Imagine a status quo that is ripe with joy and peace; abundance grows organically, profit with purpose is shared cooperatively.

Welcome to what’s possible on earth. On a relatively small, ~3.5 acre, lot of land on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua – a microcosm is here for you to see.

Do you ever wonder about what the world beyond status quo looks, smells, tastes, sounds, and feels like? For more than the past decade, I have been dreaming of – and experimenting with – countless ways of rendering the status quo obsolete by creating better systems. Initially, I thought healthier products and better business models was the essential way to make it happen – not paying much attention to organizational structures and psychology. Through the school of hard knocks and deep introspection, I observe an interconnected set of issues with the whole conventional way of building organizations.

Over the years, I’ve become increasingly enraptured by studying permaculture design, open-source innovation, and the relationship between self-awareness and self-organization. Through this study, I’ve iteratively developed a stack of practical solutions to structure complex self-organizing systems that align people, profit, and purpose to steward land productively. In this article, I’ll introduce you to some of the most profound solutions that I’m aware of, and invite you to get involved in the hub that we’re creating @ Más Allá.

On Ometepe Island in Nicargua, a tropical oasis for permaculture, you’ll find Más Allá. Our purpose at Más Allá is to steward a hub for purpose driven leaders to thrive in connection with the land and one another. The hub is being stewarded by a network of partners in an emerging cooperative social enterprise, operating as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). We’re building on the foundation of work that’s been pioneered through successful open-source innovations and DAOs. In the last decade alone, trillions of dollars have shifted into a market built by DAOs. Through the roles that I am playing in Más Allá’s DAO, I am aspiring to demonstrate clear and practical paths to apply this power towards improving society and the environment and mitigate the existential risks humanity is facing; all the while generating long term financial profits to be shared by partners in the DAO.

Designing Ethical Enterprises

At its core, Más Allá’s DAO is a product of permaculture design. Rooted in the ethics of earth care, people care, and fair share. While we are being entrusted to steward land, we are not bound by any geographical borders – we are bound by universal ethics. Realizing this way of operating – as stewards of land who care and share – creates many beautiful opportunities to transform status quo.

Rather than thinking about land as something to be owned, I am learning to think about land as something to be stewarded. Similarly, rather than thinking about organizations as machines that any one person or a group of people, like a CEO and a board, controls, I am learning to think about an organization as a network of living organisms with many interdependent and diverse species – like a forest. A step further, rather than thinking about profit as something that a small minority earn, while a majority live in servitude to those few, I am learning to think that it’s clearly better for people to come together as a community of conscious partners to share profits – for this is the way of nature.

Unlike conventional businesses that often prioritize luxurious individual gains for bosses, and miserable conditions for employees, cooperative social enterprises are built on the premise that we are all partners with infinite creative power. As I deepen my experience in designing and leading cooperative social enterprises, I am learning to emphasize the power of sharing success through conscious community building. For, as we build community consciously, all of our deepest needs can be met together.

Practical Philosophy

Más Allá is developing as a space for healing, leadership development, and conscious community living. Some people call it ‘woo woo’ – I call it practical. Applying the ethics of permaculture: earth care, people care, and fair share towards ecological, social, and economic regeneration – with the 12 permaculture design principles guiding optimal decision making.

This all may sound great, but how does it actually work? Perhaps it sounds too good to be true, is there a precedent for such a remarkable opportunity?

As a cooperative social enterprise, operated by a network of partners in a DAO, we have the flexibility to transcend national, ‘old world,’ legal structures and operate effectively as a network state – a group of sovereign human beings – bound by a shared purpose and an ethical framework. With inspiration from, and as outlined in, Bill Mollison’s Permaculture Designer’s Manual. Partners have the freedom to invest money and time into the DAO and be reciprocated with tokens. These tokens create value pool which partners have co-created, so profits can be shared fairly relative to the value all partners put in.

There is precedent for this. For years, already, I have seen more regenerative projects being stewarded by DAOs. A primary example of this applied at-scale, across many regenerative projects, is Cohere.Network. Cohere is one of many projects that I am aware of, with more that I am discovering regularly. While I do not know the future, my bet is that more people will opt in to these emerging network states, and a small group of committed people will continue leading the way to demonstrate what’s possible with our creative power.

The beautiful thing that I’m seeing about Más Allá, and many other regenerative DAO projects, is that we do not need to operate at-odds with existing nation state systems. We are not competing with nation states. While I believe we are offering something better, which could potentially render the system of nation states obsolete, I see we can effectively deliver network states that transcend and include the land nested within existing nation states.

Beyond Investment Opportunities

Through this journey of co-creating Más Allá, I am coming to the profound realization that the premise of all financial and economic activity is gift. For what is the source of money and services if not gifts from nature? Nature provides all that humanity needs as a gift, and I believe in paying it forward. The opportunity that I have to live my life in service has been gifted to me, and I am working diligently to pay that gift forward for all my relations to gain.

For those interested in becoming partners in Más Allá’s DAO, you’re welcome to explore the opportunity in greater depth: invest.beyondometepe.com.

Investing in Más Allá is beyond an opportunity to generate profit with purpose, and leave a legacy that matters. It is also a transformational vessel for growth of mind, body, and soul. Through Más Allá, we are cultivating an environment where creativity and innovation are thriving, leading to groundbreaking solutions and sustainable practices. What’s possible? Anything is.

A cooperative social enterprise like Más Allá changes the game, regenerating and sharing abundance cooperatively. Will you be a part of the solution?