In episode 069, Jahed sits down with Dr. Astrid Scholz, ecological economist and social entrepreneur, to discuss how her career arc has cut across governance and ownership, and the resulting innovations she and her teams have delivered. Along the way, we cover ecological economics and how it values ecosystems and people in addition to profits, why the current org structures were not a fit for her and how she and her co-founders innovated on the Zebras Unite Co-op, and the innovation they’ve spurred to deliver more capital to social enterprises at every level, from idea to seed to Series A and beyond. It’s a valuable episode for any entrepreneur considering how to start a new venture outside of the traditional VC model.

In this episode, Martin and Jahed chat with Sarah Drinkwater, Founder and General Partner at Common Magic. Common Magic invests in European and US start-ups at the pre-seed and seed stage. In the conversation, Sarah walks us through her experience working with early stage founders who are using community engagement and incentive design as a core pillar of their growth. She makes a strong case for aligning returns with community health and growth. It’s a fascinating look at a fund manager building an edge across multiple sectors including open source software, developer tools, fintech, and more by focusing exclusively on the digital community. Please rate and review the episode if you enjoyed it.

In this episode of the Ownership Economy, Martin and Jahed sit down with Dr. Ellen Frank-Miller, the Founder and CEO of WORC. A social scientist by training, Dr. Frank-Miller details her research on how investing in people as assets is proven to build more profitable, competitive companies. This episode will be of particular interest to private equity investors, managers, and anyone who is trying to find a meaningful place to work. We hope you enjoy the episode.

In this episode of the Ownership Economy, Martin and Jahed connect with Anthony Cimino Head of Policy at Carta. The conversation discusses challenges and opportunities in the US policy arena to advance broad-based ownership. Anthony walks us through the history of current rules on the books at the SEC and IRS, why they need updating for the world today, and how his past as an operator in Washington, D.C. informs his current work and approach. Investors, start-up founders, and policy workers will all enjoy this episode.

In episode 065, Martin and Jahed chat with Drs. Jenn and Ilia Murtazashvili, from the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Governance and Markets, and dive into the details of their new book, Towards a Political Economy of the Commons: Simple Rules for Sustainability. In the conversation, they cover the basics of what a commons is, what polycentrism is, and how property regimes and governmental institutions shape contexts and outcomes for commons-based governance. They conclude by diving into real world examples of functioning commons across the world, and touch on possibilities for governing the global environmental commons in the context of climate change. We hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode of the Ownership Economy, Martin and Jahed connect with Adam Jackson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Braintrust Network. The conversation begins by discussing how to jumpstart network effects in marketplaces using blockchain technologies and marginal stakeholder incentives. Adam then discusses what decentralization really looks like within a web3 labor marketplace, and offers clues and insights for founders considering building in the space.

In episode 063, Jahed sat down with Camille Canon, founder of Apiary.xyz, and previously founder of Purpose Trust. Camille pioneered the Purpose Trust, a trust built for non-charitable purposes, that creates alternatives for SMEs looking to exit their business whose only option before was PE. Camille talks us through insights learned in the legal engineering of purpose trusts, and how she backed into the real problem—governance and decision-making. We round out the pod by covering a case study of Apiary in action with Radicle DAO, using their tools to help Radicle understand their stakeholders and radically change their decision-making structure for more alignment and quick execution.

In this episode of the Ownership Economy podcast, we welcome Dr. Corey Rosen, a champion of employee ownership. Dr. Rosen dives into the shortcomings of the current ownership model, marked by opaque practices and short-term horizons. The conversation shifts to Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), outlining their benefits, limitations, and reasons for their non-dominant representation in the economy. Dr. Rosen discusses strategies to increase employee ownership, such as contractual preferences, taking companies private through ESOPs, and leveraging policy ideas like the Employee Equity Investment Act. This episode is a concise guide to understanding and fostering an equitable ownership economy.

In this episode of the Ownership Economy, Jahed and Martin welcome back Nathan Schneider, a thought leader who enlightened us on the intricacies of platform cooperatives, DAOs, and the burgeoning Ownership Economy in our 2021 conversation. In this episode, we catch up with Nathan to understand the remarkable transformations that have swept these spaces over the last two years, and how these shifts have influenced his perspective. Together, we dissect Nathan's profound assertion about the dire need for democratic financial mechanisms analogous to venture capital and a supporting software stack for enhancing democratic governance. We further analyze Nathan's provocative piece on creating a robust policy platform for DAOs, its crucial importance, and how Section 230 has shaped the digital world. This discussion delves into the unique features of network-native organizations, and issues of transparency, sufficient decentralization, and participant control within the DAO space. Our conversation culminates with an exploration of Nathan's vision for DAOs: a tool to pivot the online economy away from digital feudalism towards shared ownership, fostering a culture of effective self-governance in our communities and governments. Join us for this riveting conversation as we journey through the evolving contours of the digital economy and governance.

In episode 060, Martin and Jahed sit down with Dakotah Apostolou, CEO of Cohere Network, to learn how Cohere is expanding access to the real estate asset class by tokenizing equity in a global co-living network. In the conversation, we cover Dakotah’s background training as an architect at Taliesin, The School of Architecture started by Frank Lloyd Wright, and how the built environment can be leveraged for better social, environmental, and governance outcomes by leveraging existing legal structures such as the LLC and combining them with blockchain tools to enable liquidity and optionality for network participants. It’s a fascinating experiment showing how one can use a fully-compliant legal approach to enable broad access to equity, and enable optionality for nomads, retirees, and anyone looking for more meaning and flexibility in their living arrangements.