Request for startups: worker organizing
As the first venture capital firm to focus on the future of work, we’ve invested in a surprisingly small number of startups for… workers. Most of the startups we, and other investors, back tend to focus on serving the needs of employers. We believe there’s a big, unmet need.
To us, the future of work is about more than just CIO software preferences or the latest productivity trend sweeping Silicon Valley VCs. The future of work is also about the 55-year-old entering the gig economy, the factory worker adapting to automation, and the office assistant navigating all this new AI. Many of these are people grossly underserved by existing options, even though they’re the peoples most vulnerable to the changes in modern work — and therefore the ones who have the most demand for new offerings.
In particular, we believe there are many opportunities for startups that serve workers looking to organize, and share power with corporate leaders. Workers are showing so much interest: Support for labor organizations (and unions in particular) is at a 60-year peak, and in our work with business leaders who want to reinvent their relationship with organized workers, we’ve seen examples of new activity by workers suggesting they’re ready to experiment and try fresh approaches. While we’ve backed some of these startups already, we believe there should be more — and that they can become extraordinary companies. Every idea on the list below could become a (financially) extraordinary company.
Unions take in roughly $20 billion every year, mostly in dues. A typical union member might pay 1% of their wages for more than two decades. While unions are not a “market,” these numbers indicate how much workers are willing to pay to advance their interests.
Many businesses that oppose the interests of workers thrive, and workers deserve businesses on their “side,” too. (I imagine a post like this one, calling for business startups to serve workers, will bother some of my friends in organized labor. I believe we need so many more services serving workers, and it’s worth trying every method possible, and learning from them, while trying to avoid the pitfalls. )
To do this right, without corrupting the integrity of the service a founder wants to build, requires thinking deeply — and maybe rethinking — certain parts of the normal-startup model. Should the workers a startup serves own some (or all) of that business? (Probably!) Who should govern that business? Startup founders and their investors would do well to be explicit about who they want to hold them accountable, and try to build businesses — and, as needed, structures for input and governance — that serve those stakeholders. More below on my thoughts on how to navigate some of the issues.
For now, to provoke more action, here’s a list of startup ideas. If you do start something in these areas, we’d love to hear about it. We’ll also add to this list as we hear more. Some of these ideas, of course, people have tried and they have yet to work (or have worked and could work better!), some are more “out there” than others. There are no new ideas, only new ways of bringing ideas to life.
- Communication tools geared toward the needs of workers // though Signal, Discord, and other existing tools already do important work here
- Zero-trust networking: Workers often want to communicate with relevant people about sensitive topics, without revealing their identity, while validating that the other person actually works with them, or in the same industry. One early version of this is the “salary sharing spreadsheet” — when workers pass around a sheet and edit it anonymously to put in their salaries, so they can compare pay.
- Action thresholds: “I will agree to take the following action, like sign this letter to management calling for changes, or blowing the whistle on something happening at our company, but only if enough of my co-workers agree, and until then I will keep my identity private.” Coworker.org has done some similar work.
2. Organizing assistance tools
- Independent unions made easier: “I want to organize my workplace into a union, and nobody from a bigger union will return my calls. Without calling a lawyer and working it out myself, how can I get started?” (Unit did some of this. The new unions they supported affiliated with existing, larger unions once they got going, so this can work in concert with current union approaches.)
- Organizing tools: What work presently done by people, as organizers, could be done faster or at higher quality with the aid of AI or other technologies? Organizing people into labor organizations is expensive! If it got cheaper, more people might be in labor organizations.
- Training for organizing: Direct instruction, play, and other forms of learning could spread the tradecraft of organizing.
3. Services directly for workers, in their organizing
- Mutual Aid 2.0: platforms for workers to pool resources for specific purposes like emergency funds, paid family leave, or vacation savings
- Training for workers: “How do I get good financial planning information? How do I learn my rights and responsibilities as an employee or contractor? How can I prepare for a job in [construction, or pick another category]? How do I improve my skills in [AI, or pick another category]? How do I job hunt effectively?” One challenge to overcome here, historically, has been that workers (understandably) have limited ability to pay for these services themselves.
- Worker-owned credit union: Financial services tailored to the needs of working-class individuals, owned and operated by members. Note that because Bloomberg Beta avoids investing in financial services, this is an area where we specifically would be a mismatch as an investor.
4. Services for existing labor organizations: many unions and other labor organizations are powerful institutions with real needs, including for software. There are purpose-built technologies that effectively serve some of these needs, and there could be more. Unions may be (understandably) skeptical of business startups, and may be challenging customers to serve.
- New models for employers and unions to collaborate on contracts — imagine negotiating based on standard forms, in shared workspaces where processes could be more transparent
- Conversational AI to support the work of the many union representatives who, e.g., provide information to members, manage issues when they come up (including unfair labor practices) and more
- Preparation for legal hearings (before the National Labor Relations Board and others)
5. Services that work with labor organizations to meet employer needs: many employers face issues in areas like recruiting and retention, training, compliance, and more. Historically, labor unions have filled some of these roles, and new approaches might build partnerships between labor organizations and the needs of business — like these successful training centers in construction, operations, and hospitality.
- Transparency, specifically: How does a company share information, like financials, with its people in a secure way? (Some companies share until they get big, and then leaks make it impossible.) How can companies share other information beyond financials?
6. New labor organizations
- AARP for Workers: An opt-in member organization providing advocacy, resources, and collective bargaining power for all workers.
- Industry-wide labor organizations: Professional associations and other groups that serve a whole industry (or “sector,” in the language of the labor movement) could provide workers with economic leverage and other benefits, even without the legal power of a union.
- Worker-owned companies, generally: while this is a bit of a hybrid, any worker-owned company (e.g., a co-op) can take on some of the advantages of labor organizations. These might be staffing agencies, training companies, or more.
We believe there are many ways startups could serve workers who want to organize, and we’d love to hear more ideas — the list above must be wildly incomplete. (And of course there are many other categories, outside of worker organizing, where we believe there should be more startups — like startups serving older people as their workforce.)
To be clear, businesses supporting worker organizing are not a substitute for democratically-run labor organizations, including unions. Every worker should have the ability to be in an organization that they believe represents their needs.
We also get that it’s fraught to start a business that exists to benefit workers. What if the profit motive makes the business cut corners in a way that actually harms workers, or sell to an owner who no longer cares about the mission? Is it OK for people to get rich serving workers’ interests? Many new services that benefit workers could, instead, be 501(c)(3) non-profits, or labor unions, or some other model — and many already are, of course.
And while, personally, we love supporting creating new things in any form, our fund invests in startup businesses. There can be enormous benefits to starting something new as a business (instead of a non-profit or union or political campaign): there’s clarity of ownership, an easier ability to share the returns with stakeholders (like, in this case, workers themselves), easier access to capital, ability for people to build wealth, and more. Whether or not you start a business or a non-profit or something else, you’ll need some way to bring in money to fund your work, and eventually become self-sustaining — and if workers pay you, you’ll need to be responsive to their needs.
When we back startups, we know their odds are long — and it’s OK to try things that don’t work out. We need to try many things to find the few things that work. We’re also open to startups that do things in non-traditional ways (like an “exit to community” where eventually workers and other stakeholders could even own these companies).
If you’re building any of these ideas or something similar, reach out?
Thank you to the handful of people in organized labor, advocates, founders, and others who read drafts of this, pointed out pitfalls, suggested startup ideas, and more — and to the many people who have built organizations, services, and tools to support this kind of work.