Startups as a Service

Rick Gregg October 01,2025 What do you think?

A New Approach for Building Startups

The concept of Startups as a Service is a new and innovative service model pioneered by The saaskamp Community Startup. The meaning of saaskamp is “Startups as a Service camp.” A camp provides a place where anyone with like-minded interests, such as entrepreneurship, can gather together for a common purpose. 

Startups as a Service, and saaskamp in particular, is targeted to anyone interested in exploring entrepreneurship in a real world startup without the risk of failure. The service consists of a no-cost or equity, on-demand hybrid (in-person, virtual) program with a technology stack that focuses on business model innovation first and technology second. The program starts with the development of ideas in a collaborative environment that are tested for viability before being incubated, funded, and launched on their own with lifecycle support from the Startup as a Service including funding on a founder friendly basis, if desired.

The collaborative community provided by Startups as a Service results in the development of startup teams that have had the opportunity to work with one another before becoming autonomous on their own, ensuring founder, co-founder, and team member fit. Recognizing that building startups are incredibly challenging, especially in these times, Startups as a Service provides comprehensive support including coaching, mental health counseling and both the one-on-one and team mentoring necessary to stay focused and on track during the entrepreneurial journey. The unambiguous roadmap provided by Startups as a Service ensures that the participants can successfully reach their goals by taking a holistic approach. 

Democratizing Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Everyone

The status quo consists of traditional incubators, accelerators, startup studios, and venture capital. The status quo is designed to exclude the majority of ecosystem participants by treating them as a curated probability. Startups as a Service encourages participation from everyone regardless of race, sex, age, skill sets, or experience. Anyone looking for an opportunity to improve their life and learn new skills is invited to find out if entrepreneurship is right for them including, but not limited to: 

1. Full time employees looking for a change while keeping their job.
2. Underemployed professionals looking to grow and use their skills.
3. Older, experienced professionals that have been shut out from professional opportunities due to discrimination.
4. College & high school students who want hands on experience.
5. Aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs.

The Community Startup

One of the features of Startups as a Service is the Community Startup. In every camp, there is at least one funded, for-profit Community Startup. Startups form at the ideation stage by the participants in the camp who decide which idea they want to build into a real-world startup. This becomes the Community Startup. Some camp participants may decide to stay with the Community Startup and some may prefer to build out their own idea with the team they formed while participating in camp. Those that build out their own idea continue to receive support and funding, if desired, from the Startup as a Service. 

As participants enter camp, they are given the option to gain important real-world experience in building a startup by joining the Community Startup. Everyone who joins the Community Startup receives equity. Additional opportunities also exist in the Community Startup for paid internships and salaried employment. Gig workers participating in camp can exchange their services for invoiced revenue, equity or both.

Organic Entrepreneurship

The Startup Genome has always been my “go-to” resource for how to objectively measure and rate startup ecosystems against each other. The Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 (GSER 2025) is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of startup ecosystems. The GSER lists the forty (40) top and 100 emerging startup ecosystems worldwide.

The Startup Genome’s ecosystem lifecycle consists of four phases, each with distinct characteristics and goals. These phases consist of activation, globalization, attraction, and integration. The activation phase is characterized by fewer than 1,000 startups with limited ecosystem experience, and face challenges like resource leakages (e.g. “brain drain”) to later stage ecosystems which make it difficult to grow an ecosystem in an activation stage. In order to move to the next phase, globalization, the ecosystem must achieve multiple $100M+ exits and attract national resource attention. 

The Startup Genome rates the top 140 ecosystems worldwide, leaving most stuck in the activation stage. These ecosystems consist of underserved metropolitan, urban, and rural areas with status quo programs, or no programs at all. As a result, opportunities don’t exist for a community to successfully diversify their economies through entrepreneurship. This imbalance occurs because there isn’t enough participation within the community. Why? Because entrepreneurship is risky and ninety-nine (99%) percent of entrepreneurs in any ecosystem are routinely shunned and shut out from social acceptance and funding opportunities. 

The deck has been historically stacked against the entrepreneur. Startups as a Service changes all of that by providing safe, risk-free opportunities for the thirty-one (31%) percent of Americans over the age of twenty-three (23) that consider entrepreneurship, but believe it’s either too risky and/or don’t know where to start. Startups as a Service offers an approach that’s different from the status quo by democratizing innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone resulting in the organic growth of entrepreneurs within the community. This helps to reduce resource leakage (i.e. “brain drain”) and outward migration flow from the community while helping to diversify the community’s economy.

