You don't need to cooperate in building your investment in bitcoin - if you are constrained by a lack of budget, you can buy as much as you have. There's no need to join a group where you and several friends raise funds together to get a lot of investment assets - in the end the profits will only be the same if the shares are equal. If you don't understand much about Bitcoin and investing - you can learn, you can do it independently without depending on other people.
I really like how you spelt this out. We truly do not need to cooperate with externals to gather Bitcoin assets. Oh well, except for married couples in my opinion. I agree that the essence of investments in Bitcoin was really not to make it a Joint Venture sort of, or anything sought of.
I will advise that people refrain from trying to invest in this manner cause most of the time, it never turns out really well. This is so because the people you think are colleagues in the long run, may lose the dream you all held for the investment while involving selfish motives.