Transform Finance Executive Director Curt Lyon talks with Jim, Matt, and Josh about their work educating investors about ways to support businesses with a focus on worker empowerment.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:29 About Transform Finance
03:49 Curt's bio
06:28 Progress of the co-op movement
11:50 Skepticism from investors
20:26 What do investors get out of this?
28:53 Measuring risk in worker co-op financing
35:16 Clarifying worker buy-out strategies
38:48 Effect of new worker co-op incorporation laws
44:03 Why not preferred shares?
48:34 Co-op skepticism of investors
53:39 Funding co-ops with CDs
54:37 Statutory caps on preferred share returns
56:31 The question we didn't ask
01:00:35 Workers understanding deal structures
01:09:24 Which models will survive?
Citations
GEO Collective (2024). Transform Finance: An Interview with Curt Lyon . Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO). https://geo.coop/articles/transform-finance-interview-curt-lyon