Yes, I agree, it is very hard. I’ve talked to a lot of founders and was working on getting a company off the ground myself.
The perspective and the idea of a co-op however is completely different from what you describe: to distribute the hardships, the risks and rewards right from the start onto many shoulders. There’s no more “my company, my sacrifices” etc. It’s all we.
Not every business needs to expand, though. There are quite constrained markets for very specialized goods or services. I know several B2B companies that have 10-20 employees, serve several dozens up to few hundred rather small, regional customers, and they’re perfectly happy with that.
FWIW, according to this site, 24% of Germans are co-op members. The number of co-op employees is only a fraction of this, however.
I’m currently educating myself on how to create a co-op shares portfolio for some long-term investment.
Precisely this. From a philosophical-logical POV, it doesn’t make sense. From the POV of establishing and maintaining power/ dominance/ oppression/ hegemony, however, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
Middle manager.
At least in my current job. There are nice AND useful ones out there, but in my dept., there’s positively neither.
It’s become a product. You can still discuss anything on Reddit unless it diminishes the value of the product. E.g. in a thread discussing the merits of Hyundai or Coca-Cola or whatever, which I’m sure will be totally organic and not paid-for and bot-bum-rushed at all, any negative comment about these brands will get you buried at -6 or below within mere minutes.
Right? Way too often, I see some really interesting comments sitting at 0 or -1, and some still somewhat interesting and/ or arguably good-faith comments have something like -50 because they go against the current direction of the herd. I usually upvote at least the former, but for the latter, it’s not going to matter much, unfortunately.
Furthermore, some mods get way too personally invested and take an obvious disliking to you so everything you contribute will be pushed to the bottom of the stack anyways.
If he hadn’t been to jail, maybe he put them in storage for 30 years specifically because he didn’t want to be recognized in his new life.
Well, then there’s a business idea for another co-op right there: one that does nothing but connect potential co-op founders. A marketplace of ideas and abilities, if you will.
Also, your co-founders will contribute time as well as capital to free you. The challenge then becomes decision-making. IMHO, if you can come to terms with relinquishing control, you can be part of a successful business in a co-op easier than in a classical setup.