LML is building toward a business where the people doing the work own a piece of what they're building. Here's what that means and why it matters.
The live event production industry runs on freelance technicians — skilled specialists who've spent years mastering hyper-specific gear and workflows. They're the reason the show happens. And for most of the industry's history, the relationship has been transactional: show up, do the work, get paid, done.
Production companies treat labor as overhead to be minimized. The technicians who make the event work have no stake in the company's success, no voice in how things are run, and no path to ownership — regardless of how long they've been part of the team.
Peak season in NYC is brutal. Post-Labor Day through UN General Assembly week, every major production company is competing for the same 50 people. When crew has no loyalty incentive, they go to whoever calls first. The best operators aren't always available when you need them most.
A seasoned Analog Way operator and someone who's run a switcher twice look the same on a call sheet. There's no mechanism to surface depth of experience, specialization, or track record. Clients are flying blind.
When you don't own anything, you don't think long-term. Technicians optimize for day rates, not craft development. Companies optimize for margins, not crew quality. Everyone loses — especially the clients who are paying for a show that depends on both.
LML was founded on a simple idea: the technicians who do the work should share in what gets built. Not as a feel-good talking point, but as an actual structural commitment — ownership stakes, shared governance, and a business model where everyone at the table has skin in the game.
We're not there yet. Building a true worker-owned collective takes time, capital, and legal architecture. But the direction is set, and every decision we make — who we bring on, how we operate, how we structure deals — is aimed at that outcome.
The crew that owns the company takes the job seriously. Not because they have to. Because they built it.
These aren't aspirations. They're operating principles that shape every decision we make right now, on the way to the larger goal.
Crew members know what clients pay and how margins work. No mystery markups, no hidden tiers.
We don't send generalists. Position-specific specialization is how we staff every call, and rates reflect that.
Senior technicians and board members have real input into how LML operates — not a suggestion box.
The LLC structure is being built with equity participation for long-term crew contributors as an explicit goal.
Overtime is owed, breaks matter, and crew is never asked to absorb a client's budget problem.
When you own the company, every show you work is a direct reflection of your business. That changes the standard.
LML was founded by Kaplan Akıncılar, a production technician with nearly 20 years of experience across the New York City live event landscape. He's run the gear, managed the calls, worked the peak seasons, and seen firsthand what the industry gets right and what it gets wrong.
The Collective model isn't a business school concept. It comes from spending two decades as a freelancer and deciding that the next two decades should be built differently — for everyone who does this work.
"We are building a production company where the crew is the company. The people who show up and make the event happen deserve more than a day rate. They deserve ownership."