Disrupting the Status Quo

Unlike the status quo, there isn’t an application process that rejects any applicant. There also isn’t a requirement that those accepted into a cohort have to change their lifestyle to dedicate a fixed period of time on a rigid schedule over a period of weeks or months. No applications and no cohorts. Instead, a stream of participants are continuously on-boarded in real time into the camp community. The program curriculum is tailored to the interests of the participant. A participant can be at a founder or contributor level with or without any experience. 

The status quo has a dirty little secret. They view the entrepreneur as a curated probability while treating them as their most important family member. Status quo programs force startups to scale before they are ready. The numbers speak for themselves. Only one percent of applicants get into a program with funding. Those programs fail on the order of ninety (90%) percent of the time. Remember, it’s the status quo that chooses who wins and loses.  Over ninety (90%) percent of the status quo “winners” result in a looser three to four years later having been long forgotten. Why would an entrepreneur want to waste both their time and money without a financial return on their investment? Startups as a Service offers a better way.

Want to Learn More?

Interested in trying entrepreneurship in a safe, risk-free environment? Register today for the original Startup as a Service, The saaskamp Community Startup. Are you interested in locating The saaskamp Community Startup in your community? Let’s have a discussion. Contact us today for more information. Together, we can create more economic opportunity for everyone.

The Effects of “Brain Drain” on Nebraska’s Startup Ecosystems

Rick Gregg September 11,2025 What do you think?

Measuring Ecosystem Performance

The Startup Genome has always been my “go-to” resource for how to objectively measure and rate startup ecosystems against each other. The Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025 (GSER 2025) is a comprehensive analysis of the current state of startup ecosystems. The GSER lists the forty (40) top and 100 emerging startup ecosystems worldwide.

Within an eight hour or so drive from Omaha are some high performing ecosystems including Chicago (#16 – top), Denver-Boulder (#26 – top), Minneapolis (#13 – emerging), and Kansas City (#91-100; emerging). Ecosystems are generally defined by the Startup Genome as a shared pool of resources, generally located within a 62 mile radius around a center point in a given region. Resources typically include policymakers, accelerators, incubators, coworking spaces, educational institutions, and funding groups.

Forever Stuck in the Activation Phase

The Startup Genome’s ecosystem lifecycle consists of four phases, each with distinct characteristics and goals. These phases consist of activation, globalization, attraction, and integration. The activation phase is characterized by fewer than 1,000 startups with limited ecosystem experience, and face challenges like resource leakages (e.g. “brain drain”) to later stage ecosystems which make it difficult to grow an ecosystem in an activation stage. In order to move to the next phase, globalization, the ecosystem must achieve multiple $100M+ exits and attract national resource attention. Omaha, Nebraska is an example of a startup ecosystem that has been stuck in the activation phase for several decades with chronic false starts and setbacks resulting in poor performance.

Nebraska’s Economic Review

The recently released report entitled “Nebraska’s Economic Review” commissioned by the Aksarben Foundation and authored by Development Counsellors International paints a sobering picture of resource leakage (“brain drain”) in Nebraska’s startup ecosystems and the State’s inability to attract national resource attention.

The competition for talented workers has resulted in Nebraska losing its educated workforce to other states every year for over a decade resulting in a resource leakage of 68,156 jobs to other startup ecosystems keeping Nebraska’s startup ecosystems stuck in the activation stage. The loss of an educated workforce does represent a “brain drain” and is far more significant economically than simply an inconvenient truth. Access to skilled talent is a top consideration in startup and corporate location decisions. When making long-term decisions associated with managing a workforce, executives need evidence that a state’s current labor force and talent pipeline will meet their companies’ future talent needs over the next few decades.

Startups and companies with a need to grow high-paying jobs will be very reluctant to invest in states experiencing “brain drain.” All indications are that Nebraska has been experiencing “brain drain” for over a decade. As a result, Nebraska can’t attract the required national resource attention to move out of the activation stage when the State ranks 29th out of 51 in labor force growth over the past 5 years. More critically, Nebraska has experienced net negative domestic migration, meaning more people are leaving the state than moving in from other U.S states.

