Investing in cooperatives isn't all that new, some sites (https://www.ethex.org.uk/) have a fairly long history in it. Cooperative financing options are generally debt instruments, or forms of shares which are a kind of like bonds that also confer membership and a vote.
The difficulty really is in organising people into a functional company and acquiring customers ASAP. The coordination costs are high and the prospect remains risky, so very few people do this.
Probably the best option for more cooperatives is to legislate the idea of a hostile takeover by employees into existence, such that a majority of employees can vote to take over a company if they can finance it's purchase. As you might imagine, certain quarters would respond badly to this.
If they can finance the purchase (at an arms-length price), they can already buy the company; no law change is needed.
The idea already exists and does not need to be legislated into existence: it’s a leveraged buyout (LBO).
A law change is only needed if you want to force a sale at a lower price than the current owner(s) will accept. In other words, if you want to forcibly take the company from them for less than the price they are willing to accept, so basically seize part of the value of private property and give it to other private people. I agree that would be unpopular.
Not so: you're thinking of companies that are traded in public. I'm saying even private companies should be able to bought by their employees, at the instigation of the employees rather than the owners, and that this should apply to companies large or small. It may still be an LBO and would still be at market price, but it'd be unappealing to say the least for owners. It'd still be beneficial.
If it’s bought at a price that the owners voluntarily accept, they’ll be fine with it (by definition), whether previously publicly traded or privately held.
No, the idea is that a formula would apply. The reliance on voluntarily handing over from the founders is specifically what a legislative change would alter. That's the whole point of what I'm saying.
The difficulty really is in organising people into a functional company and acquiring customers ASAP. The coordination costs are high and the prospect remains risky, so very few people do this.
Probably the best option for more cooperatives is to legislate the idea of a hostile takeover by employees into existence, such that a majority of employees can vote to take over a company if they can finance it's purchase. As you might imagine, certain quarters would respond badly to this.