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Ownership Capital Lab

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Innovation.

Capital.

Acceleration.

The Ownership Capital Lab focuses on capital as a growth and scale lever for employee ownership. Employee ownership — EO for short — is a powerful solution that preserves local business ownership, strengthens local economies, and creates quality jobs and wealth for workers.
Our vision is to grow capital to finance employee ownership by $1B in the next 5 years—then 10x that capital and impact from there. We will be successful when investment capital is put to use to dramatically increase the rate and scale of the creation of new EO companies, ensuring that this growth includes frontline workers and workers of color.
Our R&D work is to research and pilot capital vehicles that can expand EO in ways that grow the pie for employees.
We want to see existing (and new) EO funds grow their AUM, and their impact, rather than create vehicles that compete. We pair R&D with investor education (directly and through partners), and fund engagement and support. Bridging between capital market and employee ownership expertise is central to our efforts.
The Lab’s initial focus is on the product-market fit of EO investment vehicles (existing and new) with investors’ and fund managers’ needs and appetites. Over time, we aim for there to be EO investment opportunities spanning asset classes.

Employee Ownership

A powerful solution that creates quality jobs and wealth for frontline workers, preserves local business ownership and strengthens local economies.

Employee-owners have assets nearly twice as high as their peers at companies without EO. Even frontline workers can earn life-changing profit sharing. Low margin industries (like bakeries, restaurants, housecleaning), have delivered profits in their first years of EO of $10,000 – $20,000 per employee-owner.
Over half of our locally-owned businesses have owners at or near retirement age! They need buyers, which EO offers. Through EO, business owners sell their companies at market value, feel proud of their legacy, and in doing so, diversify — rather than further concentrating — these engines of wealth creation.
Employee ownership is still highly underutilized, as it doesn’t have the broad familiarity that can unlock faster growth. We can’t wait for this awareness to take hold. The Silver Tsunami and the opportunity it presents to address inequality are too urgent. The EO field needs to aggressively pursue EO acquisitions fueled by capital.