How to create an Economic Democracy
This is a new website and service aimed at democratically meta-crowdfunding startups and growing businesses. The original aim was to create a community that focused on micro-economies that traditional finance operations ignored. I thought that in all fairness, the system should also accommodate those businesses and startups that would choose to pursue growth funding through this new venue.<p>The system works by creating a crowdfund in advance of a product. People join the community by becoming a &quot;micro-angel-investor,&quot; they purchase a share in the fund and may then be pitched as if they were an investor with many millions of dollars. All of the members of the fund vote on the pitch and the fund makes the investment based on a majority approval. While multiple shares may be purchased in the fund, membership only comes with 1 equal vote. The system allows for the increased valuation of shares and the eventual sale of shares as well to help add incentive to membership and profitability for all of our angels.<p>This is a social web experiment. There is a small service fee on top of fund shares to help pay for the exorbitant startup costs that will be levied if the idea proves viable. This will also pay for a market-rate salary for all the employees to help maintain it, once again, if the idea proves viable.<p>The experimental part of this is the potential for what the individual funds can become. If a fund reaches a certain level of membership and a certain level of money in the bank, it could become a major economic power. This is economic self-determination. The power that comes with being a major economic power isn&#x27;t concentrated though, its diluted. Think of a board of directors with hundreds of thousands of members voting on the tough decisions.<p>Economic Democracy can truly be a beautiful thing in the imagination. The Grey Market Collective aims to make it happen.<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;greymarketcollective.com