I don’t believe this is a great representation of REI. My understanding of REI, as a member, is that rather than holding shares, I receive a dividend relative to what I spend in each year, and I have access to certain perks, but I cannot elect board members and I cannot earn any additional power through working or volunteering labor for the organization

REI Board elections are open to all members. In the last election the REI union recommended not voting for all of the incumbent board members due to their hostility towards the union.

However I believe the board nomination process used to be open, but now only board members can nominate people for a board seat

The person directing you to the tech coop peer group is a spot on. There are many ways of doing this, but IMHO it ultimately comes down to writing bylaws for an organization that dictate how resources are accumulated and distributed, and evaluating the associated incentives and dynamics generated by those rules.

This is a beautiful vision, but I think it would be hard implement in practice. I’m trying to imagine how a pitch like this might work. Do you offer the customer/members some kind of profit sharing? A discount on future services?

Given that customers often want to avoid lock-in on any purchasing decision, it seems hard to build a service that has a larger up front psychological and legal commitment. I love the idea of getting bonus points in life for building structures with collaborative ownership, but realistically most people and businesses only want a simple “buy a service that I can cancel” relationship.

That said, I'd love to see someone try it! I think it could work well in a niche environment, or something like a Kickstarter where people feel they helped bring something into being.

I think my (and other) Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms would disagree with you.

I buy shares in the farm per my needs. The CSA takes my money and buys seeds, fertilizer, etc. I get discounted (100% :-) products from them throughout the growing season. They also sell their goods at farmers' markets, do deliveries, etc. My CSA has been growing for years. They're a part of a larger co-op org that spans the NE US, IIUC.

So yes, the "beautiful vision" can be, and is, implemented. Even in tech; I'm sure you've heard of neighbors getting together and building their own local networks because the local ISP won't service them.

I love it when tech people are like "this isn't remotely possible", and it's like... happening at the farmer's market already lol.

And credit unions, and mutual insurance companies, and on and on. I love this commenter who cannot imagine a customer that has an ownership stake in a business or why anyone would want that. No time to think, too much uninformed posting to be done:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42748956

We’re talking specifically about a SaaS app in this post. I’m well aware of this working at small local levels, and even mentioned in my comment that it might work in niche environments, but I have a hard time believing it would work for a disconnected SaaS app, where there isn’t some larger form of Community bonding people together.

This is exactly how Vanguard works.

>As far as I know this is how places like REI or some groceries work. They are essentially customer owned. I'm not an expert in this, which is why I was asking for advice.

I wouldn't say they work well, though, given the state of REI and grocery customer cooperatives.