What is Workers.vc

Workers.vc is a venture studio for ventures that commit to Earned Governance principles of accountability and operational control by team members working actively in the venture.

It runs an accelerator for these ventures, takes a small dilutable share of each venture's pie (default 3%), and invests services today and cash as the studio itself raises.

The Accelerator

The Earned Governance Accelerator is an intensive 4-week sprint where technical teams build startups using a radically fairer model.

There is no equity negotiation and no waiting for incorporation. People put hours on tasks. Peer-reviewed work converts into verifiable equity and voting weight, from day one. At the end, each team picks standard paper: Slicing Pie or a Fairmint rolling SAFE.

Why it matters

Money can buy a share of the outcome. Only work earns a say in it. Workers.vc proves that shared-governance, worker-owned startups can bootstrap, compete, and sustain themselves.

Key Principles

• Transparency Not Permission. All funds paid and all equity and governance shares issued are recorded on the task tracker, attached to the work done, readable by the whole team. Votes are not required to move forward on projects or other operational matters. Meetings are generally open to all team members.
• Governance is earned granularly by completing tasks.
• A SAFE, or agreement over future equity, issues granular rights to future equity as work is done. A rolling SAFE is legally a security and can be implemented as a tradable token, but it conveys zero governance control and never forces a liquidity event. Money buys a share of the outcome. Governance of the company can only be earned by work. Economic shares can be made tradable; governance shares never trade.
• Work-weighted, ranked choice election of the CEO, by members active on the task tracker within the defined period.
• Opportunity to Object. A threshold of governance shares may call a vote on any issue a minimum percentage of members has a concern about, including a sale of the company. The result binds. There are limits on frequency.

How Equity Works

Equity is a side effect of the workflow:

1. Log hours on tasks from Marten or the Dash dashboard
2. Team reviews the work — the majority approves it
3. The pie moves — approved work becomes verifiable equity and voting weight in The Pie
4. Pick your paper at the end: Slicing Pie or a Fairmint rolling SAFE

Tools

Workers.vc provides a suite of integrated tools for earned-governance ventures:

Optional Components

These may fit some teams depending on their structure:

• A rotating steering committee with an internal proposal process for spending budget on internal projects, for teams that depend on contract work but also have internal north star goals, so that all have the opportunity to participate.
• A token over future equity that can be made tradable, as in Fairmint.
• Algorithmic increase in share price as funds are raised, as in Fairmint.
• Rules for approval of tasks vary between teams. Informal often works on small teams, or approval may be formalized under the elected CEO. Some teams have project leads who are self-selected by landing contracts or sales.

Pre-approved Models

Model 1

A public benefit corporation with a tokenized Rolling SAFE (for example Fairmint) and written bylaws implementing all components. Periodic equity token drops exported from GovKit, with a separate governance token. Algorithmic growth in the price of early shares as later funds arrive.

Model 2

Slicing Pie, using its established legal agreements, optionally imported regularly from GovKit.

Model 3

GovKit only. Informal until profitable or investment is received, then the agreement is signed.

Before formation, the pie runs as a contract: pre-incorporation Slicing Pie agreements are published forms. At formation the pie converts to LLC membership interests or corporate shares, and a venture spinning out of an existing company can sit in an LLC subsidiary whose pie survives the conversion. A pre-formation pie shares future equity, not current profits. Confirm the details with a lawyer.

Organically Developed from Practice

Each piece evolved in practice at LinkedTrust.us (What's Cookin' Inc.) before being packaged:

• The What's Cookin' corporate bylaws (2022) implement Opportunity to Object (holders of 5% of voting shares can call a binding vote on any company action; 51% of votes cast decides) and voting shares that can only be earned by work reviewed on the task tracker, never purchased.
• A Rolling SAFE has been live on Fairmint since 2021.
• Value labels on tasks since 2021, added up into periodic reviewed equity drops, now packaged as GovKit (open source).
• CEO elections run by ranked choice on ElectionRunner, results public.
• A rotating steering committee has allocated internal budget through public proposals, with a strict no-private-lobbying rule.

Today Workers.vc is an internal venture of LinkedTrust (What's Cookin' Inc, a US public benefit corporation that itself runs on earned governance, following Model 1), with its own pie tracked in GovKit. The first cohort is underway, and the studio is going through the accelerator as an entity in formation: it runs Model 3 on itself, mentor and studio work earn shares in its pie, and the pie is a contract over future equity that converts when the entity forms. If the studio takes investment, those shares convert on the same terms.

Value of the Studio

Toolkit and dashboard with curriculum, task tracker, CRM, and automated equity drops. Mentor network. Supportive peer community. Shared resources including AI token credits, hosting and database access, and discounts and free access to startup service providers.

Ask in Exchange

For a new venture: a share of the pie. Unlike most accelerator stakes it is dilutable, though the price of early shares can still rise algorithmically as later funds arrive. A venture that already exists when it joins pays in cash or in pie. The studio also earns pie contributions for the support it gives, valued like any member's work. The studio's share sits in the venture's own pie alongside the members' shares and converts on the same terms at formation. Optionally, continued use of the dashboard after completing the accelerator. No venture's records are locked in: the full ledger exports at any time, and GovKit is open source and can be self-hosted. Defaults and current numbers: Pricing.

Studio Business Model

Service provider to startups. Today the studio invests services, not cash; with investment into the studio itself, it will also invest cash into ventures it selects on promise and alignment, and may provide need-based stipends to worker participants, based on available funding.