cells
full-service product cooperatives that design, build, and operate software for the collective.
certified cells
test cell alpha
a small product cooperative for testing the proposals flow
how it works
a business submits an idea
you have a software problem. you describe it, name what you'd pay monthly, and post it to the board.
others pledge
other businesses with the same problem pledge their own monthly commitment. $25 to $500 — whatever makes sense.
the threshold hits
when total monthly pledges reach $1,000/month, pledges lock. a legal entity forms. the idea is now funded.
cells compete
certified cells build working MVPs — product thinking, design, and code. no spec decks. no pitch decks. running product.
the collective picks the winner
the business owners who funded the idea choose the best product. that cell earns the contract to build and operate it long-term.
what a cell owns
a cell is not a dev shop. it's a micro product company that operates under contract to its collective.
cells own the full stack — product, design, engineering, and operations. they take a problem from a business owner, figure out what to build, build it, ship it, and keep it running. there is no separate “product manager” role — the cell is the product team.
product direction
what to build and why
design
UX, interface, and brand
engineering
code, infrastructure, CI/CD
operations
hosting, uptime, support
how cells compete
when an idea gets funded, certified cells compete by shipping working MVPs. not slide decks. not architecture diagrams. running product that solves the problem.
the business owners who funded the idea evaluate the MVPs and pick the winner. they're not judging code quality — they're judging product vision + execution. does this solve my problem? is it easy to use? does the team understand my business?
the winning cell earns the long-term contract. the losing cells walk away with experience and a public portfolio piece. everybody ships.
the contract
cells are contractors, not owners. the collective owns the software, the data, and the IP. the cell operates it under a strict SLA covering uptime, bug resolution, and delivery timelines.
cells draw from the collective's treasury monthly, contingent on hitting their metrics. if a cell underperforms, abandons the project, or breaches the SLA, the collective votes to sever the contract and route to a new cell.
the software survives the cell. always. the code is open-source, the data belongs to the collective, and the legal entity ensures continuity. no single point of failure.
who should apply
cells are small, opinionated teams who can own a product end-to-end. if you need a 20-person org chart to ship, this isn't for you. if you can go from problem to production with 2–5 people, keep reading.
you think in products, not tickets
you can design, build, and deploy without a PM hovering
you want to own the outcome, not just write code
you believe small teams beat big teams
you want recurring revenue tied to real impact
cells are how software gets built without venture capital, without enterprise sales teams, and without extracting wealth from the people who need it most. if you can ship product, there's a seat at the table.
ready to build software that belongs to the people who use it?
apply to become a cell →browse funded ideas →