Exit to Community
= concept and project
URL = https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/exit-to-community [1]
Description
The Project
"Exit to Community (E2C) is an effort to develop alternatives to the standard model of the startup "exit." Rather than simply aiming for an acquisition by a more established company or a public stock offering, could startups aim to mature into ownership by their community of stakeholders? Through policy research, popular education, and partnership with interested startups, MEDLab is exploring pathways for making the answer a yes.
This work occurs in partnership with Zebras Unite and MEDLab community fellow Danny Spitzberg, with support from the Open Society Foundations." (https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/exit-to-community)
The Concept
"What if startups had the option to mature in a way that gets them out of the investors’ hamster wheel? In the coming months, I will be exploring strategies and stories that could help create a new option for startups: Exit to community. In E2C, the company would transition from investor ownership to ownership by the people who rely on it most. Those people might be users, workers, customers, participant organizations, or a combination of such stakeholder groups. The mechanism for co-ownership might be a cooperative, a trust, or even crypto-tokens. The community might own the whole company when the process is over, or just a substantial-enough part of it to make a difference." (https://ioo.coop/2019/09/startups-need-a-new-option:-exit-to-community/)
More information
- blogpost on "The Internet of Ownership": Startups Need a New Option: Exit to Community https://ioo.coop/2019/09/startups-need-a-new-option:-exit-to-community/
- The E2C zine, Exit to Community: A Community Primer, is now available for free, digitally and in print. https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/2020/08/31/exit-community-community-primer
