Cuota will never have a profit-motive, but we are not certain how the organization will be structured legally. This is primarily because none of us on the team are legal experts, and we want to make sure that we structure Cuota properly by first speaking with an attorney.
When we came up with the idea, part of the vision was creating Cuota as a non-profit, similar to The Wikimedia Foundation which funds Wikipedia. Being a non-profit comes with specific rules, and we want to make sure we understand those obligations and do everything the right way, which is why having an attorney on board is a must before we can pull the trigger on that.
And we also want to ensure that our vision is not jeopardized. This means having traditional investors or pursing an IPO will always be out of the question. Our only financial goal is that we can be sustainable.
Currently we are accepting donations or volunteers to help become a part of this project. Donations are not tax deductible. We do intend to hire fulltime positions as our revenue allows, but we also want to be realistic about the project’s future. It is currently just a passion project by a couple of nobodies. We don’t have access to funding or talent beyond programming, and it’s certainly possible Cuota never gains much adoption.
Ultimately our success in achieving our vision will be up to the users, which we feel is appropriate for this user-first social media platform. If we have enough interest, then we should be able to figure out a way to bring in the necessary funds to grow and complete our vision without jeopardizing our original principles.