👑 CROWN LETTER: MUHAMMAD YUNUS

Commerce Secretary, Lord Banyan of the World

First Keeper of the International Initiative

Board Candidate, Liana Banyan Corporation

Date: January 23, 2026

Dear Professor Yunus,

You proved that the poor are creditworthy.

You proved that lending to women changes communities.

You proved that social business can solve problems that charity cannot.

I’ve built a platform based on everything you proved — and I need your help to take it global.

WHO I AM

I’m a 53-year-old ARNG veteran — Infantry and Aviation, helicopter pilot with FAA Commercial Rotary Wing IFR rating. Father of eight. 21 years in IT development. Chess player (2118 rating, top 0.4% globally). I was born in Tanzania to American missionary parents — I left on the last flight before Idi Amin’s invasion.

I’ve been thinking about cooperative economics for four decades. Building this specific platform for nine. Ludicrous speed for the last five months. I have 18 handwritten journals documenting every iteration, and 1,754 innovations with 1,401 patent claims filed since November 26, 2025—the last 44 about ten minutes ago.

I first learned about Grameen Bank in college. The idea that small loans to poor people could transform communities — that the poor are bankable, that trust can scale, that commerce can be structured to serve the underserved — shaped how I thought about economics for decades.

Liana Banyan is my attempt to build what you imagined: a system where commerce serves people, not the other way around.

WHAT I’VE BUILT

Liana Banyan is a cooperative platform built on one principle: Cost + 20%.

Creators keep 83.3% of every transaction. The platform margin is fixed in the operating agreement — not by choice, but by legal structure. We cannot raise it. We cannot enshittify.

Three commercial divisions generate revenue that permanently funds fourteen charitable initiatives across food security, healthcare access, education, financial inclusion, and crisis response.

VSL — Village Savings and Loans — is directly inspired by your work:

We’ve also written to Jessica Jackley (Kiva co-founder) and Cathie Mahon (Inclusiv) for VSL leadership. But the International Initiative — taking this model global — needs someone who understands what works across cultures, economies, and regulatory environments.

That’s you.

THE INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE

The Problem: In late 2024, Canada canceled 40,000 startup visas — stranding entrepreneurs from around the world who had built businesses expecting Canadian residency. This is one example of a larger pattern: international entrepreneurs have few pathways to participate in the global economy.

Our Response: The International Initiative creates infrastructure for global participation in cooperative commerce — not dependent on any single country’s visa policy.

The goal is not to replace immigration — it’s to create economic opportunity that doesn’t depend on it.

WHY YOU

You’ve spent fifty years proving that economic systems can be designed to serve the poor.

Grameen Bank wasn’t charity. It was commerce — structured differently. It proved that poor women repay loans at higher rates than rich men. It proved that small amounts of capital, deployed at the right moment, can transform lives. It proved that trust can scale if the system is designed correctly.

Liana Banyan is built on the same principles:

• Trust the underserved. They’re creditworthy, capable, and motivated.
• Structure the system for them. Not as an afterthought — as the primary design consideration.
• Commerce, not charity. Sustainable systems that generate their own funding.
• Local governance. People closest to the problems make the decisions.

The International Initiative needs someone who has actually built systems that work across cultures and economies. Not someone with theories about it — someone who has done it.

You’ve done it.

WHAT I’M ASKING

I want you to lead the International Initiative Council.

Not to run it day-to-day — you have your own work, your own legacy. But to guide it. To help us avoid the mistakes that well-intentioned international programs make. To ensure that our expansion serves communities rather than extracting from them.

Every initiative in Liana Banyan operates as a council. The Crown is the First Seat — the leader, the tie-breaker, the voice on our Steering Committee. As the council grows with workers and members, they elect their own representative to the Board of Directors. In the early days, that representative would likely be you.

WHAT YOU’D RECEIVE

THE SOCIAL BUSINESS CONNECTION

You’ve distinguished social business from charity and from traditional business:

• Charity: Gives away resources; requires continuous fundraising
• Traditional business: Maximizes profit for stakeholders
• Social business: Uses commerce to solve problems; reinvests profits in the mission

Liana Banyan is a social business by your definition:

• We use commerce (Cost + 20%) to fund operations
• Profits above operational needs fund the fourteen charitable initiatives
• The structure is designed to solve problems (worker ownership, fair margins, community governance)
• We cannot be acquired or converted to a traditional profit-maximizing company

The International Initiative extends this model globally — creating social business infrastructure that entrepreneurs anywhere can access.

THE PARTNERSHIP

I’ve also written to:

• Michael Seibel for CEO
• Sal Khan for Didasko (education)
• Cathie Mahon for VSL (microfinance)
• Jessica Jackley for VSL (backup/advisory)
• Maneet Chauhan for Let’s Make Dinner
• José Andrés for Let’s Get Groceries

The ecosystem is forming. The International Initiative connects all of it — ensuring that what we build in the United States can serve entrepreneurs and communities worldwide.

You wouldn’t be leading an isolated initiative. You’d be shaping how cooperative economics scales globally.

ONE CROWN, ONE OFFER

No one else is getting this letter for Commerce Secretary.

If you aren’t interested, we’ll have to go back to the drawing board. We have made no backup plans — because we want you to know how wanted you are.

If the answer is no:

I’d be grateful for a referral. Who do you know in international development, social business, or cooperative economics who might be right for this?

THE CONNECTION

You’ve spent your career proving that the poor are creditworthy, that commerce can serve the underserved, that systems can be designed for human dignity rather than extraction.

I’ve built a platform based on everything you proved.

Now I need help taking it to the people who need it most — the entrepreneurs stranded by cancelled visas, the communities underserved by traditional platforms, the workers exploited by gig economy extraction.

You proved it works. Help me scale it.

Help each other help ourselves.

With profound respect for your life’s work,

Jonathan Jones Founder, Liana Banyan Corporation Founder@LianaBanyan.com 406-578-1232

There is a walkthrough at LianaBanyan.com/RedCarpet. No scheduling, no pitch deck, no salesman.

Help each other help ourselves.

As You Wish.

How We Amplify You

Liana Banyan amplifies the people it serves. We drive our audience to your storefronts, your channels, your practices. We don’t ask you to be our billboard. We ask to be your megaphone.

The louder you get, the louder we get — because your success is our revenue, and our revenue is your influence.

We amplify you. You amplify makers. Makers amplify their communities. Everyone gets louder together.

Enclosures:

• The Considered Approach (Academic Paper)
• International Initiative Overview
• Canada 40K Rescue Fleet Proposal
• VSL Technical Overview
• The 300 Framework