Unlocking Startup Ecosystem Activation

It’s imperative that stuck startup ecosystems find a new way to organically train and thereby increase the number of local entrepreneurs to reduce resource leakage and attract national resource attention. Clearly, decades of doing the same things over and over again aren’t working. It’s time for a new, innovative approach to solve startup ecosystem activation challenges. Thirty-one (31%) percent of Americans consider entrepreneurship, and ninety-nine (99%) percent of entrepreneurs never receive funding to pursue their dreams. The reality? Entrepreneurship is risky.

Introducing The saaskamp Community Startup

No Applications. No Cohorts. Founder. Friendly. Funding. The saaskamp Community Startup offers a no-cost, risk-free option for an aspiring or experienced entrepreneur to participate in a real, for-profit tech startup part-time while working their full time job, self-employed in gig work, working on their own startup, attending a university, or to develop real-world resume building experience for future employment. Anyone is welcome. By participating in saaskamp, you will naturally begin collaborating with others and working in groups to develop startup ideas including your own. As a result, you will find like-minded co-founders and team members that want to be part of your successful startup.

No Experience. No Problem. The saaskamp Community Startup takes an innovation first and technology second approach to building a startup. We’ll help you find a repeatable business model that generates revenue and attracts funding if you desire. Your curriculum will be tailored to your skills, interests, and experience level that begins with ideation and then progresses through market opportunity, overcoming buyer resistance, customer discovery & validation, value proposition design, testing business ideas, business model innovation strategy, business model generation; and ends with a minimum viable product (MVP) that generates revenue. We’ll even give you a $100,000 SAFE investment term sheet on day with a discount and no valuation cap one if you’d like. Together we can solve our startup ecosystem’s activation challenges.

What Inspires Us?

Rick Gregg August 25,2025 What do you think?

We frequently get asked the question “what sources of inspiration do we draw upon when thinking about the community, culture, and experience that we are creating at The saaskamp Community Startup?” Three immediately come to mind – Meow Wolf, Banana Ball, and The Fountainhead. All focus on disenfranchised creative individuals or groups of individuals that challenge the status quo. In our case, ninety-nine (99%) percent of entrepreneurs in any startup ecosystem are routinely shunned and shut out from social acceptance and funding opportunities. We are striving to disrupt the status quo in a very similar manner. Let’s examine these one by one. I encourage you to dig deeper if you really want to know about our story.

Meow Wolf

Luke Armstrong, who is a key collaborator of mine and The saaskamp Community Startup’s Chief Innovation Officer, told me about Meow Wolf early on during our initial efforts to put some form around saaskamp. I was immediately hooked. What is Meow Wolf?  Meow Wolf’s backstory is a pretty wild and creative one—it’s not a typical “startup” story at all. It began as an artist collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico around 2008, when a group of disenfranchised artists, musicians, and misfits wanted to make big, immersive art experiences but had no traditional gallery or museum willing to host them. They were routinely shunned by the status quo art community in Sante Fe. Today, Meow Wolf is one of the most famous art companies in the world. Want to know more? The Meow Wolf Orgin Story chronicles the jaw-dropping 10 year journey of an anarchic art collective into a multi-million dollar business.

Banana Ball

Yes. Banana Ball. What an incredible backstory. Banana Ball started in 2018 when a wild, fan-first experiment known as the Savannah Bananas, turned the sport of baseball into a circus of entertainment that blends sport, theater, and comedy. The Bananas invented their own fast-paced version of baseball: Banana Ball, with rules designed to keep games moving and fans engaged. The key innovation: Banana Ball is a new sport-entertainment hybrid aimed at the TikTok generation. 

Banana Ball players make money through a modest but steady salary from the Bananas organization, supported by ticket and merchandise revenue, with housing and travel covered. The real upside is the national exposure, creative freedom, and potential career opportunities that come from being part of one of the most talked-about teams in sports entertainment. The players become independent paid social media celebrities that can become more wealthy than many of their Major League Baseball (MLB) counterparts. 

Banana Ball breaks the status quo rules of baseball and the traditional league owner/player relationship. Most all of the players having been disenfranchised at one point in their careers by Major League Baseball. Today, The Bananas now sell out stadiums across the U.S., including several MLB stadiums, drawing comparisons to the Harlem Globetrotters. You can catch Banana Ball on several media outlets including ESPN. For more on the backstory, check out the five part documentary series on ESPN+ entitled Bananaland.

