All joking aside, if you were to make a charitable foundation or worker-owned co-op, how would you overcome the same challenge software itself has? — Letting the world know it exists.
Anyone can code up an application over a weekend. That isn't the problem. VC money is for use in letting everyone else know that you created it. Long, long gone is the age where you could throw something up on the App Store and see the masses flock to it. It takes serious resources to get the word out nowadays.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with building software just for yourself. Not everything has to be shouted on every rooftop. But this specific type of software doesn't work so well if you are the only one using it.
Anyone can code up an application over a weekend. That isn't the problem. VC money is for use in letting everyone else know that you created it. Long, long gone is the age where you could throw something up on the App Store and see the masses flock to it. It takes serious resources to get the word out nowadays.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with building software just for yourself. Not everything has to be shouted on every rooftop. But this specific type of software doesn't work so well if you are the only one using it.