Worker Tech - equity funding opportunity?

Thanks Sion. Looks like good work and sounds well intended. Shame it's not a natural fit for cooperatives (could this kind of equity investment possibly work with coop model? e.g. if it only effects dividend and not voting rights?) Given their 'mission statement' and focus on worker rights, security etc would be interesting to find out what their stance on worker coops is? Might ping an email over and ask them.

Definitely worth them knowing about coops if nothing else! Be interested in their response too.

It's a weird one - Bethnal Green Ventures is a VC shop as far as I'm aware, so not particularly co-op compatible. No harm in making contact though.

I've got a meeting with Resolution Trust CEO tomorrow off the back of a few tweets I sent after breakfast at Wortley Hall... https://twitter.com/bevangelist/status/799174682087919616

Going to talk about dotcomrades and, well, us obviously!

My cursory reading was that they take 6% equity in the project in return for £20k. 6% isn't the end of the world (the other 94% could still be in common ownership) but the real question is whether they are coop-friendly and what influence the VCs would seek to exert in reality. @shaunfensom can I'm sure tell us all about that. Look forward to hearing back from @bevangelist

Yes, as I recall the accelerator gets 6% equity. Presumably their desired exit strategy is for that 6% to be worth a whole lot more in relatively short order so that they can sell their stake for a healthy profit. Otherwise they re just going to have tiny stakes in lots of start-ups, the majority of which are going to fold, as they tend to do. So to make the whole thing worth their while they are probably look for a 100x multiplier on the very few that can go on to a high valuation and further VC investment. That's how I see it anyway, which feels fairly incompatible with the creation of a sustainable business model offering necessarily low rates of return. Of course I may be wrong and perhaps their goal is to have small sustainable stakes in lots of modest businesses generating a modest dividend. Nah!

I think 100x multiplier is at the top end, but that is indeed the model. @graham2 and I have been arguing that a big problem with this model of startup is not just the exit-to-get-speculative return - with the resulting emphasis that 1 rapid growth and nine failures is worth more than 10 sustainables - but also the emphasis on creating a single vehicle to hold the equity and guard 'the idea' - whereas we all know that collaboration is a way to get to market quickly.