The Build · Maslow × HAPPI
From raise, to cohort, to MVP. Then a four-year horizon.
The build runs five named phases over roughly eighteen months, from Offer Completion to a functioning product in Cohort 1's hands. The four years that follow are where the network compounds.
Sheets pinned in reading order
- 01FoundationM0 – M2
- 02Secure cohortM2 – M10
- 03WorkshopM10 – M11
- 04PaymentM11 – M12
- 05MVP buildM12 – M18
The conditions are named.
The work below is the operational expression of Maslow's build plan for HAPPI — not the strategy itself. See Theory of Change at TheHappi.org for the structural argument the work acts on.
The phases are phase-relative, not date-anchored — from Offer Completion to a functioning product in roughly eighteen months. The phases overlap.
Establishing the Foundation.
The HAPPI Foundation does not yet legally exist. Within 120 days after Offer Completion, Maslow intends to establish it or complete and lodge the required external applications and take all reasonably necessary steps to procure establishment. Its final legal form, governing instruments, steward roles and operating arrangements will be settled through that controlled process.
The editorial and movement layer becomes public. Initial outreach to member-owned institutions begins across the Global Majority and Minority.
Six to nine months finding the founding cohort.
Following Minimum Target Completion, Maslow spends six to nine months identifying and securing the founding cohort for the First Cohort Build. Senior-leader outreach across the Global Majority and Minority, qualified through peak bodies and regulatory liaisons. Letters of intent harden into participation intent.
Due diligence runs both ways. The MVP scope is refined in dialogue with the institutions that will use it — not by Maslow alone. By the end of the phase, approximately 20–30 founding institutions are committed to the Workshop, with a deliberate balance between Global Majority and Minority — the current 12+12 planning case is a modelling target, not a fixed composition.
A week-long residence — within twelve months of Offer Completion.
The secured cohort — approximately 20–30 founding member-owned financial institutions — convene for a week-long residential working session within twelve months of Offer Completion. Senior leaders, deliberate balance between Global Majority and Minority.
The residency defines the MVP and its commercial, technical and governance parameters. The infrastructure scope is locked by the institutions that will use it — binding agreements follow in the 28-day decision period after the residency, not in the room.
Cohort 1 named through payment.
Workshop institutions have twenty-eight days from its close to complete their internal decision period, confirm participation and contribute the initiation payment. Maslow's gate is at least 10 binding institutional agreements to fund and participate in the MVP build.
That payment capitalises the build alongside Maslow's capital. Cohort 1 is named through the act of payment, not through letter of intent — the cooperative ecosystem funds its own infrastructure.
A functioning product in six months.
Six months to a functioning product Cohort 1 can use — beginning only after the residency and the binding participation and funding gate. Maslow leads the commercial build as a constitution-governed and covenant-aligned company. The institution-facing MVP is defined with participating institutions, and HAPPI's intended stewardship principles inform the work without directly overriding Maslow's legal obligations. The founding cohort pays for the infrastructure build alongside Maslow's capital.
In parallel, grant funding is sought for the global infrastructure layer, and onboarding and cohort expansion ramp up. The Foundation is intended to extend the infrastructure beyond the founding cohort — including institutions that cannot afford access alone, or that need assistance to participate. The Foundation establishment process develops the first formal governance framework, steward roles, succession arrangements and appropriate public-accountability mechanisms.
M18 — Y5+ · GROWTH HORIZON
From cohort one to a network.
The eighteen months of the build land a functioning product in Cohort 1's hands. The four years that follow are where the network compounds — institution by institution, region by region, until growth matures.
10×
Add a zero.
▸ 100 – 200 institutionsTwelve months post-MVP, Cohort 1 becomes the proof. Onboarding compounds; the global architecture layer matures under HAPPI; access widens beyond institutions that paid in first.
100×
Add another zero.
▸ 1,000 – 2,000 institutionsTwenty-four months after that, another order of magnitude. The infrastructure becomes the default substrate for member-owned finance in the regions it serves. Stewardship and federation hold under load.
Mature
Steady growth & development.
▸ Compound networkGrowth matures into a steady rhythm of expansion and deepening. The work moves from setting the conditions to running the institution — under collective stewardship, in public.
Throughout · Reporting in public
Reported in public.
Across every phase, the work is reported in public through The Cooperative Commons — the editorial and movement layer where the cooperative ecosystem publishes its own evidence and speaks in its own register.
Direct conversation is available for member-owned financial institutions weighing participation. For everyone else, the movement layer is the bridge from extractive banking to community-owned finance.