DealMaker

Employee stock ownership plans are a foregone conclusion today. But once upon a time, they weren't. In the 1970s, employee stock ownership plans were invented to give employees a stake in the companies they built. The results were undeniable: faster growth, lower failure rates, and significantly more employee wealth. Alignment creates momentum. No one argues stock option plans are irrelevant anymore. Ownership aligns incentives. Full stop. So here's the question we should be asking: why does ownership stop at the employee? When customers own equity, they don't just transact. They advocate. Supporters become evangelists. Communities transform into permanent stakeholders who move with you through every stage of growth. Employee stock ownership plans broadened ownership to employees. We're broadening it further: to customers, users, believers. The communities actually fueling these companies. Same principle. Wider circle. Exponentially more powerful. For VCs and institutional investors skeptical of retail capital: you already believe this thesis. You just don't realize it yet. If employee stock ownership plans work—and they do—then you already know why customer ownership works too. The infrastructure exists. The regulatory framework exists. What's left is the will to extend ownership to everyone who believes. That's what we're building at DealMaker.