Tune-in to WOL 1450 AM or Tune-in Radio at 10:30 am on Thursday, September 10 for this week’s episode of Everything Co-op. For the next two broadcasts, Everything Co-op has partnered with Start.coop to interview leaders from the accelerator’s 2020 cohort of entrepreneurs.

The interviews are a preview of “The People’s Pitch,” a graduation pitch event celebrating the Start.coop class of 2020 at NCBA CLUSA’s Cooperative IMPACT Conference. This week Greg Brodsky, Co-Director of Start.coop, will join representatives from two of the teams: Austin Robey, Co-Founder of Ampled, a platform that allows music artists to be supported by their community with direct, recurring payments; and Lewis Weil, founder of Money Positive, a worker-owned financial planning service focused on democratizing financial planning and building long-term financial health for everyone.

As listeners of Everything Co-op and readers of NCBA CLUSA’s Co-op Weekly, you have the opportunity to participate in “The People’s Pitch” on Friday October 9 by casting your vote to determine which startups are awarded funds from the $10,000 graduation prize pool. Register for IMPACT 2020 to be part of this interactive experience!

Start.coop exists to build an ecosystem that lifts up, supports and accelerates cooperative entrepreneurs on their business journey. The program’s accelerator selects the most promising teams from across North America and provides them with training and support embedded in its rigorous business curriculum and world-class mentor community. Start.coop considers its program “an accelerator of the next generation of co-operative entrepreneurs.”

Ampled is a platform that allows music artists to be supported by their community with direct, recurring payments. Structured as a co-op, Ampled is 100 percent owned by its artists, workers and community. Founded in 2018 by a group of designers, software engineers and musicians, Ampled lets fans directly support their favorite musicians in exchange for exclusive content and experiences.

Money Positive is a worker-owned financial planning service focused on democratizing financial planning and building long-term financial health for everyone. Sitting at the intersection of human smarts and technological efficiency, Money Positive uses a proprietary software platform that allows its financial planners to help clients build intuitive budgets and personalized strategies for their savings, debts and investments at a fraction of the price of traditional financial planning services.