Starting FikaWorks Collective

As of 13th of May 2020, we are officially registered as a coop with the Dutch chamber of commerce under the FikaWorks name. FikaWorks is a collective (a coop) of independent IT consultants from the Netherlands, active in the cloud native area. While everybody moved from employment into freelancing for his own reasons (freedom of choosing projects, financials, more free days, flexible schedule, tired of reporting to managers etc.) there are common things that tie us together:

craftsmanship
community
empathy for the customers
the need to belong to a “tribe”
the need to have a more powerful voice and brand

Therefore we decided to create a new type of consulting company, following the modus operandi of the Swedish company Crisp. Firstly, FikaWorks Collective is a homogenous group of people, each of us with his own strengths, competencies and opinions that enjoys working together. We don’t have management layers in the collective and every member has equal votes for all decisions. Members can choose their own projects and can decide on their individual terms (duration, working hours, rate). We share the common costs and we keep our own generated profit. From a legal point of view, the members are part of the coop (Coöperatie U.A.) while invoicing is done via a company with limited liability (B.V.) which operates in the name of the collective.

Short term goals

work together on (interesting) projects
share knowledge (internally/public)
open source
community: meetups, (un)conferences
create a loosely coupled democratic company that works for everybody in the collective
increase our hourly rates

Medium term goals

grow organically (also outside of our current skill set)
decouple from hourly rates
build trainings/services/consulting packages

Long term goals

create a strong brand
keep the people together
allow members to shape the future of the coop
become an example of how a company can operate in the interest of its members

Share this post