platoseedplatoseed
Helping America's businesses become employee owned
At Village Labs, we help America's businesses become employee owned by helping them set up and manage an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). ESOPs are a federal retirement plan that enable businesses to give their employees a stake in the company in exchange for significant tax benefits. With 2.9M Baby Boomer business owners set to retire in the coming years, there's a growing "Silver Tsunami" of businesses across the country in search of new ownership. For many of these owners, selling to their employees is a socially-minded yet financially pragmatic solution. By selling ownership of their business to an ESOP, owners get a fair price, tax benefits, and the satisfaction of knowing their employees and legacy will be taken care of — things not guaranteed with traditional buyers like private equity. In turn, employees retain their jobs and get shares in the business that can help them create life changing wealth by the time they retire — imagine an office secretary retiring as a millionaire. Thousands of businesses across America like Bob's Red Mill, Harpoon Brewery, and Recology already have an ESOP, benefiting over 14 million workers and creating 2.1 trillion in employee wealth. We're excited about the opportunity to massively grow these numbers by making it simple for every business to become employee owned.
I'm the co-founder & CEO at Village Labs where we're building software for ESOPs. Our hope is that by creating great products and technology for ESOPs, we’ll be able to expand employee ownership across America. Before this, I co-founded Finary (YC W21) where we were building a social network for the stock market (before WallStreetBets went viral!). I studied Technological & Social Innovation at Harvard and left after my sophomore year to do YC.
We do this by helping businesses set up and manage an employee stock ownership plan, also known as, an ESOP.
Village Labs builds and supports employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), helping business owners sell to their employees and providing tools to manage those plans. The company targets mid-sized, stable businesses and partners with brokers and wealth managers to educate owners about ESOP transitions and foster nationwide employee ownership.
AI-native investment bank for small businesses
A marketplace for B2B businesses to buy warm intros.
