2. v3.4
2
It should be possible for a creator on Patreon or Teachable to build and
compensate a team without registering a company.
It should be simple to set up a temporary business, for a temporary
collaboration, in 30 minutes.
It should be easy for people who have never met in person to build a business
across borders.
It’s not.
THE PROBLEM
3. v3.4
3
A set of tools that combine blockchain and simple, enforceable legal contracts to solve
problems normal businesses have.
We built Cooperativ to
fi
x that.
“I want to pay contributors in the future, in regular money, when
and if my business earns revenue or raises funding.”
“I want to easily share revenue, and be able to adjust the
proportions, without writing a bunch of legal contracts.”
“I want to add people to my project without having to deal with
lawyers or
fi
gure out a bunch of contracts.”
THE SOLUTION
Contributor Credits
Revenue Tokens
Project Invitations
They said: We built:
In development
In development
Live on Ethereum and Polygon
4. v3.4
4
HOW IT WORKS
Create a Cooperativ
Project
1
Invite collaborators
3
Project Invitations: Onboard a
contributor by sending an invite
with pre-designed with simple
legal terms. Just select one or
two of the compensation
methods and click send.
Con
fi
gure Revenue Tokens
& Contributor Credits
2
Contributor Credits*:
holder has the right to one
dollar per credit once the
project reaches a pre-set
milestone.
Revenue tokens: holder
automatically receives a
share of revenue in
proportion to their share
of tokens.
* You can read an exhaustive description of Contributor Credits and how they work here: https://sunshinelabs.medium.com/a-new-way-to-compensate-contributors-to-early-stage-project-5fdefcf57493
5. v3.4
5
You and two friends you met on Reddit
✳︎
want to build a game to sell on Steam.
You need to recruit other contributors to handle illustration and sound design.
Obstacles:
• Incorporation is expensive, time-consuming, intimidating,
creates a lasting tax responsibility, and makes very little
sense for a single collaboration.
• Writing and signing legal agreements is tedious, scary, and
a total buzz-kill.
• Compensating contributors without cash is di
ffi
cult
without o
ff
ering equity, and equity is often inappropriate for
all parties involved.
Example: the r/INAT (“I Need A Team”) is Reddit community is dedicated to matching contributors to projects. It has 31,000 members. (https://www.reddit.com/r/INAT/
Game marketplace (https://store.steampowered.com/)
THE USE-CASE
Or:
• Cohost a podcast
• Create journalist collective
• Stream exclusive content
• Start a band
• Co-create brand-sponsored content
• Start a startup
6. v3.4
6
HoopUp
ALPHA TEST USERS
Community-based fantasy basketball game
https://cooperativ.io/project/hoopup
Needs: Ability to pay pre-cash
fl
ow | Document relationship between project and contributors
Interactive reality tv-show
https://cooperativ.io/project/twiysmedia
Needs: Ability to pay pre-cash
fl
ow | Document relationship between project and contributors
App merging productivity and health
https://cooperativ.io/project/think
fi
t
Needs: Ability to test co-founder relationship | Recruit contributors
AI-powered tool for writing code documentation
https://cooperativ.io/project/aitowrite
Needs: Ability to test co-founder relationship | Recruit contributors
7. v3.4
7
THE MODEL
Before the project has revenue
5% of all Contributor Credits issued must be paid to Cooperativ.
After the project has revenue
The project must pay a fee of $5/month/credit-recipient. This fee is extracted
directly from the project’s revenue.
Why this model makes sense:
1. Projects pay the largest number of credits during the period when the have very little cash.
2. Once the project starts having revenue, 5% of credits starts to seem expensive, creating incentives to avoid paying them.
At the same time $5/month/user becomes very reasonable.
3. The ability to no longer pay 5% of credits is an incentive to channel money through the platform, rather than go around it.
4. Complexity and number of governance roles is a good proxy for the size of the company and the value the platform o ers.
The project uses governance features
Governance requires project members to have roles. These roles will cost $x/user/
month depending on their number and complexity.
8. v3.4
8
GO-TO-MARKET
Focus on existing communities
There are many Internet and co-working communities devoted to collaborations, early-stage
projects, and creator businesses. We will participate actively in the most promising ones.
Leverage current customers
A number of our customers are trying to recruit contributors. This creates an opportunity for
us to participate in communities in a way that clearly presents our value proposition.
Pursue partnerships
Complementary startups operating in a similar space have already inquired about using our
platform to either manage funding distribution for, or o
ff
er compensation mechanisms to,
their communities.
Vulperax, a platform for promoting and distributing independent video games, and Build In
Public (BIP), collaboration tool for “build in public” projects, are two examples.
9. v3.4
9
The Opportunity
The Creator Economy and Crypto community are about to intersect.
Cooperativ is capturing the nexus by letting businesses operate normally and use
blockchain at the same time.
10. v3.4
Decentralized Finance
$88 billion2
(2020-2021 CAGR: ~450%)
Creator Economy
$20 billion1
(2020-2021 CAGR: ~50%)
Creator-native
fi
nance
• Temporary “businesses” for short-term collaborations
• Tools for distributing royalties, whether they come from NFTs or Spotify
• Fanfunding: share risk and reward with fans, users, or players
• Ability to turn projects into NFTs that can be bought, sold, and fractionalized
DeFi for the corner store
• Allow projects to create governance tokens (add voting rights to revenue
tokens)
• Allow projects list revenue and governance tokens on a Cooperativ
exchange, which only accredited investors can access.
• Give projects the ability to use on-chain assets as collateral for DeFi loans
1. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-08-29/the-pandemic-has-been-very-very-good-for-the-creator-economy (2020 is estimate based on in uencer growth)
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1237821/de
fi
-market-size-value-crypto-locked-usd/
11. v3.4
11
(Contributors are people who have done signi
fi
cant work on the project and who are
compensated in a combination of cash and Contributor Credits.)
Jake Chase-Lubitz
Founder | Product Strategy (and some coding)
Turns complex processes into simple experiences
Nate Faber
Contributor | Engineer
Turns use-cases into smart contracts
Robin Raymond
Gabby Valdespino
Sean Morgan
Contributor | Designer
Makes software more intuitive
Contributor | Engineer
Writes good clean code
Contributor | Engineer
Makes smart contracts more e
ffi
cient
THE TEAM
12. v3.4
12
Terms.
• $400,000 SAFE (convertible note)
• Valuation cap of $4m
• Delaware C-Corp (operations Berlin/Remote)
We are raising $400,000 to go from Alpha to Beta.
For questions about using, partnering with, or investing in Cooperativ, please contact Jake:
cooperativ@sunshinelabs.io
Get in touch.
• Build Project Invitations so users can easily onboard themselves and their team
• Complete Revenue Tokens so that projects can manage compensation for creators in addition to contributors
• Improve usability and design
• Leverage current customers to gain traction in established builder communities
THE ASK