The Build · Maslow × HAPPI
The build runs five named phases over roughly eighteen months, from the close of the Maslow raise to a functioning product in Cohort 1's hands. The four years that follow are where the network compounds.
Sheets pinned in reading order
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 the close of the Maslow raise to a functioning product in roughly eighteen months. The phases overlap.
From the close of the raise, the foundation is set. The HAPPI Foundation registers and the Covenant is finalised — the structural protections become binding. HAPPI comes into formal existence as a not-for-profit foundation.
The editorial and movement layer becomes public. Initial outreach to member-owned institutions begins across the Global Majority and Minority.
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, ten to twenty founding institutions are committed to the Workshop, with a deliberate balance between Global Majority and Minority.
The secured cohort — ten to twenty founding member-owned financial institutions — convene for a week-long residential working session within twelve months of the Maslow raise. Senior leaders, deliberate balance between Global Majority and Minority.
Letters of intent become binding participation agreements. The infrastructure scope is locked by the institutions that will use it.
Workshop institutions have twenty-eight days from its close to confirm participation and contribute the initiation payment.
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.
Six months from the close of the Workshop to a functioning product Cohort 1 can use. Maslow runs the build under HAPPI's Covenant. The founding cohort pays for the infrastructure build alongside Maslow's capital.
In parallel, HAPPI seeks grant funding for the global infrastructure layer and ramps up onboarding and cohort expansion. The Foundation extends the infrastructure beyond the founding cohort — including institutions that cannot afford access alone, or that need assistance to participate. Eleven Stewards are named publicly.
M18 — Y5+ · GROWTH HORIZON
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×
Twelve 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×
Twenty-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
Growth 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
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.