What We Have Here Is A Failure to Cooperate v.1
Cooperatives are a great concept. With a corporation, the person with the most shares runs the company. With a cooperative, the person with the most shares gets the biggest chunk of the profits but only one vote. Very democratic. If I had a time machine, I would have gone back to the dawn of the industrial revolution and organize workers into owner-operator factory cooperatives. In one fell swoop, I could have knee-capped big business and big labour.
One partner of mine was big on co-ops. He was drunk with the idea of augmenting his plans with big government grants aimed at helping co-ops. He roped me into it and set about gathering the information we needed to sell the co-op concept to others. We gathered a bunch of people. Here's a quick rundown of two of the more colorful members:
Surly Tech. This guy look a shaggy version of Harry Knowles or Bruce Villanche. He was chock full of stupid ideas. I had actually seen his work first hand. He built a database system for a wholesaler. 110 database tables for a place that had three product lines and probably 140 SKUs in total.
Web Designer/Writer/Flooring Guy/Burger Flipper. He would bicycle from 20 miles away and walk right into a closed meeting room for our two hour sessions. Rreeeeek. This guy was a super-duper writer. No; scratch that. He couldn't make a living as a writer. He was a web designer. Nope. He was on compo because he blew his knees out in construction (I get the feeling that wherever he goes he might blow his knees out to keep his job).
For the whole summer, we met weekly and hashed out the details. Surly tech vomitted his stupid ideas into the meeting room. Web Designer/etc. targetted one prospective member just because he didn't like him. Some people got tired of the ordeal and left. By the end of the summer, we were ready to set-up the co-op. I was tasked with getting the paperwork together. I showed up at our meeting and my partner said, "We're going to set-up a corporation instead. It's a better structure." I was shocked. Only I was shocked. My partner got everyone else on side before the meeting.
Good bye co-op v.1. They went onto form a little company I've dubbed "Black Hole Software." My partner made himself the president (big deal, Castro did the same). He invited me to join, if I bought $2000+ in, folded my IT business and basically swore subservience. He made the same requirement of the other members. Surly Guy was expected to quit his job at a big institution. He didn't. The other members were allowed to come in without their cash. Rules are made to be broken.
One partner of mine was big on co-ops. He was drunk with the idea of augmenting his plans with big government grants aimed at helping co-ops. He roped me into it and set about gathering the information we needed to sell the co-op concept to others. We gathered a bunch of people. Here's a quick rundown of two of the more colorful members:
Surly Tech. This guy look a shaggy version of Harry Knowles or Bruce Villanche. He was chock full of stupid ideas. I had actually seen his work first hand. He built a database system for a wholesaler. 110 database tables for a place that had three product lines and probably 140 SKUs in total.
Web Designer/Writer/Flooring Guy/Burger Flipper. He would bicycle from 20 miles away and walk right into a closed meeting room for our two hour sessions. Rreeeeek. This guy was a super-duper writer. No; scratch that. He couldn't make a living as a writer. He was a web designer. Nope. He was on compo because he blew his knees out in construction (I get the feeling that wherever he goes he might blow his knees out to keep his job).
For the whole summer, we met weekly and hashed out the details. Surly tech vomitted his stupid ideas into the meeting room. Web Designer/etc. targetted one prospective member just because he didn't like him. Some people got tired of the ordeal and left. By the end of the summer, we were ready to set-up the co-op. I was tasked with getting the paperwork together. I showed up at our meeting and my partner said, "We're going to set-up a corporation instead. It's a better structure." I was shocked. Only I was shocked. My partner got everyone else on side before the meeting.
Good bye co-op v.1. They went onto form a little company I've dubbed "Black Hole Software." My partner made himself the president (big deal, Castro did the same). He invited me to join, if I bought $2000+ in, folded my IT business and basically swore subservience. He made the same requirement of the other members. Surly Guy was expected to quit his job at a big institution. He didn't. The other members were allowed to come in without their cash. Rules are made to be broken.
posted by A. Proud (Foolsoft Employee) at 6:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home