Legal Snippets
Legal documents and frameworks for community transitions
Airbnb RFC on compensatory offerings
In 2018, as it approached an IPO, Airbnb submitted a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission requesting permission to distribute shares to users. The permission was not granted.
Alkemio
Investment terms for a steward-owned company where investors have no voting rights but significant upside potential.
Co-op Builder
Online tool for developing legal documents for Australian cooperatives.
Collab.Land
Co-op bylaws for a blockchain project that transitioned to a multi-tiered user ownership model through an airdrop event, including tradable and non-tradable tokens.
Financing Shared Ownership
How policymakers can support the financing of shared ownership across the economy, intended for state-level policymakers in the United States.
Ginkgo Bioworks
IPO with Class B Common Stock which grants employees and directors 10x voting power over ordinary stock.
Indie.vc term sheet
Revenue-based equity financing term sheet with a 3x cap on return to the original investment.
Investment terms for a “fair return”
Aiming to find a middle ground between a for-profit and not-for-profit, this term sheet provides for a “fair return” along with a mission lock mechanism, the “Guardian share.” A UK startup successfully raised around £1 million using this term sheet, mainly from individuals.
Main Street Phoenix Project
Key learnings from the governance, operational, and financial documents for a worker-owned cooperative holding company designed to acquire and operate food-service businesses.
Right To Own: A Policy Framework to Catalyze Worker Ownership Transitions
Reviews and proposes polices to encourage employee ownership conversions.
Shared Earnings Agreement (SEAL)
“The goal of a SEAL is to align the interests of investors and founders in a wide variety of outcomes, while giving founders full control of their business and keeping as much optionality as possible open for the business.”
Sharetribe
A tech startup structured as a “steward-owned enterprise,” designed to serve a social purpose over profit.
Startup term sheet with 3x buyback
Term sheet provision with a government-backed venture firm with an early-stage startup. This provision allows the option, under certain conditions, for the startup to buy out the investment at a x3 multiple.
The Italian Road to Creating Worker Cooperatives from Worker Buyouts
Legal framework for enabling worker-ownership buyouts of endangered businesses in Italy.