The Fountainhead

Anything Ayn Rand is compelling. The Fountainhead, Rand’s first commercial success, is the story of Howard Roark, the brilliant architect who insists on the right to pursue “my work, done my way” and dares to stand alone against the hostility of the second-hand souls who envy, hate, and try to destroy him. Twelve publishers rejected The Fountainhead before it was finally published in 1943. The Fountainhead became a best-selling novel which passionately defends individualism. Made into a movie in 1949 with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, this is a must-see for anyone who needs  inspiration to disrupt the status quo. You can get a free copy of the book and be sure to watch The Fountainhead movie.

Our inspiration is the soul of the culture, community, and experience we are creating at The saaskamp Community Startup. Won’t you join us? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

My Startup Ecosystem Journey

Rick Gregg July 30,2025 What do you think?

It’s been one year ago today since I embedded myself deep inside of the Omaha, Nebraska startup ecosystem. I wanted to know why ninety-nine (99%) percent of entrepreneurs in the ecosystem are routinely shunned and shut out from social acceptance and funding opportunities. First, a disclaimer: my comments are not meant to be critical of anyone and are based on hundreds of hours mentoring entrepreneurs, attending community events and investing in startups. Overall, participants in the ecosystem generally act with good intentions.

Entrepreneurs comprise the largest group of participants in the ecosystem and are given no voice. They’re invisible. Yet they are the economic engine that creates the value. Less than one percent (<1%) of entrepreneurs receive funding. They’re in the club. Or so they think. There are three main actors in any ecosystem: builders, funders, and entrepreneurs. The agendas of all are misaligned with each other. In some cases they conspire with each other to create greater misalignment and always to the detriment of the entrepreneur. Let’s take a deeper look at who the actors are and how they behave.

The Actors

1. Builders. Ecosystem community builders have the best intentions but no experience building or funding a startup. They listen to the funders who have an outsized role in influencing programs, without understanding the entrepreneurs jobs to be done. They are cheerleaders that are very protective of their position and can exert an outsized influence over the entire ecosystem without the background to do so while promoting and enforcing the interests of the status quo – all to the detriment of the entrepreneur. What is the status quo? The status quo comprises incubators, accelerators, startup studios, hackathons, pitch competitions, grants, cohorts, application processes, builder-funder programming; pre-seed, and seed funds, etc.
   
   
2. Funders. The objectives of the funders are completely misaligned with entrepreneurs. They play the odds and nothing else while placing a firewall between the entrepreneur and their access to capital, continually moving the investment decision goal post. Funders routinely force a startup to scale before they are ready. Failure is at a high rate and is for some inexplicable reason, acceptable to the funder while devastating to the entrepreneur. There is no lifeline and you are left on your own. Clearly, they do not understand the entrepreneurs jobs to be done.
   
   
3. Entrepreneurs. Early stage entrepremeurs aren’t given the correct programs, equitable funding and ongoing support to succeed by the builders and funders, yet most need to be an active participant in the ecosystem status quo to even have a slim chance at gaining social acceptance by the ecosystem in order to have any chance of obtaining funding. It’s a losing proposition for the majority of entrepreneurs who are the only group that can create value. The builders and funders seek to monitize the entrepreneur without regard to their success, and as a result, the trust level between the entrepreneur and the status quo is low.

Ecosystem Customer Discovery and Validation

The ecosystem builders and funders have combined to tell entrepreneurs what they need instead of asking them what they want. This is where I stepped in. I wanted to know if this same pattern existed elsewhere, or if it was just an Omaha thing. I became involved as a mentor and investor in one of the more popular accelerators in the Reno, Nevada and Boulder, Colorado ecosystems. These ecosystems are light years ahead of Omaha in their development. Did my observations apply equally across all three – Omaha, Reno, and Boulder? The answer was a resounding yes.

Spending over the last year deep in customer discovery and validation of these ecosystems revealed the severe painful, emmotional jobs to be done by both entrepreneurs and funders. These jobs can’t ever be satisfied by the status quo. The jobs to be done are obvious and plain on the surface, but are completely ignored by the status quo in order to protect their own interests. In many cases, they ignore the problem exists and routinely dismiss what they can plainly see. It’s like going to the store for ketchup and ignoring everything else you see while walking down the aisle. It’s also ironic – the status quo emphasizes the use of customer discovery and validation, but either isn’t capable of “getting out of the building” or doesn’t really believe in or realize its value.

