Built to outlast its founders.
newBWS is a Delaware public benefit corporation governed by a golden share that cannot be sold. The platform belongs to its members. The economics flow to them. This page explains how.
1of 100 founding members
Member-owned by design.
newBWS operates as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation. A for-profit company with a legal duty to balance shareholder returns against a stated public benefit. The same legal form that Patagonia, Kickstarter, and Allbirds run.
The PBC issues a single golden share. That share is held by an LLC governed by the founding team and a small set of trusted advisors. It carries an irrevocable veto over any sale, acquisition, or fundamental change in mission.
Members are co-depositors in the network, not customers of it. There is no behavioral advertising. There is no exit-priced cap table. There is no version of newBWS that gets sold against the people who built it.
The structure is the protection. Not a promise. The mechanism.
Cooperative economics.
The principle is Ujamaa. Cooperative economics. The fourth Kwanzaa principle. The conviction that we build and maintain our own infrastructure together and profit from it together. The lineage is older than the platform.
When the Reg CF round opens, members who back the platform do so through a SAFE with profit-sharing dividends. They hold future equity in newBWS and receive a pro-rata share of net profit once the company is profitable and a defined operating reserve is in place.
The reference point is Basecamp’s profit-sharing structure, applied to a member-owned network rather than a two-founder consultancy. Equity participation and dividend participation are the same instrument.
The contrast is the extraction model. The pattern where a community is harvested for attention, data, or ad inventory, and the proceeds compound for people who are not in the room. newBWS is structured so that pattern is not available to it.
Founding members and Founding Backers.
Anyone can apply for founding membership. The 100 members accepted before January 1, 2027 form the founding cohort. Founding status closes when the 100th seat is filled.
Founding members who also pledge to back the platform when the Reg CF round opens are recognised as Founding Backers. The designation appears on their member profile and on the cohort showcase at /founding.
Backer status carries durable recognition. A permanent record that you stood up for the structure before the public round opened. Not a perk to be revoked. A line in the founding history of the company.
Test the waters, then the round.
Wefunder Regulation Crowdfunding is the vehicle that lets non-accredited investors participate in an early-stage company. Reg CF is what makes the community round legal. It also carries meaningful legal and audit costs, which is why we open the pathway in stages rather than launching cold.
Phase one · Pledge interest
Intent to back is signaled through founding membership.
No money changes hands. Pledges are non-binding indications that you intend to back the platform when the Reg CF round opens publicly.
Phase two · $25,000 in pledges
newBWS self-funds the Reg CF legal and audit costs.
When pledged commitments reach $25,000 in aggregate, the company commits the operating capital required to run a compliant Reg CF round.
Phase three · $50,000 in pledges
Form C is filed. The round opens on Wefunder.
When pledged commitments reach $50,000 in aggregate, newBWS files Form C with the SEC. Pledges convert into actual SAFE investments through Wefunder when the round opens publicly.
For now, the only way to back newBWS is to apply for founding membership and tell the team you intend to pledge. The Reg CF mechanics are described here so that the structure is legible before the round opens, not after.
Own what you’re part of.
Apply for founding membership first. Founding members who pledge to back the platform when the Reg CF round opens carry a permanent Founding Backer designation on their profile and in the cohort showcase.
Built to outlast its founders.
The case is the structure. A public benefit corporation. A golden share that cannot be sold. Cooperative economics that flow back to the members who built it. Read the case once. Then claim your seat.