In 2026, People’s Economy Lab turns 10! We’re marking our anniversary by catching up with some of the original founders of and participants in People’s Economy Lab.
Our first interview is with Shevanthi Daniel, Deputy Director at the Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI).
Q: What were you doing 10 years ago in 2016?
A: Ten years ago, I was just beginning my deep dive into worker ownership and the worker coop sector. I was learning everything I could about converting strong, viable small businesses, often owned by a single founder nearing retirement, into worker-owned cooperative enterprises.
At the time, I was running a Worker Cooperative Academy in Seattle for business owners interested in selling to their employees. One of those early examples was Metis Construction, which went through the academy as it explored transitioning from a sole proprietorship to an employee ownership model. They successfully completed that academy and found the advisors they needed to convert their business to an Employee Owned Trust, now managed and operated by the employees of Metis Construction.
That period shaped my belief that business succession isn’t just a technical transaction, it’s a powerful opportunity to preserve quality jobs, build shared wealth, and anchor businesses in their communities.
Q: What drew you to participate in People’s Economy Lab when it was first getting started?
I was drawn to People’s Economy Lab because it centered on something I deeply believed: that municipal governments and institutional leaders have a real role to play in reshaping economic systems.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, we saw unemployment soar and wealth concentrate even further at the top. The jobs that returned were often low-wage or contingent, while upward mobility became more elusive for working families. We were also living through a longer economic shift toward a service economy that keeps workers precarious while concentrating wealth among CEOs and shareholders.
PEL created space to ask, what if cities were invested in ownership? What if public policy, procurement, and capital strategies were aligned with building shared wealth rather than extraction?
Shared ownership models felt like practical and scalable tools that could move beyond theory into concrete local action. PEL allowed us to think ambitiously and collaboratively about how cities could invest in shared ownership as a strategy for closing wealth gaps and building long-term community resilience.
3. What are you doing now? Did participating in PEL contribute to your trajectory?
Today, I serve as Deputy Director at the Democracy at Work Institute, a national nonprofit dedicated to building the field of worker-owned cooperatives across the United States.
In this role, I help lead national strategy, program development, and field-building initiatives that support business developers, municipal agencies, capital providers, and business owners interested in shared ownership transitions. Our work spans training, research, and policy alignment, strengthening the ecosystem that makes worker ownership viable at scale.
Participating in PEL absolutely shaped my trajectory. It helped me connect local experimentation with national systems change. It deepened my understanding of how municipal partnerships, capital strategies, and workforce development intersect. Those early cross-sector conversations strengthened my ability to operate across local and national contexts and reinforced that this work requires ecosystem thinking, not isolated projects.
4. How has the movement for an economy that serves people and the planet changed over the last ten years?
Over the last decade, the worker coop movement has matured significantly.
Ten years ago, worker cooperatives and ESOPs [employee stock ownership plans] were well established but often viewed as niche within mainstream economic development sectors. Today, worker ownership is increasingly recognized as a practical tool for addressing urgent challenges of business succession, job retention, racial wealth gaps, community displacement, and climate resilience.
We are in the midst of what many call the “silver tsunami”—millions of small business owners approaching retirement age, many without succession plans. This has reframed worker ownership not only as an equity strategy but as a pragmatic economic development solution to preserve local businesses and stabilize jobs.
At the same time, inequality has intensified. The top 10 percent now captures roughly half of all income. CEO pay has grown exponentially compared to average workers. Upward mobility into the middle class is becoming less accessible. A growing share of workers, particularly young professionals, women, and immigrant workers face precarious or low-wage employment.
In that context, worker cooperatives offer something distinct. They build local wealth because profits stay with worker-owners rather than distant investors. They create quality jobs with voice, skills development, and governance participation. And they offer meaningful pathways for communities most directly affected by economic inequality.
The conversation has shifted from “Is this viable?” to “How do we scale this responsibly and sustainably?” That shift reflects a deeper understanding that ownership matters, not just for income, but for long-term wealth creation, business stability, and community resilience.
5. What are your hopes for the next ten years?
My hope for the next decade is that shared ownership becomes normalized, not exceptional.
I want worker ownership to be a standard succession pathway offered by small business development centers and chambers of commerce. I want impact investors, lenders, and public institutions to treat coops and employee ownership models as core economic infrastructure, not a niche program.
I also hope we see deeper integration between worker ownership, wealth building, and climate resilience strategies, so that democratic ownership becomes foundational to communities navigating economic transition.
And critically, I hope we invest in the infrastructure to do this well: strong business development professionals, flexible capital, supportive public policy, and rigorous worker education and training.
Ultimately, I hope that more workers have a real stake in the businesses they sustain and that our economy reflects shared prosperity rather than concentrated extraction.
