The Organically Grown Company, a wholesale distributor of organic produce, sought to restructure their company to ensure continual focus on their mission. After navigating the transition successfully, they found that other companies were asking for guidance in doing the same thing. As a result, they formed a new consultancy, Alternative Ownership Advisors.

The pains are well understood; however, ownership structure is not a common topic of conversation for most people. We helped AOA develop language and visuals that are easy to understand and provide a metaphor to help people remember the basic concepts.

The tug-of-war for founders when they are getting ready to retire seems almost universal. We decided to acknowledge that this is normal by giving it a name: The Founder’s Dilemma.

We also wanted to explicitly name all of the fears that founders typically have, and show how ownership is critical to avoiding them. Plus, we figured everyone loves the idea of having a force field.