Design Considerations in Building The Moves Collective
We’ve outlined our vision for the gig economy in our Declaration, but ultimately our goal is simple: unlock unprecedented value for the workers of the gig economy. In this post, I’m going to cover the not-so-obvious strategy that we’re exploring that takes this to a whole new level. We call it the Moves Collective.
But before I describe specifically what we’re building, it’s important to understand more about our members and how we envision supporting them and creating value for them long term.
“Gig workers,” as we define them, are people who earn their income from independent work derived on “gig platforms” — eg, Uber, Postmates, Amazon Flex, and many others.
Today, gig workers are often marginalized as these companies have worked primarily to create value for their customers, while overlooking the workers.
A typical American gig worker today relies on these apps as a significant source of income (in some cases, their only source). When asked, we commonly find that people describe gig work as part of their pursuit of independence and flexibility as opposed to the structures of traditional jobs. But, they also recognize that it requires a constant hustle and struggle to make a livelihood this way. These are some of the most resilient and resourceful workers in America, and to date, they’ve had to look out for themselves.
When we started building Moves, it was never about selling products or services to gig workers. Our focus is on generating prosperity and creating a renewed sense of pride for a demographic that should celebrate their hustle, and frankly, be rewarded for it.
The Moves Collective is our vision to accomplish this. Products and services we build and deliver to our members are part of our strategy to bootstrap a community that we will eventually convert into a movement.
You can think of this strategy in three steps:
- Build an incredible product experience that addresses the challenges of being a gig worker in America
- Create a network effect among our members, by unlocking a social “multiplayer” experience that provides gig workers with a sense of community and shared purpose
- Borrow from the principles of labor unions and consumer cooperatives to align our purpose and economic outcomes to the collective prosperity of our members
The outcome of this strategy is simple: Gig workers feel connected, valued, and heard.
So what exactly is the Moves Collective? How do we intend to build it? Why should our members care?
Internally, we often throw around the term “digital union” to describe where we’re heading, but it’s a loaded term that can lead to the wrong assumptions. After all, we’re not building a union, but we do value some of the principles from that world.
So here’s a first attempt at defining it, and specifically outlining what we’re not building.
The purpose of the Moves Collective is to create a structure in which:
- Our members can flourish knowing that we exist to look out for their best interests
- Our members can benefit from their collective scale
- Our members can earn economic upside in both Moves and the gig economy
- Our members can influence governance and priorities — both in Moves and in the gig economy
The Moves Collective IS:
- A member-owned organization
- A member-governed organization
- A collective of gig workers in similar circumstances
- A social community that connects its members to each other, and gives them a sense of shared identity and shared purpose
- An organization that can take on the role of advocate and champion for issues that affect its members
- A commercially viable organization funded in part by its members
The Moves Collective IS NOT:
- A labor union
- A credit union
- A lobbying organization
- A non-profit or a charity
- An employer of its members
Although the above might lead you to being more confused, it helps provide some criteria for us in our discovery and execution.
Implications on our Structure
Today, as with most tech companies, Moves is structured as a C Corp. As we move further down this path, we envision introducing a new structure that reflects the criteria above. This would not replace our corporate structure but supplement it.
Theoretically, this could mean operating Moves in its current form, while creating a parallel Coop legal structure for the Moves Collective that satisfies our purpose. These two structures would be closely intertwined, with the C Corp providing its product and services to the Coop, while the Coop provides users to the C Corp. The specific economic implementation of this type of structure is still being explored.
As it relates to the Coop structure, “Ownership” and “Governance” in this new structure are areas where we foresee the potential for novel innovation. Specifically, we will be exploring:
- How does a user earn their membership?
- What value does membership represent?
- How does membership translate to ownership?
- How do we create long-term economic alignment between us, our members, and the gig economy?
- How do members exercise governance over the Coop?
- How does the Coop influence governance of the C Corp?
The Challenge and the Opportunity
Building Moves is an important but challenging undertaking. We are intentionally being contrarian by building a direct-to-consumer product in an industry where most of our peers are prioritizing partnerships with gig platforms as their preferred method of acquiring users.
To accomplish our mission, we have to think this way. Our direct relationship with our members, regardless of which gig platform they earn on, is the most important part of our strategy.
But it starts by getting step 1 right.
1. Build an incredible product experience that addresses the challenges of being a gig worker in America
From there, step 2 introduces a relatively new thesis in tech, particularly in fintech. We’ve talked about this in another blog post: The Gig Economy is Social.
2. Create a network effect among our users, by unlocking a social “multiplayer” experience that provides gig workers with a sense of community and shared purpose
And finally, step 3 is untouched territory where we see an opportunity to apply novel technology to build an entirely new experience driven by a new type of product economics. We take inspiration from the concepts of the Ownership Economy.
3. Borrow from the principles of labor unions and consumer cooperatives to align our purpose and economic outcomes to the collective prosperity of our users
Executing on these 3 steps leads us to something exciting and new: Moves becoming the single largest collective of workers in the world, and applying novel market economics to create for them unparalleled prosperity.
Want to join us?