The answer is in front of their face, but the friction of human inertia prevents acceptance of a new way of doing things. My detailed findings and analysis which fill many gigabytes of storage and a countless number of banker boxes full of notes, interviews and documents has led me to think about startup ecosystems in a new, innovative way based on the community startup concept.

The primary, over-arching characteristic of a community startup is to democratize innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone. EVERYONE. The behavior of early stage startup ecosystem builders and funders is completely mis-aligned with the real value creator – the entrepreneur. The saaskamp Community Startup is creating a new business model that removes the traditional builders and funders giving the entrepreneur the control they need to be successful. Won’t you join us? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Pitch Deck Theater

Rick Gregg June 19,2025 What do you think?

I’ve seen a lot of pitch decks and pitch competitions. As an investor myself, I am routinely unimpressed by all of them. Why? Spending your precious time on a pitch deck and continually participating in pitch competitions to raise non-dilutive funding is a symptom of avoiding the harder, but more important work of actually building something people want. Pitch decks all look alike – we’ve been erroneously taught they need to have a certain format, that they can’t be more than a few pages, that the order of the slides matter; and that they look a certain way with the right colors and fonts. We are told that if we do them just right, we’ll get funding creating a false sense of progress. There exists a cottage industry of paid pitch deck consultants that have the “secret pitch deck formula” to get you funded. Most every funder asks for and receives a pitch deck that looks like all the others and never gets read. They are being polite and have no interest in your startup. In the mean time, you’ll spend more time tweaking your deck because you are desperate. You’re afraid of being rejected if you don’t have one. You’ve been tricked into believing that without one you will never get funding.

No Pitch Deck Needed

Pitch decks and pitch competitions are an uneffective tool of the past and a waste of your time. At The saaskamp Community Startup we simply do not care about pitch decks or pitch competitions. We focus our time and energy on developing your idea into a product or service in a collaborative environment that solves an urgent and important need for your customer that generates real revenue for your startup. You will find your founding team by participating in The saaskamp Community Startup that shares your dreams and aspirations and wants to be part of a team to build out your product or service idea.

We’ll give you a $100,000 Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) on day one with a discount and NO valuation cap. You and your team’s progress will be transparently measured against The saaskamp Community Startup curriculum in a standardized pre-approved manner that is acceptable to all investors in our private wealth investment network. As a result, the relationship between the entrepreneur and funder is well known in advance preventing the “moving of the goalposts” by either the entrepreneur or investor. This approach provides an unambiguous funding path for the entrepreneur that results in a funded startup on a timeline controlled by the entrepreneur and supported by the investor. You will no longer have to spend 12 to 18 months or more diluting your efforts by chasing money. This allows you to focus your precious time on what’s really important – building your startup and not pitching for dollars. Say goodbye to the tired worn out past of pitch decks and pitch competitions. Get funding on your timeline. Won’t you join us today?

Founder. Friendly. Funding.

Rick Gregg April 21,2025 What do you think?

Protecting Your Idea

When you first join The saaskamp Community Startup you may bring your own product and/or service idea into the Community Startup for development by you and the community. Of course, you don’t need to have an idea to join The saaskamp Community Startup. If you bring an idea into the Community Startup, you will license your idea to the Community Startup on a non-exclusive basis for development thereby protecting your intellectual property from theft.

If you don’t have an idea, you can participate in the development of other community ideas. If you come up with your own idea while participating in the development of community ideas and that idea is sufficiently different from the ideas under consideration, you again will recieve a non-exclusive community license for community development.

Once all of the ideas are developed using the saaskamp curriculum, the community will vote on the idea that will be implemented by the Community Startup on a funded, for-profit basis. If your idea is selected, you will enter into an exclusive license arrangement with the Community Startup under well known transparent standardized terms. If your idea is not selected, you can continue your work as part of the Community Startup team or implement your idea with your own team. In return, you will be able to terminate the non-exclusive license Agreement with the Community Startup and recieve investment from the Community Startup to fund the implementation of your team’s idea.

Find Your Team

Finding a co-founder or startup team is nearly impossible given the traditional programming provided by most startup ecosystems. Social events, pitch competitions, hackathons, and other community events are transactional. As a result, there isn’t ample opportunity to meet and get to know an individual over a period of time to determine if you have any like minded interests that would enable you to work together daily in a startup environment.

