Work is broken
Most companies are run as pyramids. A few people decide, everyone else carries it out. And most of the value they create flows away from the people who created it.
That leaves two problems, and they are the two we set out to fix.
The people: Those who do the work have the least say in how it gets done, and the smallest share in what it produces.
The ownership: It sits away from the work, so the company answers to whoever holds the shares rather than to its people or its purpose.
How a company is run, and how it is owned. We acquire companies to change both.
A generation is retiring
Over the next decade, millions of founders around the world will step back. Waiting for them are private equity firms and strategic buyers.
The private equity playbook is well known. Buy a company, load it with debt, cut costs and jobs, extract everything you can, sell, repeat. Decisions get made by people who have never set foot in the building. It is destructive, soul-crushing and long past its expiry date. A strategic buyer usually swallows the company whole, and within a few years its name, its leadership and its local roots are gone.
In both cases the people who create the value get no say and no share.
Those companies, and society, deserve better.
There’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn millions of businesses into a force for good
Two changes,
one transformation.
Teams that run themselves — layers of hierarchy are removed. A network of self-managing teams takes over the work, along with the decisions that come with it.
Elected representatives instead of bosses — authority is given by colleagues rather than handed down from above. What colleagues give, colleagues can take back.
Radical transparency — full financial transparency, with the books simplified so everyone can actually read them. Pay is open too, and designed together with the people it applies to.
Profit sharing for all — individual bonuses make way for profit sharing across the whole company. When the company wins, everybody wins.
This asks far more of people than a hierarchy does, so we invest heavily in what it takes: personal and team development to thrive in the new environment.
Steward ownership — the company owns itself. Control stays with people committed to its purpose, and profits serve that purpose first. Nobody can sell the company.
Employee ownership — the people who do the work own the company. They share in the decisions and in the profits, and they build real wealth from the value they create. No outside shareholder to answer to.
Which route we take depends on the people, the local regulations, the size of the company, and more. Legal reality differs everywhere. The impact focus behind it stays the same.
The people behind it.
A team full of experience, expertise, and courage. Supporting the network of local entrepreneurs to buy, transform, and create lasting impact.
Xavier Costa
Pim de Morree
Svetla Parmakova
Jochen Goeser
Joost Minnaar
The people who
have done this before.
Every part of this work is covered by someone who has done it before. Raising funds. Acquiring companies. Leading business transformations. Implementing self-management. Running an impact fund.
They have the experience. Several co-founded Krisos, a fund that buys companies and makes them bossless. It works. Now the team is scaling the approach, turning more businesses into a force for good.
More about KrisosLocal teams.
A shared method.
Our Buy and Transform activities are run by independent local teams. Each one knows its own market, language and legal system. They share the method, the brand and the mission.
More regions are opening. If yours is missing, the third door below is for you.
Three ways in.
Business owners
You built a company and you want to sell it well. Your people looked after, your mission still standing after you hand over the keys.
Start a conversationInvestors
You want your capital in businesses that perform because they put the people and the mission first. Making money and making an impact.
Talk to us about investingRegional founders
You want to run this where you live. You source the deals, buy the companies and lead the transformations, with our method and our brand behind you.
Talk to us about your region