Most startups are taught the same lesson early on:
Protect your advantage.
Move faster than competitors.
Own the market before someone else does.
In technology, especially, competition is often treated as the defining force behind innovation. Companies race to capture users, dominate categories, and differentiate themselves from everyone around them.
So when organizations in the same space decide to collaborate openly, people usually ask the same question:
Why would competitors work together?
That question came up immediately when Share Council began establishing a consortium alongside other players in the ecosystem to work directly with the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs on the upcoming 2027 employee share option tax incentive.
From the outside, it may seem counterintuitive.
But from our perspective, the reasoning is actually very simple.
Because employee ownership is not a zero-sum game.
The Netherlands is approaching a potentially important turning point for employee participation.
The new tax incentive pilot launching in 2027 could significantly improve how employee share options function financially for workers across the country. If successful, it has the potential to make ownership more attractive, more accessible, and more impactful for both employees and companies.
That matters far beyond individual businesses.
If more companies adopt employee ownership successfully:
In other words, the success of employee participation creates positive effects that extend far beyond a single platform or provider.
That changes the nature of competition entirely.
Because when an entire ecosystem grows healthier, everyone operating within that ecosystem benefits as well.
The reality is that employee ownership in Europe still faces structural challenges.
Many companies struggle with:
At the same time, many employees still do not fully understand the value or mechanics of ownership participation itself.
If the upcoming tax incentive is going to succeed long term, the market needs more than individual software tools competing for customers.
It needs infrastructure.
It needs education.
It needs transparency.
It needs trust.
And no single company can build all of that alone.
That is why collaboration matters right now.
Through the consortium, organizations are working together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to help support the implementation and long-term evaluation of the tax incentive program.
That includes:
Importantly, this approach creates something much larger than individual commercial products.
It creates shared infrastructure for participation.
Because one of the biggest risks for emerging ownership ecosystems is fragmentation. When every company builds isolated systems, inconsistent standards, and disconnected processes, adoption slows down and trust weakens.
But when the ecosystem develops together around shared frameworks and transparent collaboration, the entire market becomes easier to navigate for everyone involved:
That accelerates adoption far more effectively than isolated competition alone ever could.
History repeatedly shows that the strongest innovation ecosystems emerge when competitors cooperate on foundational infrastructure while still competing on execution and experience.
The internet itself grew that way.
Financial systems grew that way.
Open-source software ecosystems grew that way.
Healthy industries often depend on shared standards and collective trust before true scale becomes possible.
Employee ownership is likely entering a similar phase.
The opportunity ahead is simply too important to treat entirely as a closed competitive battlefield.
Because ultimately, stronger employee participation benefits the entire economy:
That creates a healthier startup ecosystem for everyone.
One of the most interesting aspects of this collaboration is the commitment to transparency.
Part of the consortium’s work involves helping publish adoption data, monitoring participation trends, and contributing insights back to policymakers and the broader market.
That openness matters.
Because trust in employee ownership grows when companies and employees can actually see:
Transparent ecosystems scale faster because uncertainty decreases.
And right now, reducing uncertainty around employee ownership is one of the most important things the Dutch market can do.
There is a temptation in every emerging market to focus entirely on short-term competitive positioning.
But the companies that ultimately shape industries are often the ones willing to invest in building the ecosystem itself.
The organizations that will benefit most from the 2027 tax incentive may not necessarily be the ones that tried to protect every advantage privately.
They may be the companies that actively helped build the infrastructure, standards, and momentum needed to make employee ownership mainstream in the first place.
Because movements grow faster than products.
And employee ownership is increasingly becoming a movement.
At its core, employee participation is about creating broader alignment between the people building companies and the value those companies create.
That mission becomes stronger when approached collectively rather than defensively.
Competition will always exist.
Different platforms will still innovate differently.
Companies will still build unique approaches and experiences.
But the broader goal — creating stronger employee participation across the Dutch economy — is simply too valuable not to collaborate around.
Because when more employees share meaningfully in the success they help create, everyone benefits.
Not just individual companies.
The entire ecosystem.
👉 Join the employee ownership movement with Share Council