Owning Clearleft

Clearleft turned fifteen this year. We didn���t make a big deal of it. What with The Situation and all, it didn���t seem fitting to be self-congratulatory. Still, any agency that can survive for a decade and a half deserves some recognition.

Cassie marked the anniversary by designing and building a beautiful timeline of Clearleft���s history.

Here���s a post I wrote 15 years ago:

Most of you probably know this already, but I���ve joined forces with Andy and Richard. Collectively, we are known as Clearleft.

I didn���t make too much of a big deal of it back then. I think I was afraid I���d jinx it. I still kind of feel that way. Fifteen years of success? Beginner���s luck.

Despite being one of the three founders, I was never an owner of Clearleft. I let Andy and Rich take the risks and rewards on their shoulders while I take a salary, the same as any other employee.

But now, after fifteen years, I am also an owner of Clearleft.

So is Trys. And Cassie. And Benjamin. And everyone else at Clearleft.

Clearleft is now owned by an employee ownership��trust. This isn���t like owning shares in a company���a common Silicon Valley honeypot. This is literally owning the company. Shares are transferable���this isn���t. As long as I���m an employee at Clearleft, I���m a part owner.

On a day-to-day basis, none of this makes much difference. Everyone continues to do great work, the same as before. The difference is in what happens to any profit produced as a result of that work. The owners decide what to do with that profit. The owners are us.

In most companies you���ve got a tension between a board representing the stakeholders and a union representing the workers. In the case of an employee ownership��trust, the interests are one and the same. The stakeholders are the workers.

It���ll be fascinating to see how this plays out. Check back again in fifteen years.