[majewsky]

In a startup, employees usually don't really have much influence even if they have shares, because each successive funding round dilutes the existing shares.

Also, there's some significant differences in how shares work between cooperatives and corporations (at least in Germany, where I live). In a corporation, you get one vote per share, and shares can be freely traded once given out. In a cooperative, you only one vote per shareholder, no matter how many shares you hold, and shares cannot be traded. You can invest into the cooperative to get shares, and you can return your shares to get your capital back, but the cooperative gets final say in who gets to hold shares.

[felurx]

Which "Rechtsform" would a cooperative be in Germany?

[joker99]

Genossenschaft