Better collaboration, by design.

Most companies build software.
We're a think tank that listens, then builds for you.

A company with collaboration at its core. Stewarded for the long arc. Built with mission-aligned partners.

We're building the coordination layer a thriving world requires.

Across thousands of organizations and movements working toward better futures, the knowledge to act already exists. So do the people, the relationships, the resources. What's missing is the infrastructure that lets it move together.

Catalist is that infrastructure — built deliberately, over four years. Stewarded for the long arc, not the short return. Held by a team — small core, wide network — that grows by invitation and co-stewardship. Meet the team

Not founder-controlled. Not investor-owned. Not built for sale.

Our Collaborative Operating Agreement encodes this into law: ownership, governance, and profit sharing are intentionally separated. Mission prevails over financial optimization. There is no exit intent. The structure is designed to outlive any one of us.

The full agreement runs to ninety pages. The principles fit on a page or two — and we've written them down so they're legible to anyone who wants to understand how we operate.

Read our operating model

Ownership · Governance · Profit Sharing

Three things conventional companies conflate. We separate them intentionally.

Ownership
Exists for legal and accounting purposes. Doesn't determine authority.
Governance
Flows from stewardship roles, lived participation, and demonstrated care for the mission.
Profit Sharing
Governed by reciprocity, transparency, and predefined caps. Surplus circulates back to the ecosystem.

Three structural commitments — encoded, not aspirational.

The principles that distinguish Catalist aren't policy statements. They're legal architecture.

Capital participates without controlling — via Investor Participation Units.Learn about our funding model

Six engagements from the field. Each one a listen-then-build story.

Turning 100 simultaneous pitches into a seamless, real-time event experience.

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DSS Salons bring 100+ cohort members together to pitch their work. Catalist connected their Airtable backend to a live event space — dynamic agenda, personal promo pages, filterable tracks.

Design Science Studio

Scaling a regenerative ocean incubator without losing the personal touch.

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Seaworthy had the mission and the community. Catalist gave them the infrastructure — mentor matching, cohort tracking, layered privacy. Portfolio has raised $20M+.

Seaworthy Collective

Making fragmented data speak — so funders could see the whole system.

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SEF's partners each saw only their slice. Catalist pulled Miro, Airtable, and Kumu into one shared map — revealing intervention points, securing additional funding.

Social Employment Fund

Connecting 7 ocean accelerators into one coordinated national network.

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Seven Tampa Bay accelerators, each in their own silo. Catalist built shared directories, layered privacy, and cross-network mentor matching. Outcome: a $14M NOAA grant.

The Continuum

Mapping an invisible ecosystem to unlock federal climate funding.

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RRTH had the relationships but not the infrastructure. Catalist built the directory, onboarding flow, and layered access — making the ecosystem visible enough to fund.

Risk & Resilience Tech Hub

Turning 50 siloed nonprofits into disaster-ready mutual aid infrastructure.

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50 nonprofits, 50 databases. Catalist built a federated system — each org kept its data, but resources, needs, and volunteers became visible across the whole network.

Cooperation Long Island

Where we are so far.

Seven recordings from the work in progress. A think tank that listens, then builds — and documents along the way.

From Personal to Global
The Arc
From Personal to Global
Privacy & Access Layers
Your Data, Your Terms
View all field notes

Built around values that shape both the platform and the practice.

We build connections.

Quality of connection is the work — within the platform, across our team, with the mission-aligned partners who shape what Catalist becomes. We treat the relational fabric as infrastructure, not garnish.

We honor individual agency.

Members own their data, contributors own their voice, partners own their work. We pre-populate where it helps; we step back when it's time. Autonomy is the design principle, not a feature setting.

We coordinate without controlling.

Our job is to create the conditions where things happen — not to manage every detail. The platform reflects this; the team reflects this; the governance reflects this.

We ignite positive change.

Catalist exists in a world where most tech is built for extraction. We point at what's working — in the platform, in our mission-aligned partners, in the broader weave — and amplify it.

Read the full Core Activation document

Ready to talk about what's possible?

We work with a small number of mission-aligned partners at a time. Tell us about your work and let's explore what we might build together.