Post by Steward Market

Issue 02 of Notes from the Field is out. This month's theme is infrastructure. The systems around an owner at the moment of transition shape what becomes possible: who helps a founder see the full range of options, who moves capital toward mission-aligned ownership, who answers the phone at City Hall. A few things we are tracking: Delta Fund makes the case that the most consequential thing mission-driven capital can do is move ownership and decision rights into mission-aligned hands. Their example: financing the conversion of a company into one owned by its employees. The structure of a deal, not just its outcome, determines who holds power when the transition is done. In San Francisco, the owner of the Make Out Room and the Latin American Club listed both bars for sale after 30 years. That same week, the city eliminated the only staff position in its Legacy Business Program. The transition moment and the support gap arrived together. In Texas, P. Terry's moved its 1,800 employees into an employee ownership trust, now one of the largest in the country, with profit-sharing on top and a scratch-made burger still at $3.10. The founders called it the most honest expression of a belief they started with. Also in this issue: Haverford Systems' employee-ownership transition in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island's proposed employee ownership center, the new B Lab global board, and more. Read it below.