Technology partnership organized for mutual benefit
What This Is
Mutuality is technology work organized differently.
Not a consultancy with values bolted on. Not a freelancer who cares. A structural attempt to practice cooperative principles through how work actually gets done—fair compensation, value-based prioritization, redistribution to people and projects building alternatives.
Currently: One person practicing these principles. Building toward something larger.
The direction: Network of collaborators working this way together. Cooperative structure when the right people and conditions align. Part of broader ecosystem of mutual support.
Core Principles
Fair compensation regardless of geography. The €100/hour Berlin standard isn’t pricing—it’s refusal to participate in wage suppression that values workers differently based on passport.
Value-based prioritization. Every decision assessed through actual business impact: cost reduction, revenue potential, worker empowerment. Not billable hours, not process theater.
Redistribution. Surplus flows to mutual aid, grassroots organizing, cooperative experiments, people navigating precarity. This isn’t charity add-on—it’s why the model exists.
Partnership over extraction. Structures that acknowledge different business realities. Solidarity when it matters. Genuine investment in outcomes.
Horizontal collaboration. No hierarchy theater. Direct relationships. Decisions made by people doing the work.
The Team
My aim is to build a small cooperative over time—enough people to take on complex projects while staying horizontal and human-scale. I’m not rushing. The right people matter more than filling slots.
Interested in working this way? If you share these principles and have skills that complement what I do, let’s talk. Not a job posting—an invitation to explore whether building together makes sense.
Extended Network
Friends of Mutuality—people aligned with these principles, building similar things in their own contexts.
I’m connected to:
- Worker cooperatives practicing similar models
- Tech collectives building infrastructure for movements
- Solidarity economy networks
- People in traditional employment who share values and may want alternatives
Not a formal network—just relationships with people doing aligned work, supporting each other, learning together.
Where Surplus Goes
Work through Mutuality generates resources beyond what’s needed to sustain the people doing it.
Mutual aid & direct support:
- Refugees, people displaced by war and economic transition
- Families navigating precarity in our community
- Friends doing precarious work despite real skills
- Material solidarity with people we actually know
Grassroots organizing:
- Antimilitarist groups and peace organizing
- Autonomous social spaces and community projects
- Initiatives building alternatives to market and state dependency
- Striking workers and labor solidarity
Cooperative experiments:
- People building collective structures for agriculture, publishing, care, healthcare
- Worker cooperatives in formation
- Mutual aid funds and solidarity economy projects
By working with us, you participate in this infrastructure—whether you share the framing or just want good tech work with people who care about outcomes.
Cooperative Lineage
Cooperatives are one form of what we’re building toward. But every culture has had practices of collective labor and mutual support—horizontal structures that capitalism made us forget but didn’t eliminate.
Historical traditions:
- Moba (Serbia/Bosnia): Collective labor for community benefit—harvest, building, large tasks. No money exchanged, pure reciprocity.
- Komunica (Montenegro): Historical commons—pastures, forests, lakes managed collectively.
- Zadruga (South Slavic): Traditional agricultural cooperatives with collective ownership.
Similar practices exist everywhere. What we now have to consciously rebuild, communities organized naturally before.
Contemporary experiments:
- Zapatista autonomous governance in Chiapas
- Rojava’s cooperative economy and democratic confederalism
- Worker-run factories in Greece and Argentina
- Platform cooperatives challenging extractive tech
- Solidarity economy networks worldwide
Tech cooperatives proving this works:
- Les-Tilleuls.coop serving major enterprise clients (ARTE, France TV, Orange) while practicing self-management
- We’re not inventing something new. We’re joining a living tradition of organizing work differently.
The Invitation
This is an open project.
If you’re looking for technology partnership: We offer professional capabilities through arrangements that acknowledge different realities. Explore partnership options →
If you’re building something similar: Let’s connect. Not to merge or coordinate everything—to support each other, share what we’re learning, strengthen the network of people organizing work differently.
If you want to be part of this: The cooperative vision needs people. Developers, designers, strategists, coordinators. Not hiring in the traditional sense—inviting exploration of whether building together makes sense.
If you’re in a traditional job but share these values: Many people in our network work in conventional employment while exploring alternatives. You don’t have to quit your job to be connected.
About Me
I’m Ivan—the person currently doing this work. Refugee background, building from Belgrade (though I’m roaming between a few cities in the ex-Yugoslav space as my family is spread out), trying to organize work and life according to principles I actually believe.
