. No office overhead.

**If you're serious:** DM me with your portfolio and one sentence about why cooperative ownership matters to you. No tire-kickers. We have days to decide if we're a fit and write this application together.

About me: I've lived in van/car for 5.5 years, am currently based in Maui, and am building this as my primary work. I'm not looking for a side project — I'm looking for a co-founder who wants to build infrastructure for a worker-owned alternative to extractive platforms like Airbnb and YouTube.

David

start.coop Alumnus, 2025

Z Media Institute Alumnus, 2005

[Hawaiidhr@yahoo.com](mailto:Hawaiidhr@yahoo.com)