Cooperative Structure
Daemon is a freelancer union — a cooperative that provides the benefits and stability of full-time employment while preserving the autonomy of freelancing.
The Problem Being Solved
Freelancers on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork face:
- No health insurance, retirement, or PTO
- Race-to-the-bottom pricing
- Platform takes a cut while providing no safety net
- No collective bargaining power
- Isolation
Traditional employment solves benefits but kills autonomy. Daemon sits in between: you choose what you work on (via bidding), but the cooperative provides the employment wrapper.
How It Works
- The cooperative acquires projects (client-facing, like an agency)
- Projects are posted to the internal auction
- Members bid on projects they want (time estimates)
- The VCG mechanism allocates work, ensuring everyone hits 32-40 hours
- Members are treated as full-time employees of the cooperative for benefits purposes
- Revenue from clients flows through the cooperative, funding benefits + operations
Benefits
The 32-40 hour band maps to full-time employment status, enabling:
- Health insurance (group rate through the cooperative)
- Retirement contributions
- PTO / sick leave (mechanism for this TBD)
- Professional development
- Collective bargaining with clients
Legal Structure
TBD — likely options include:
- Worker cooperative (one member, one vote)
- LLC with operating agreement encoding the mechanism
- Hybrid: cooperative for governance, LLC for client-facing contracts
See: Legal Structure
Revenue Model
TBD — key question is how client billing maps to member compensation. Options:
- Cooperative bills clients at market rate, pays members salary + benefits
- Cooperative takes a percentage for overhead/benefits fund
- Members set their own rates, cooperative adds benefits surcharge
See: Revenue Model