Marco Update #1

Developing, writing, indexing, and strategizing!

Hello!

This is the first update on the development of Marco, a platform co-op building an E-commerce marketplace for cooperative producers.

We have our first new team member! His name is John Lewis, he's a full-stack developer with years of experience. I'm so glad to have him on the project and we share an optimistic vision for Marco.

Our main objectives at this stage are 1) to develop the platform 2) to write a white paper to present to the community, guide incorporation, and attract potential grants 3) to index as many potential sellers as possible 4( to study successful crowdfunding strategies.

We had a temporary landing page previously, but we're developing a larger site for the near term. The launch of the platform will occur after 2021 and bring further changes to the site.

The white paper is being written now and will cover why we think Marco can represent a viable alternative, how we will structure ourselves as a multi-stakeholder cooperative, how our digital democracy will function and how we will safeguard it from disruption, and finally how we plan to fund-raise and launch. We're trying to make the best possible outline for how we can meet the challenges of growing membership, allotting patronage, financing, and developing robust cybersecurity.

Indexing potential sellers has been a constant task. There are 29 thousand cooperatives in the United States alone, but most online indexes only have a few hundred, and they can often be hidden in local communities. The task of finding them can be very time-intensive. Fortunately, from our cursory research we are more than sure that there won't be a supply issue with cooperatives ready to sell online. Before we launch the platform, we plan to host this index on our website so people can begin purchasing products with this list of existing small shops from all over the country. If you wish to volunteer, but don't feel that you have any particularly useful skills, aiding our search for these would be a very welcome contribution. If you're interested, comment on this post, DM me, or email me at lauracarilineroark@gmail.com. I'll invite you to a group chat and we can begin scouting together. I'll also make a Reddit post for everyone to help indexing if interest in this is high enough.

There are many alternative fundraising strategies for co-op businesses that don't require selling equity. The options we're looking at closest are grants, loans, and crowdfunding. Grants and loans will be options that come closer to our reach later in the development process. For now, we're looking into how to do successful crowdfunding. Specifically, how to create incentives for community investors that don't make the stakes too high for investment in the scenario of a funding-flop, but still give them valuable thanks for their contribution. If we don't get it right the first time, we'll keep trying. Right now we're trying to set ourselves up for the most successful first-round possible.

Thank you to everyone for following this project and believing in co-ops!

Email me at lauracarilineroark@gmail.com if you think that you have skills or wisdom that would be useful to the project.

Socials
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/marcocoopmarket/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/MarcoCoop
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@marcocoopmarket?lang=en
Facebook Community Page:https://www.facebook.com/MarcoCoopMarket/
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDLiu1J5XBeuJJk_v7taOOANewsletter
Substack:https://marcocoop.substack.com