The [ dictatorship => democracy ] imagery is helpful and was part of how we envisioned nilenso as it formed. On a long enough timescale, it also seems to make sense since those forms of governance have worked well for, well, governments -- why not businesses?
I have a read a lot of legal paperwork around co-operative corporate structures available in Canada (where I'm from) which permit external investment or distribution of shares in a variety of configurations. However, I'm not familiar with a single co-operative that actually operates this way.
Having additional motivation for avoiding VC has been helpful at nilenso because it often feels like the streets might as well be lined with suits trying to throw money at us. We have considered taking VC funding if necessary, but probably only the expansion of a business which isn't purely software: hardware, logistics, manufacturing and distribution of physical assets... we've repeatedly acknowledged that doing any of these might require more capital than we can commit by bootstrapping.
I have a read a lot of legal paperwork around co-operative corporate structures available in Canada (where I'm from) which permit external investment or distribution of shares in a variety of configurations. However, I'm not familiar with a single co-operative that actually operates this way.
Having additional motivation for avoiding VC has been helpful at nilenso because it often feels like the streets might as well be lined with suits trying to throw money at us. We have considered taking VC funding if necessary, but probably only the expansion of a business which isn't purely software: hardware, logistics, manufacturing and distribution of physical assets... we've repeatedly acknowledged that doing any of these might require more capital than we can commit by bootstrapping.