Addendum 2025-06-19

From a Label to a Principle

The spirit of the blog below remains a bedrock for Dembrane. The core metaphor that capital must be a well-tended fire, not a wildfire - is truer to us than ever.

In the months since writing this, I’ve had conversations that have sharpened our vision from a general direction into a precise, guiding principle. I had been using "steward ownership" as a label for what we wanted, but an advisor to Dembrane, Matt Abrams, recently asked me a question that changed my mind: "What are the principles you are actually unwilling to compromise on?"

My answer was immediate and clear: Control over Dembrane's mission and direction should only ever be shared with people I trust as much or more than myself.

This is different from a rigid rule that "the company can never be sold" implied by steward ownership. It's more nuanced. We are not fundamentally against an exit, but we are fundamentally against selling out our mission. We are not against bringing on partners with capital, but we insist they be true partners in purpose.

This realisation was refreshing to me. Our goal is to build a Principle-Led Company.

Our commitment is to embed our principles directly into our governance:

1. Stewardship of Control: We will use our shareholders' agreement and cap table structure to ensure that voting control and critical decisions remain with those who are actively building and protecting the long-term vision.

2. Mission-Driven Capital: We will continue to seek capital that understands its role as fuel for our mission, not as an instrument of extraction. Our model will be designed to provide fair, and even fantastic, returns to investors without requiring us to sacrifice our purpose on the altar of a hyper-growth exit.

This is our path. It's less about a formal label (for now) and more about a formal commitment to a set of core beliefs. I believe it a more resilient, authentic, and ultimately wiser way forward.

For transparency, I’m leaving the original post below so you can track the evolution of our thinking!

Original post 2025-04-14

Capital Flows are like Fire

It’s more than just a metaphor. Both are potent forces that can be channeled for immense benefit or, if unmanaged, spiral into destruction.

Similarly, when capital flows are properly structured, they build prosperity across society. When left unconstrained, they consume the social fabric they once supported.

The Physics of Concentration

Our current economic system is like a big stove with a fire burning out of control, and that fire might burn the house down.

1. Capital naturally accumulates with asset owners

2. This concentration amplifies through multiple parallel mechanisms:

3. The cycle accelerates exponentially with capital working for capital to increase capital

4. Before you know it the flame jumps out (money in politics) and something you care about is up in flames

5. It could burn itself out of control, or we could try organise ourselves to put out the fire

What's important to understand is that this isn't about villains. It's about system design. A poorly designed wood stove isn't evil - but it is dangerous.

Historic Evidence

After WWII, Western economies implemented significant constraints on capital concentration: progressive taxation, financial regulation, labor protections, and public investment. These systems (essentially economic fireplaces) contained capital's heat while distributing its benefits broadly.

The result was the greatest period of widely-shared prosperity in modern history.

Starting in the late 1970s and accelerating massively in the late nineties, we systematically dismantled these constraints under the theory that unconstrained capital would best allocate resources. The predictable results followed: asset inflation, wage stagnation, and wealth concentration.

System Redesign

Addressing this requires understanding that capital's tendency to concentrate isn't a bug, it's an inherent property that must be consciously accounted for in system design. Effective economic systems don't just create wealth; they distribute it in ways that sustain rather than cannibalise social foundations.

Practically, this means:

1. Designing ownership structures that align with general welfare

2. Creating circulation mechanisms that prevent terminal concentration

3. Recognising that markets are tools, not moral arbiters

4. Building feedback loops that strengthen rather than undermine stability

Many of these mechanisms already exist in nascent form: steward ownership, open-source economics, stakeholder governance, circular economic models. The challenge isn't inventing solutions; it's implementing them at scale against concentrated resistance.

Taking action as a company

Dembrane will become steward-owned.

The evidence is clear: extractive capital models tend consume their foundations. Organisations designed for circulation rather than accumulation simply function better over time.

Steward ownership leverages what actually produced our technological capacity in the first place: open research, distributed collaboration, and alignment between us and our customers. The most valuable innovations in human history—from the internet to key scientific discoveries—emerged from systems designed for circulation, not extraction.

As a company building tools for democratic participation, we have the chance to shape our own structure to reflect our conviction into the values of circulation and shared benefit that we enable for others.

What can you do to help?

What can an individual do within such a vast system?

1. Direct your capital (however modest) toward circulation-based models

2. Support businesses designed for social benefit, not extraction

3. Build or join organisations with distributed ownership structures

4. Advocate for policy that recognises the physical reality of capital flows and inequality economics

5. [Plug] You can also sustainably invest in Dembrane and get at least 3,5x returns in 3 years, or reinvest for even high returns over time (a concept coined by Alkemio called ACE returns)

We're looking for investors and partners who understand this and are excited by it. Who recognise that the highest long-term returns—financial and otherwise—come from systems designed for circulation rather than terminal accumulation. That free markets are inferior to smart markets with well engineered incentives and collective ownership.

The physics are implacable, but systems can be redesigned. The same intelligence that created our current predicament can create its solution.

Capital, like fire, isn't inherently destructive or constructive. It's a force of transformation that depends entirely on how we contain and direct it. The choice is ours.

Do we think alike? Get in touch.

With love,

Jorim Theuns, Founder.