Startup founders: today’s audio plat savoureux from the Innova802 crew focused on our guest Matt Cropp, executive director of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC).

We discussed why you need to consider your future exit now at the onset of your enterprise and why you should take a serious look at forming an employee-owned enterprise and how.

The history of tech and tech enabled companies since the post WWII years is a history of equity sharing so it’s often a short walk for companies to consider employee ownership (co-operative models, employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)).  

We defined how these models work alongside equity-sharing and market-rate employment and what benefits come to founders and when.  Most notable we’ll tell you how creating an ESOP and planning for a liquidity event are not mutually exclusive. 

We tie the combination of tech business culture and employee ownership to rural development.  How these elements can and should be used to transform communities throughout fly-over, USA.

BTW, Watch closely, that is if we see forward momentum in Congress, of an important piece of legislation for incentivising more employee ownership called the Employee Equity Investment Act.  

Other work of note by MacKenzie Wark

Mentioned by co-host Will Jeffries : Slicing Pie(Fair Equity investment tool) 

And in the Jazz Room…We met pianist/composer, Orrin Evans at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival.  In part one of this interview we talk about his CD “The Red Door”, the meaning of red, the Jazz Train and Jazz elders. Click here to learn more about Orrin Evans.