Looks like a great project! I'm pretty familiar with worker coops (I'm a political scientist who studies them). Some questions, in no particular order: 1) Your model sounds a lot like Arizmendi in the SF Bay Area (based in Oakland -- full disclosure: my dad was a co-founder). ...

Hi Mark, Thanks so much for your questions! Our answers to them below: 1) Yes, we are very familiar with Arizmendi. Our Founder and Board Chair Jason Wiener has studied their model for 10+ years. 2) Jason works very closely with USFWC and DAWI. He has been retained by USFWC for a project, and his law firm has been a member for 8+ years. He is one of the participants in the DAWI-stewarded Workers 2 Owners collaborative, and has also worked with many DAWI work streams for years. 3) Workers woul...

How is the Co-op revenue share paid out to the investors? Do we have a choice in what class to invest in?

Hi Yoshimi, Thanks for your question. All WeFunder investors become Class B investor-members and receive dividends out of free cash flow up to 1x the original investment. Dividends begin accruing 12 months following the closing of the investment. Once a 2x dividend allocation cap has been reached, the co-op will begin making distributions back to investors up to 2x the original purchase price. Please see the investment documents on the campaign page for a more thorough summary.

Main Street Phoenix Workers Co-op

We turn local restaurants into worker-owned coops

Pitch Video

Investor Panel

mainstreet.coop

Denver, CO

Food & Beverage Restaurant

Highlights

💸 Raised $350K in investments, grants, donations; making 1st concept-proving acquisition now

🤝 Partnered w/ the Gates Family Foundation, multiple CO impact funds

💫 Our virtual Restaurants Rising Summit ft. CO Governor Jared Polis, restauranteurs, founders

💸 Plan to acquire & coop-ify 23 restaurants in the next 5 yrs, affecting 1100+ workers

Team

We're building an entirely employee-owned restaurant group. 💪🏽

We've started in Denver, CO. Our long-term vision is to find Main Streets across America with large swaths of downtown real estate owned by real estate holding companies & hedge funds. . . . our strategy is about maintaining the independence of Main Street post-COVID by putting a worker-centered recovery strategy in motion.