You’ve pointed out several of the biggest challenges Assembly has had to overcome to get where we are today. But yes, they are big challenges.
Here’s how it works:
(I think I’ve addressed all your points here, let me know if I missed anything)
Every product is structured as a partnership (similar to the way a law firm can be a partnership). Everyone who earns App Coins in that product is a partner – which entitles them to a portion of all profits in accordance with their ownership percentage, along with access to business information and direct involvement in decision-making. Those profits are paid out as royalties, not dividends. There are other differences from securities, for example, you can't transfer ownership of Assembly products on a secondary market.
This solution is the best balance we’ve found so far.
Products built on Assembly live on Assembly (so that we can protect the interests of anyone in the community who helped build them). So, revenue is collected by Assembly, the bills are paid, and profits are distributed to all partners (all of this is fully transparent). So, Assembly takes care of financial reporting and products don't need to worry about things like LLCs and DBAs.
Dilution occurs anytime that work is awarded, and a rogue Core Team might be able to game the system to their advantage, but we have reasonable protections in place to prevent this happening to an extreme.
I’d love to chat about this more if I haven’t covered all your questions. You clearly have a good grasp of what we’re trying to do, and you asked all the right questions. I’m at austin@assembly.com if you want to chat.
[edit: added the sentence about secondary markets]
Ah. I understand what you guys are doing now. This is an interesting and challenging concept to execute. I wish you guys success!
My only question remaining is how you guys handle shareholder liability since there's no corporate veil for partnerships. Is there some sort of general liability policy requirements, or is that kind of up to the people running the partnership?
Every product is structured as a partnership (similar to the way a law firm can be a partnership). Everyone who earns App Coins in that product is a partner – which entitles them to a portion of all profits in accordance with their ownership percentage, along with access to business information and direct involvement in decision-making.
I wanted to clarify the above:
1) Though some have conceptually referred to products on Assembly like partnerships they are NOT. They are neither structured as "Partnerships" and are not housed in their own separate legal entity
2) Each product has a group of contributors that, through the rules we all agree to abide by on Assembly (https://assembly.com/terms), collectively determine the strategy and product development as well as share in any profits.
3) App Coins determine a contributors share of any profits and are awarded by the product's Core Team made up from the community. App Coins aren’t transferable, and aren’t exchangeable for other currencies. You can learn more on how App Coins and profits work here (https://assembly.com/help/revenue)
We have spent a lot of time thinking about some of the structural issues raised here. They are the kinds of issues that we see many companies working through as they try to fit new business models into existing rules and regulatory schemes. We’ve done our best to create a structure that addresses regulatory concerns while also maintaining the core principles on which we’ve founded Assembly.
Any idea what's the legal status of getting paid royalties as someone on an H1-B or F1 visa? Dividends and investments are usually acceptable secondary sources of income. I'm not sure where royalties lie, I'm guessing it's not ok, but perhaps that should be stated more clearly.
Partnership?! Are you out of your mind?! Now 100 internet strangers come together to build something, one of them makes a bad decision and 99 people have unlimited liability for that person's mistake. Sounds like a great way to ruin lives.
Here’s how it works:
(I think I’ve addressed all your points here, let me know if I missed anything)
Every product is structured as a partnership (similar to the way a law firm can be a partnership). Everyone who earns App Coins in that product is a partner – which entitles them to a portion of all profits in accordance with their ownership percentage, along with access to business information and direct involvement in decision-making. Those profits are paid out as royalties, not dividends. There are other differences from securities, for example, you can't transfer ownership of Assembly products on a secondary market.
This solution is the best balance we’ve found so far.
Products built on Assembly live on Assembly (so that we can protect the interests of anyone in the community who helped build them). So, revenue is collected by Assembly, the bills are paid, and profits are distributed to all partners (all of this is fully transparent). So, Assembly takes care of financial reporting and products don't need to worry about things like LLCs and DBAs.
Dilution occurs anytime that work is awarded, and a rogue Core Team might be able to game the system to their advantage, but we have reasonable protections in place to prevent this happening to an extreme.
I’d love to chat about this more if I haven’t covered all your questions. You clearly have a good grasp of what we’re trying to do, and you asked all the right questions. I’m at austin@assembly.com if you want to chat.
[edit: added the sentence about secondary markets]