A timely topic about the thing: Stop to think about your identity.
What things in your identity identify you? Take a quick look at the mirror. Here we go:
The striped, seen many battles coat of many colors. The beard. The 'Never Grow Old' T-shirt. Flared trousers. Topknot.
That's what I see in the mirror. The perceivable interface into the person that's me. Yesterday Rush.com did a wall post of Rush's gig in Helsinki, a group of people with rush T-shirts shot through a fish eye lens. A snapshot of a collective identity of a Rush fan. Hmm.
Recently I've been talking to a LOT of people about what we are doing and what to do next and the funding and so on. One of the questions that was brought up was making Osuuskunta Hastur a limited company entity instead of a co-op. The Man explained to me that this will happen sooner than you might think.
I got a bit argumentative (in a nice way tho) and asked what's wrong with having a co-op?
The Man said that co-op's have a bad reputation when it comes to finding investments. Co-op's are seen as badly managed, volatile little creatures, basically like a group of gossiping ladies who hand craft felt hats, make 60€ revenue per year and go defunct after bitter arguments about where to buy the felt.
But badly managed corporations are equally badly managed, I argued. Only the scale is different.
The Man looked at me and said: hmm.
'Now that you said it, Osuuspankki (big bank in finland), S-group (big retail organization that's a co-op), this and that, there's all these big co-ops out there for sure. Legally speaking the co-op structure is very similar to a limited company and you can play all the same moves. Hmm'.
'Anyway I would recommend preparing to file a few forms to become a limited company', he concluded.
'But I've read that there's no harm in showing a bit of color towards your investors. Separate yourself from the others. Have you own flag of sorts. Our co-op even has it's own song' I argued.
The Man frowned in deep thought. Hmm..
'Definitely there are many players out there that don't distinguish themselves at all. It's all a very transparent looking package designed to lure in investment. How can it hurt you when it looks so good.'
grumble grumble. His mental elevator rises. 'Maybe you should stick to your idea about your company and how to present it. But i'd advise not to be unreasonable about things, in any case the main thing is to get the game done'. Solid advice.
On the way home I thought about the importance of having this co-op. My identity of being the guy who runs this boat with these people and it's little flag with obscenely fluorescent purple 8-bit Hastur character, sailing away on the seas of cheese. I felt I'm doing well. I felt very comfortable about my position on the ship and how this ship relates to the world and what we're doing. It felt very good indeed.
When I meet creative people and tell I'm running a co-op, people in general say 'Sweet! That's awesome, is there something I could do to help you out?'.
Running a 'proper' company provoked a very different response. I know because I did that. People felt that what i'm doing is very exclusive and driven by self interest only. Co-op however, makes people feel that there is some kind of sharing and caring going on. Legally it's the same. But it's about the image.
What kind of people do I need to meet. The ones who shut down when they hear about my limited company and immediately get dreaming about sending me a bill. This guy has a limited company, he must be rolling in dough, How could I get a piece of that.
For the Co-op enterpreneur guy the response is more like: this guy is trying to do something with his friends that are equally cool. Maybe I could join the fun and get something done. How about it.
So I resolved to keep my flag. I'm convinced that we're well managed and that we can produce something great even tho we're a co-op and we have an awkward Finnish name.
Who's with me?
Sami
Hastur
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