We did it! We cooperated. We cooperate. We are a cooperative. Almost six and a half years after filing our Dojo4 articles of organization as a Limited Liability Company, we've converted to being a Limited Cooperative Association (LCA).
We're getting close but need to make a foundational decision before the deal can be done - we have to make a choice about what kind of entity this cooperative is going to be. Shall we be Cooperative Corporation or Cooperative Partnership LLC?
For years, we've talked about how we might diversify ownership of Dojo4. Ara and I have been 50/50 owners of this little company for several years now, but have recently decided to move ahead and substantively explore transforming Dojo4 into a worker-owned co-op.
Wow, this is taking us a really long time to do. Granted, I had a baby and we bought our building since we first started the process to transition to a cooperative 6 months ago. But, this process takes serious attention, commitment, and buy-in, all of which can be in short supply when you are also trying to run a business, even a small business like Dojo4.
Years ago, okay maybe decades ago, I worked at the most successful Boulder restaurant that nobody even knows is there…