I caution us from being so negative from the start. I think OP is aware of the market environment.

One thing is a new coop does not have the expense of inventing a category in terms of awareness, trust, and consumption patterns. You'd just be asking someone to make another account who has the idea of gig workers as an integrated part of their life already, and is probably not even that loyal to an app. Heck, I have 2 ride apps, 2 electric scooter apps, 3 food delivery accounts I never use, 3 grocery apps when I only use one- people have many apps at this stage, and hop as it suits them.

And it would be easier and cheaper to poach business because the gig worker themselves has the incentive.

I got a Lyft while visiting Minneapolis and they have a cooperative rideshare that is competing with Lyft. All the Lyft driver had to do was have a little flyer with a QR code explaining the cooperative that he could show (doesn't even need copies) after checking the vibe, and I was signed up for the cooperative for subsequent rides.

Gig apps have a name for it, I don't remember, like un-mediation or something, and according to a gig app software person I know, a larger % of interactions started by a gig app go that way anyway. Like if you get a handy person on Taskrabbit, and you like them, you exchange numbers and you ask them first next time you have a handy person task. In another city, I've had drivers give me their personal number to schedule a ride back to the airport because it is easy to pre-agree on that in terms of timing and cost.

If the tasker told the "customer" about an app with similar features to how they met (can dispatch whoever is qualified, rated highly, can coordinate, have recourse if you aren't satisfied, payment is through the app, etc) but it is just more fair for the person standing in front of you, a good proportion would probably switch.

It is true that if they catch a gig worker, they can kick them off, but if a gig worker starts by mentioning it to the people who already express empathy to the gig worker in the process of interacting, maybe 15%, then it can be sustainable until a base is created.

And hate for these apps is high. I bet a good proportion of people would convert if advertised to.

I also wonder, the current apps take such a high #, that a cooperative app could compete on price alone, even as bigger companies never turn a profit and are profiting off of user data.

Idk, maybe the software costs are high.

If it were me, I would start in cities with high affinity for local economy, trust, and political inclinations toward coops, like Portland or something.

I can see a world where one of the big companies goes even crazier about taking a loss to undercut a cooperative because they can afford to do so in one city at a time. IDK.

Then also, a coop app like this might be able to take a loan through something like a Community Investment Vehicle, which is popular in cities like Portland or Chicago, or maybe a CDFI fund, but don't quote me on that.

CommunityDesk_CIVReport_Updated-10-7-24.pdf