The saaskamp Community Startup process and curriculum provides the ideal setting for you to meet and collaborate with like minded people that have complimentary skill sets in a real world startup over a period of time. Finding your team is an important benefit provided by The saaskamp Community Startup. Our approach will make your startup more attractive and valuable to the investment community – including our own direct to private wealth investment network.

Receive an Investment Commitment on Day One

You and your team’s progress will be transparently measured against The saaskamp Community Startup curriculum in a standardized pre-approved manner that is acceptable to all investors in our private wealth investment network. As a result, the relationship between the entrepreneur and funder is well known in advance preventing the “moving of the goalposts” by either the entrepreneur or investor. This approach provides an unambiguous funding path for the entrepreneur that results in a funded startup on a timeline controlled by the entrepreneur and supported by the investor. You will no longer have to spend 12 to 18 months or more diluting your efforts by chasing funding. This allows you to focus on building your startup immediately.

Get a $100,000 SAFE with a Discount and No Valuation Cap

The saaskamp Community Startup will provide you and your team with a $100,000 Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) on day one. With a SAFE, an investor provides funding for an early-stage company under an agreement that will convert the investment to actual shares in the company at a future date – during a “priced round,” when the company sells shares to new investors based on a negotiated valuation of the company.

The saaskamp Community Startup SAFE is a standard Y-Combinator “Discount Only” SAFE without a valuation cap and a 20% investor discount, giving the entrepreneur the most founder friendly version of the SAFE available. This SAFE Agreement is attached to a detailed, quantifyable Funding Execution Agreement that provides the standardized measurement criteria against the saaskamp Community Startup curriculum which needs to be reached before the funds can be released. Your Intellectual Property Agreement with The saaskamp Community Startup is also attached as part of the Funding Execution Agreement.

Onboarding Now

You can begin accruing participation shares today by simply registering with the saaskamp Community Startup. You will receive one (1) share for registering and given a seat on our Slack channel. Get timely information, ask questions and get answers; help us craft policy and begin working on our innovation and technology challenges. We can’t wait to see what we create as a startup community together.

Risk Free Entrepreneurship?

Rick Gregg March 25,2025 What do you think?

Considering Entrepreneurship?

Thirty-one (31%) of Americans consider entrepreneurship. The reality? Entrepreneurship is risky. We’re offering a risk-free option for an aspiring Entrepreneur to learn and participate in a real, for-profit tech startup part-time while working their full time job, working on their own startup, or to develop real-world resume building experience for future employment.

We Respect your Work-Life Balance

You are not going to get shamed or cast aside if you have professional and family obligations that may limit your participation in The saaskamp Community Startup once you sign-up. The saaskamp Community Startup is built around your schedule and available time. Proceed at your own pace. You can leave at any time, come back when your schedule permits, and pick up where you left off. You will always earn one (1) share for each hour you contribute to The saaskamp Community Startup.

We Will Teach You the Skills You Need

No experience. No problem. At The saaskamp Community Startup, we take an innovation first and technology second approach to building a startup. Our goal during the bootstrapping phase is to find a repeatable business model. You will learn from the premier thought leaders in the Lean Startup space and practice the following during the bootstrapping phase of the Community Startup before we build anything. You will receive a curriculum tailored for your skills, interests and experience level. We have beginners, experts and everything in between currently enrolled in saaskamp. Our curriculum is based on the following world class teachings on how to build a startup.

• Ideation – The Market Opportunity Navigator (Gruber & Tal)
• The Lean Startup (Blank & Reis)
• The Human Element – Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas (Nordgren & Schonthal)
• Customer Discovery and Validation (Blank & Dorf)
• Value Proposition Design (Osterwalder & Pigneur, et. al.)
• Testing Business Ideas (Bland & Osterwalder)
• Business Model Innovation Strategy (Amit & Zott)
• Business Model Generation (Osterwalder & Pigneur)
• Minimum Viable Product (Stevenson, Burnell & Fisher)

Onboarding Now

You can begin accruing participation shares today by simply registering with the saaskamp Community Startup. You will receive one (1) share for registering and given a seat on our Slack channel. Get timely information, ask questions and get answers; help us craft policy and begin working on our innovation and technology challenges. We can’t wait to see what we create as a startup community together.

