Together, these 15 people are Open Data Services. They have no office, no base, no hierarchy… but it is no problem. It is a co-operative of workers and in just three years the number of owners has almost quadrupled in size while annual turnover has leapt from £250,000 to in excess of £800,000. The four founders opted to set out as equal owners, with an equal say and equal share of profits. And as the co-operative has grown it has remained true to its original values and ethos.
Open Data Services co-founder Steven Flower said: “It was always in our minds, in our designs to grow and we needed people to make that happen. Programmers need to work with other programmers. And we wanted to use being a co-op as a way to attract people who share our values.”
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