Corporations: The lucrative game of a few
It's time to reconceptualize, redesign, and displace the corporation as we know it today.
In this edition:
🌟 The Rise of Freelancers
🚫 The Rise of the "Anti-Work" Movement
🏢 Companies That Value Freedom Over Growth
🔗 Decentralized OrganizationsAs my great-grandmother used to say, 'What begins wrong ends wrong'. This is the phrase that first came to mind when I discovered the origins of the first European corporations in the 17th century. As perhaps no one would be surprised to learn, their creation was neither a peaceful process nor simply a natural evolution of commerce. These entities, like the East and West India Companies, emerged amidst a backdrop of violence and fierce competition for global dominance.
While they may have appeared to be a logical response to the commercial needs of the time, the truth is that their formation and consolidation were deeply rooted in the need to manage violence and conflict in a structured manner. These early corporations introduced innovations such as the separation of ownership and control, and the creation of permanent legal entities. However, beyond the administrative and economic advantages, the real driving force behind their creation was the need to organize for warfare and the defense of commercial interests in distant territories.
The companies not only traded, but also waged wars and established fortifications to protect their trade routes and outposts from European and local competitors. The capital required to finance these warlike and commercial activities was colossal, and the corporate form offered a practical solution for pooling funds from multiple investors, who did not necessarily know each other. This structure allowed for the accumulation and management of long-term capital, which was crucial for sustaining military campaigns and maintaining self-sufficient operational bases in hostile or underdeveloped territories.
I wonder, how much has this changed today?
To be honest, I once naively believed that corporations were created to help people thrive and achieve a better quality of life. However, today, with a mix of astonishment and horror, I realize that at the end of the day, corporations were primarily designed to advance four pillars for a select few: power, profit, privilege, and progress.
In practical terms, corporations as we know them today are structured to maximize the wealth of their shareholders, who often belong to the economic elite. This ownership and control model, where only shareholders vote for board members and define success as increasing stock prices, has endured because it is deeply ingrained in the global economic system. Executives, incentivized with lavish compensation packages, are driven to fulfill this mandate of increasing the wealth of the wealthy as quickly as possible. However, this approach has proven to be unsustainable and detrimental to overall well-being and the public good.
Strong signals
The Rise of Freelancers
In the wake of the pandemic, many people began to smell the foul odor emanating from corporations. It was like an awakening where people realized that working forty hours or more a week was not the result of optimal work studies, but rather an outdated narrative inherited from industrialization: a system designed to extract the maximum possible value from assembly line workers.
Driven by the desire to find a balance between their work and personal lives, many people are leaving their 9-to-5 jobs to work as freelancers. As a result, the global freelance community is expanding. Even the most adventurous have adopted a digital nomad lifestyle - a situation that has led to new problems that we will address later - working from practically anywhere in the world. Today, globally, there are around 1.57 billion freelance workers.
The Rise of the "Anti-Work" Movement
In recent times, we have witnessed an alarming phenomenon: a mass resignation of workers from their jobs. This movement, often referred to as "The Great Resignation," has been driven by deep and widespread dissatisfaction with current working conditions. People feel lost and unmotivated in their workplaces, leading them to seek better opportunities or, in many cases, to leave the workforce altogether.
A clear indicator of this discontent is the explosive growth of communities like the subreddit r/antiwork, which has grown from 13,000 members in 2019 to over 2.7 million today. This forum has become a haven for those who are fed up with poor working conditions, low wages, social inequality, unrestrained capitalism, and jobs they perceive as meaningless. Discussions on r/antiwork reflect a wide range of experiences and frustrations, from personal stories of abuse and exploitation to debates about the need for broader labor reform.
The phenomenon is not limited to r/antiwork. Platforms like TikTok have seen the rise of #quittok, where users share resignation stories and their reasons for doing so. These testimonials have gone viral, resonating with millions of people who feel a similar disconnect from their jobs.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Weak signals
Companies That Value Freedom Over Growth
Gumroad, founded in 2011 by Sahil Lavingia, offers an intriguing example of how a company can thrive by adopting a radically different work model. After reaching a peak of 23 full-time employees in 2015 and facing financial difficulties in 2016, Lavingia transformed Gumroad into a company with no full-time employees, no meetings, and no strict deadlines.
Today, Gumroad operates with a distributed team of approximately 25 people, all working under flexible contracts and without the traditional structure of a company. Despite this unconventional organization, the company has managed to generate $11 million in annual revenue, growing 85% year over year, while its creators earn more than $175 million annually.
Without meetings or strict deadlines, Gumroad employees communicate through platforms like GitHub, Notion, and Slack, with responses expected within 24 hours. This method requires clear and thoughtful communication, and each team member can work on what they find most enjoyable or intuitive, as long as the company remains profitable and continues to release new features.
Decentralized Organizations
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have emerged as a transformative force in the digital landscape, offering a novel approach to governance and decision-making. At their core, DAOs are blockchain-based entities governed by a set of programmed rules, known as smart contracts. These smart contracts are self-executing agreements embedded on the blockchain, enabling the organization to function autonomously without the need for a centralized authority.
DAOs are driven by their community members, who hold voting rights proportional to their token holdings within the DAO. This democratic approach to decision-making aligns with the spirit of decentralization, placing power back in the hands of the community. Members actively participate in shaping the organization's direction, proposing and voting on projects, and overseeing the allocation of funds.
One notable example of a thriving DAO is VitaDAO, a community-driven organization dedicated to advancing longevity research. With one of the largest and most active collaborative communities in the field, VitaDAO has rapidly ideated, experimented, and scaled groundbreaking innovations in longevity science.
Since its inception, VitaDAO has funded 21 projects, granting subventions to a diverse range of research proposals. These projects encompass a wide spectrum of cutting-edge research areas, including:
Autophagy activators and their role in aging
Epigenetic and mRNA reprogramming
Periodontal disease reversal
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-NK natural killer cells
Methods targeting senescent cells, the pathological cells that drive aging
Final Thoughts
As long as the structural forces that gave rise to corporations remain in place, no amount of rhetoric or external regulation will be enough to divert companies from their current mandate: to create more wealth for the wealthy, and to do so as quickly as possible. This internal logic of today's corporations is designed to maximize short-term profits, often at the expense of social justice, economic equity, and environmental sustainability.
To change this dynamic, it is essential to rethink and redesign the structure and ownership of corporations from the ground up. We need to conceive of a new type of company or format, one that prioritizes the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. This includes employees, local communities, consumers, the environment, and other forms of life.
I know it may seem almost impossible to think about, but take a moment to pay attention to your surroundings and ask yourself: How much of what's in the room is directly or indirectly related to a corporation? From the computer you're reading this text on to the clothes you're wearing, the food you eat, and even the air you breathe, it's likely that most of the items in this room have some connection to a large corporation. 150 years ago, the answer to this question would have been very little. Clothes were made in local workshops, food was produced on small farms, and most people lived in self-sufficient communities. However, the rise of capitalism and globalization has led to an unprecedented concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a small number of corporations.
Is it possible to change this model? Yes, it is possible. History shows us that social and economic systems are not immutable. Over the centuries, we have seen how revolutions and social movements have radically transformed the way we live and work. The first step to imagining a different future is to believe that it is possible. We must challenge the status quo and open our minds to new possibilities.
What kind of world do we want to create? Do we want a world where companies serve people and the planet, not the other way around? Do we want a world where wealth is distributed equitably, and the environment is protected for future generations? Imagining this future is the first step towards making it a reality.
Many thanks for reading!
❤️ If something here sparked your interest, share it with more curious minds. We'll see you next week!