software

Setting Up a Software CO-OP

Posted Mon, 03/22/2010 - 19:46 by Matthew Saunders

The Idea

A number of months back, a group of us had the idea to create a software co-operative. There were several tenets that we decided to follow:

The company wouldn't have any employees -- everybody involved would be have 1099 status and would be an independent contractor
The company would be formed as an Limited Liability Company - we chose the state of Delaware
The company would seek to have a $0 cash and asset value at the end of each year
The company would be virtual to keep costs low
We would focus on working with open sourced projects like Drupal

The Setup

We set the company up using Instacorp. The benefit was the speed at which we could set up the company with an automatic legal presence in Delaware. The people at Instacorp made the process incredibly simple, asking a few questions. Within days the legal documents were delivered. That, in itself, really didn't make the company real.

After receiving the legal documents, it was necessary to obtain an FEIN for tax purposes. This is a simple process on the IRS site - it just takes a few minutes and you get the documentation electronically.

Vintage Digital -- An Introduction

Posted Fri, 01/01/2010 - 16:20 by Matthew Saunders

Noun 1. co-op - a jointly owned commercial enterprise (usually organized by farmers or consumers) that produces and distributes goods and services and is run for the benefit of its owners

Vintage Digital LLC is a software co-operative in the true sense of the word. I rather like the idea of our being a sort of group of farmers sowing open source seeds. Our group is made of developers, themers, information architects, designers, project managers, and technical architects.

It was founded as a company of independent contractors. The company structure is completely flat with each member having an equal say in how the company is run. Each of the company members have their own projects and clients. The company itself has a central group of clients which are collectively provided software services.