Turning Operating Principles into Ownership

When The Ready’s founder stepped away, the leadership team paused to reflect. The company was already running on distributed authority, transparent decision-making, and shared stewardship — principles that were already part of its DNA. What they needed wasn’t a new way of working, but an ownership structure that reflected it.

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The challenge: Formalizing the structure they’d already built

From its earliest days, The Ready operated as a self-managing, purpose-driven organization — built around autonomy, transparency, and shared responsibility rather than hierarchy. By 2023, founder Aaron Dignan had stepped back completely, leaving an elected team of stewards to lead the company.

The culture and systems were clear — but the legal structure wasn’t.

Two priorities shaped the team’s next step:

1. Protect independence. The ownership model needed to preserve how the company was already operating, not compromise it.
2. ‍Make ownership inclusive. As a public benefit corporation, The Ready wanted every employee to share in the value created, without extra administrative burden or exclusions.

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The process: Exploring ownership options

Partner Rodney Evans and CFO Ashley Reid led the search for a succession plan that aligned ownership with The Ready’s purpose and scale.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

An ESOP offered strong tax advantages and a well-established framework for employee ownership. However, the ongoing compliance requirements, annual valuations, and repurchase obligations can make ESOPs more complex for smaller firms. “It just didn’t fit our size or structure,” Reid said.

Direct employee ownership

Expanding the existing cap table to give individual employees shares would have created equity-management complexity and tax issues for departing employees — misaligned with the company’s philosophy that ownership should exist only while employed.

Third-party sale

An outside sale could have provided immediate liquidity for the founder but risked cultural changes and a loss of independence that were out of step with the company’s purpose and values.

After months of exploration, the team realized none of the traditional exit strategies fit. Then the team discovered the Employee Ownership Trust.

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The solution: A custom Employee Ownership Trust (EOT)

Partnering with Common Trust, The Ready designed a structure that protected its culture and future without adding unnecessary complexity. The Employee Ownership Trust formalized the company’s philosophy of stewardship — making shared authority and collective responsibility part of its legal framework.

Our legal structure — how we looked on paper — was no longer representative of how we were actually operating. The EOT makes it our legal structure, and embodies the culture of collective stewardship we’d already been practicing.”— Ashley Reid, CFO, The Ready

Why the EOT worked

• Cultural fit: Translated existing practices of stewardship and distributed authority into a formal ownership model.

• Flexible design: Built as a minimum viable design — compliant from day one, adaptable as the company evolves.

• Inclusive participation: Every employee shares in profits; no buy-in required.

• Checks and balances: Intentional tension between the board and the trust stewardship committee ensures accountability and long-term alignment.

• ‍Purpose integration: Reinforces The Ready’s commitment as a public-benefit corporation to broad-based ownership and shared value.

Financing the EOT transaction

The Ready funded its Employee Ownership Trust through a combination of cash reserves and a seller note — no external financing. This approach balanced the founder’s exit goals with the company’s desire to begin profit-sharing immediately.

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The design: Make it real, then refine

Because organizational design is at the core of The Ready’s work, the team approached the EOT as a design sprint — testing, refining, and engaging key employees along the way.

Sprint-based collaboration

Alongside developing the EOT design with Common Trust, The Ready ran an internal sprint-based process to engage a cross-functional team in defining trust roles, governance principles, and decision rights.

Minimum Viable Design (MVD)

At launch, the company defined only what was legally required and reserved flexibility to refine details after close. They enabled early profit-sharing by structuring the deal to leave capacity for distributions, then finalized the profit-sharing formula later through the trust stewardship process.

Transparent employee participation

Throughout the process, updates were shared openly through regular communications and company-wide meetings. “This wasn’t something we did behind closed doors,” Evans said. “From the start, everyone was involved — we shared updates, answered questions, and built it together.”

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After the transition: Seamless ownership, stronger stewardship

By early 2025, The Ready became employee-owned through its EOT. Day-to-day operations continued much as before, but with ownership now formally embedded in the company’s DNA. For the team, the transition felt like a natural extension of how the company was already operating.

“It barely feels like a change — and that’s the point. The decision’s made, the work’s done, and everyone can focus on doing their best work.”  — Rodney Evans, Partner, The Ready

Wondering how it’s going now that the transition is complete? Rodney and Ashley joined Common Trust to share what the first months of employee ownership have looked like in practice: what’s working, what’s evolving, and what might surprise other leaders exploring this path. See the webinar replay to hear their full story.

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Lessons for leaders exploring employee ownership

The Ready’s transition shows what’s possible when leadership, employees, and structure all align. Their EOT wasn’t a cultural overhaul; it was a legal expression of how the company already operated — transparent governance, distributed authority, and shared stewardship.

• Start with alignment: Clarify goals between exiting and continuing leaders before you begin.

• Include employees early and often: Transparency and participation build understanding and trust.

• Design for adaptability: Avoid locking future leaders into today’s decisions — leave room for the model to evolve.

• Keep it simple: Choose an ownership structure that’s sustainable for you and your team to manage.

• Lead with purpose: The right ownership approach should strengthen your culture and mission, not change it.

Curious if employee ownership could be right for your business?

Common Trust partners with business owners, leaders, and trusted advisors to design and implement Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) that align with their values, culture, and long-term vision.

Schedule a free advisory call to learn more.

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