Democratic governance, communal salary decisions, and accessibility: DEI work at Sharetribe

Sharetribe has had a dedicated DEI Council since 2020. Since then, we've completed initiatives on salary transparency, anonymous hiring, equitable benefits, and more. This work continues and is a part of running the company as we move forward. This report discusses recent work that touches on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) at Sharetribe. 

Sharetribe is, in many ways, a radical project: a democratically governed company where money and power are not linked, that supports the wellbeing of employees, and offers challenging, fulfilling work towards a shared goal (democratizing platform ownership). As a company that wants to have a positive impact on the world, considering DEIB needs to be baked into everything we do. Building an equitable workplace requires long-term commitment that persists even when the political winds shift (which, sadly, hasn’t been the case for many tech companies).

In this article, you'll learn about how Sharetribe became a democratically governed company, our new salary decision-making process, and accessibility improvements in the Sharetribe product, as well as what DEIB work will include in 2026.

Sharetribe is now democratically governed

Sharetribe became a steward-owned company in 2018. However, until 2025, most of the official voting power was held by the founders, Juho Makkonen and Antti Virolainen. This changed last June. At Sharetribe, the highest decision-making power is now held by team members, based on the principle of one person, one vote.

For a company where investors don't have voting power—thus divorcing money from decision-making power—this felt like a natural shift. Juho wrote about the journey to that point in a previous Balanced post. Make sure to read about how Sharetribe became a democratically governed company.

New salary decision-making process

Sharetribe's salary decision-making process went through an overhaul in 2025. Earlier, final salary decisions were made by Juho and Antti, based on feedback from the rest of the team. Everyone at Sharetribe knows each other’s salary, so feedback is given based on performance, but also based on whether the team member’s salary seems in line with others’.

As Antti stepped away for parental leave last autumn, we quickly realized that a decision-making process hinging on two people's presence was not ideal. Also, as Antti took on the role of Sharetribe's co-leadership coach, it made sense he would step away from salary decisions. The role would be more effective if Antti didn't have a role in deciding someone's compensation.

We ended up with a process that aligns well with our co-leadership approach: a Compensation Council of peers, where a group of volunteers from the team discuss and decide raises for everyone, again based on feedback from the rest of the team and themselves.

Last autumn was the first time our compensation was decided by a council of peers. We're still in the process of learning and iterating, but the initial results are positive. The team gave more salary feedback to each other than ever before. We also have a lot of great feedback on the process itself to iterate and make it even better. In general, we consider the first time adjusting salaries in this way a success, and hope to write more about the new salary process later! 

Accessibility in the Sharetribe platform

In 2025, we worked on extensive accessibility improvements to the Sharetribe platform. The updates included better keyboard navigation, improved screen reader support, enhanced visual contrast, and clearer page structure throughout the platform. Testing for accessibility is also a permanent part of developing new features. 

These changes help ensure that everyone can use Sharetribe-powered marketplaces, regardless of disability or assistive technology needs. The improvements also help our customers comply with regulations like the European Accessibility Act.

DEI in a changing landscape

The cultural and political backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion work has intensified in the past year. Major tech companies including Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have scaled back or eliminated their diversity initiatives following policy changes in the US. It's easy to see which companies believed in diversity, equity, and inclusion work and which didn't: does the work continue once it's no longer lucrative or politically convenient to do so? 

Still, over the years, the number of new DEI initiatives has gone down at Sharetribe too. Our team is small and retention is strong, so new topics don’t arise as often as when we started DEI work. We're aware of the optics of reduced output while criticism of DEI mounts. But we remain committed to this work, and we will continue investing in it. 

What has changed is how we approach the work. Much of the work done by the DEI Council in the past 5 years is now a permanent part of running Sharetribe: DEI initiatives such as anonymous recruitment, yearly surveys, work on salary fairness, equitable benefits, and yearly charitable giving with collaboratively chosen recipients, among others, are all part of our regular operations. Now, we've moved into integrating DEI into the strategic conversations about what we want Sharetribe to be in the future. 

This means considering the DEI aspects of decisions that touch all parts of the company, such as how we use AI, choose service providers, work on product accessibility, and so on. We're still getting our bearings and want to get better at this work. But most importantly, DEI isn't something we pigeonhole into a yearly survey and a monthly meeting. Discussions that take into account different life experiences and individual needs, along with larger social, political, and environmental implications, are a part of any decision-making process at Sharetribe.

Moving on to 2026 and beyond

Sharetribe’s DEIB work continues in 2026. We’ll keep working on the things that matter—building an equitable, inclusive workplace where everyone belongs. We’re also focusing on making our product more accessible, both in terms of design and reach.

Possible topics for the DEI Council, based on the DEI survey of 2025, include clarifying job performance expectation and work on how to better facilitate open and honest communication within the team. Work on these starts next!

If you have recommendations on how we can do things better, we'd love to hear from you at hello@sharetribe.com!