Ask HN: Examples of tech worker cooperatives?

144 points

12 years ago

Cooperatives are an intriguing business model for reasons addressed in a recent New York Times article [1] as well as a recent documentary film called Shift Change [2]. The discussion sparked by Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century [3] provides further reasons for seeking out an alternative business model. Wikipedia has a good entry on the worker coop model [4].

I've come across Quilted [5] and Colab [6], two worker-owned and run cooperatives working in the tech space in the U.S. Both have a fairly impressive lineup of worker-owners and compelling portfolios, indicating that the model can really work.

Does anyone know of other examples of such coops, both in the U.S. and around the world?

1: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/magazine/who-needs-a-boss.html

2: http://shiftchange.org/about/

3: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7618971

4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative

5: http://quilted.coop/

6: http://www.colab.coop/about

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