Give us a shout over at Start.coop if you decide to go this direction. We have lots of resources and supports available to help you get off the ground.
Unless they use revenue-based financing, a VC wouldn't invest in co-ops. As you point out, their need for an exit strategy that revolves around an increase in the price of equity doesn't align well with co-ops striving for building longer-term wealth for their community. That's why we see co-ops funded through loan funds, angel investment, and a new breed of equity funds trying to fill the gap, like The Equitable Economy Fund (https://www.equitablefund.net/)
Actually, there are a lot of high wage workers like programmers who opt to work in co-ops because the ownership model aligns with their values and they find the work both financially and also intellectually and emotionally fulfilling. You need look no further than Ampled.com, which has a robust team of "contributors" who are all working to build and improve the platform on a volunteer basis. Ampled has built a system to track everyone's contributions which will be honored down the road once the co-op has more $ in the bank. And these are top notch folks who have come from Kickstarter and other related platforms (and who also clearly have a lot of economic privilege to be able to work in this arrangement for the time-being).
Agreed, people who believe it ideologically will be attracted. It just seems like that would still make it hard to recruit if the money is much worse, though -- there are only so many people willing to take a huge pay cut.
You're in luck! Driver's Seat Co-op is currently hiring for a software engineer and UX/UI designer. The founders are smart and committed and also just really thoughtful and kind guys. https://www.driversseat.co/careers
