Social-Media Startup Sahoja's Business Model Defies Conventional Wisdom

ATLANTA, Oct. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sahoja, a for-profit social-media startup, was founded in 2019 on the principle that providing societal benefits provides the true path to long-term corporate resiliency and, subsequently, success – the polar opposite of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman's mainstream thesis that companies should maximize shareholder value above all else.

Sahoja is at its core a multi-faceted social media platform but goes beyond simply providing a forum for conversation. It offers ethical products, healthy advice and the ability to directly benefit worthy causes.

And for its business model, it has adopted the concept, espoused by numerous business leaders and sociologists, that the most resilient, financially successful corporations long term are ones which provide value beyond traditional shareholders, which are most beneficial for society.

Marc Benioff of Salesforce said, "I didn't agree with Friedman then, and the decades since have only exposed his myopia. Just look where the obsession with maximizing profits for shareholders has brought us: terrible economic, racial and health inequalities; the catastrophe of climate change. It's no wonder that so many young people now believe that capitalism can't deliver the equal, inclusive, sustainable future they want."

Sahoja's founders outlined their overall business concept in an Economics Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman was Wrong!, an entry on the site's blog.

"Sahoja had a different vision than maximizing shareholder value for a limited few, rejecting this concept as the key goal for a corporation," they wrote. Instead, they envisioned a company where all its stakeholders – employees, vendors, consumers and members – could also be owners or shareholders. This concept also ties in directly with the platform's name: Sahoja means stronger together.

"Sahoja's founders recognized the tremendous impact of financial inequality which the world at large is beginning to acknowledge," they wrote. "One means of eliminating this is to open the company's ownership to all who are part of the company eco system – employees, management, investors, vendors and everyone else who interacts with the corporation.

"Most importantly, consumers and customers should be shareholders. This is because without consumers a corporation cannot survive. A corporation exists because of its customers and those who buy from it.

"Sahoja's shareholders will be anyone who wants to be one, without any limits. Its members should be shareholders and owners."

Milton Friedman, though, was right in the sense that a corporation's goal should be to maximize shareholder value, but this works only if stakeholders are not short changed, and the shareholder orbit encompasses anyone and everyone who wants to be a part owner of the corporation.

Therefore, Sahoja modifies Milton Friedman's statement as follows: Maximizing Shareholder Value Should be the Overriding Goal for a Corporation if All Stakeholders Including Customers and Consumers are also Shareholders!

About Sahoja

Improving society overall through common positive goals are key factors for Sahoja (Sahoja.co) – a new social media community dedicated to connecting good people to share good ideas, buy from companies dedicated to doing good and helping good causes. And providing complete privacy and transparency in all interactions.

Sahoja is at its core a social media platform but goes beyond simply providing a forum for conversation. It offers ethical products, healthy advice and the ability to directly benefit worthy causes.

"The meaning of Sahoja is 'stronger together,'" explained Rai, a Sahoja co-founder. "All the aspects of our platform, or more precisely, platforms, combine to improve the world around us in many ways."

Contact: Mike Geylin 201-341-1099 / [email protected]

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SOURCE Sahoja