How founders can advance employee ownership As founders, we have incredible power to generate billions (or trillions!) of wealth for employee-owners. Employee ownership is not new. Industrial giants from the 20th century like Kodak and General Electric offered stock to their employees. Nearly every software engineering or product management role…

This playbook is designed for cooperative entrepreneurs looking to raise their initial funding. It can guide the first one to two years of getting your organization off the ground and is informed by my experience raising capital for The Drivers Cooperative, a worker cooperative in New York State. I need…

Banker. Mechanic. Lawyer. Journalist. Doctor. So many people’s careers can be boiled down to a simple word. But so often those words are loaded terms that earn nods of approval or side-eyes of judgement. However, this one-word professional identity hammers against self-worth when you’re a dreamer who is doing work…

A journalist called me a “class traitor” for leaving Uber to start a worker-owned competitor: Co-op Ride. I’ve had the privilege of being welcomed into the upper-echelons of the elite “meritocracy.” McKinsey & Company. Georgetown. Uber. Stanford. They all let me slip through the pearly gates. But I’m the daughter…

I was reading Cheryl Strayed’s book Dear Sugar, a compilation of real-talk advice columns. Someone wrote in bemoaning that, despite attending prestigious colleges, she had not landed a six-figure book deal and was unable to feel happy for friends who had. Strayed laid down the facts: “We are not talking…

Originally appeared in The New York Times To the Editor: Trumpeting support for legislation requiring benefits for gig workers, then lobbying to minimize required contributions and the number of workers who qualify, is a public relations tactic to prevent legislation classifying workers as employees. Benefits for gig workers is a…

A timeline of how gaps in employment law forced the federal government to spend billions to subsidize the cost of paid leave and unemployment benefits for millions of Uber drivers March 6 Senator Mark Warner of Virginia sends a letter to Uber, Lyft, Instacart, Postmates, Grubhub and DoorDash urging their…

Why do the poor have to pay to bank, but the rich get paid to bank? Banking while poor is expensive. Savings accounts are not linked to a debit card, so if you want to pay in something other than cash, you need a debit or credit card. A debit…

Appeared in the Albany Times Union: https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Viewpoint-More-than-ever-gig-workers-deserve-15180529.php During the coronavirus crisis, gig workers are quickly becoming everyday heroes. They are collecting essential medicines, delivering much-needed groceries and even taking the ill to hospital. We’re asking them to meet our needs and risk their own health to do it, but what…