What’s the BIG Idea?

Rick Gregg March 11,2025 What do you think?

What are We Going to Build?

One of the problems we have observed in working with aspiring entrepreneurs is they come into the startup world with a pre-concieved idea that never gets thoroughly tested. The Community Startup is open to all ideas. The more the better. We’ll identify the real Market Opportunities for the ideas that the Community Startup members have using the methodology developed by Gruber and Tal in their foundational teaching entitled “Where to Play”. We’ll take our time, do this together and then proceed with business model innovation; and customer discovery and validation. When we are done figuring this all out … we’ll build something really cool. But only then. And, we’ll actually decide together which idea is right for the Community Startup to execute on. We’ll also take other promising ideas and if a group decides they would rather work on something else, we’ll fund that work too.

Don’t Have an Idea? Can’t Decide What to Work On?

We have one of our own original saaskamp ideas that needs to find a Market Opportunity. Okay. It’s more technology that anything else right now. This is absolutely the classic solution looking for a problem. One of our more recent projects was the development of an open source Internet-of-Things (IoT) SaaS Framework for building an IoT SaaS Minimal Viable Product (MVP) quickly. The reference implementation uses a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W for the IoT device. The source code along with detailed documentation is available for free under the MIT open source license. We’ll throw our hats in the ring on this idea …. errr technology …. along with all the others. May the idea with the best Market Opportunity win! We’ll also have some workshops on ideation to help you get creative.

Phase One – Bootstrapping

We’re going to need to earn our way into the funding available to the Community Startup. In other words, we have to build value before we can fund execution. How do we do this? Through ideation and an exploration of the Market Opportunity. We’ll also learn how to apply several of the leading startup methodologies to discover and create the following:

• Ideation
• Market Opportunity
• Innovative Business Model
• Customer Profile & Value Proposition
• Customer Discovery & Validation
• Business Model Canvas
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Interested in exploring entrepreneurship with little downside risk while earning equity? The majority owned Community Startup may be the answer for you while staying in your current job. Sign up today. In the mean-time if you want to get a head start on where we are going, register for the free 6 week on-line course entitled “Find the right markets for your innovation – A tool for entrepreneurs and innovators for choosing which markets to play in”. We will use this methodology to evaluate all of our ideas so that as a community we can make an informed decision on Where to Play! We can’t wait to see what we create as a startup community together.

Democratizing Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Everyone

Rick Gregg March 06,2025 What do you think?

Opportunity for All

The saaskamp Community Startup is a funded, for-profit majority community owned and democratically controlled early-stage Omaha technology startup. The Community Startup bridges the gap for the Ninety-Nine (99%) of aspiring Entrepreneurs that never receive funding to pursue their American Dream.

Thirty-one (31%) of Americans consider entrepreneurship. The reality? Entrepreneurship is risky. We’re offering a risk-free option for an aspiring Entrepreneur to learn and participate in a real, for-profit tech startup part-time while working their full time job, working on their own startup, or to develop real-world resume building experience for future employment. Established businesses in our community can participate as well. And, from day one everyone earns real ownership when they participate – whether you are learning the ropes or building our future economic engine. We will all share the outcome as a community.

We take an innovation first, technology second approach to building a tech startup. The steps you take on your saaskamp Community Startup journey will follow what you would typically expect in a startup: bootstrapping, launching, and scaling.  You can just participate in your area of interest or learn other startup skills that you would like to acquire. We will create an individualized, unambiguous plan for your journey that meets your needs. You can come and go as you please and are always welcome. We expect that you will find your perfect fit whether its with The saasmvp Project, The Community Startup or your own startup. You can even work on your own startup with our support while contributing to the saaskamp Community Startup.  

Proposed Ownership Structure

Subject to agreement by the participants in the majority owned Community Startup and in consideration of the overall goal of democratizing innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone, we’d like to propose to you the following ownership structure for your initial consideration.

• We must establish value for everyone’s contributions. We propose the following: one (1) hour = $100 = one (1) share. You will begin accruing ownership the minute you decide to participate. Participants will receive one (1) share for each hour of participation. Established community businesses that wish to participate will receive one (1) share for each $100 of your product or services that are consumed by the Community Startup. We are working with our lawyers and tax professionals to defer exposure on any share taxes until an equity conversion, revenue distribution or exit event occurs.

• Initial ownership. The community participants will initially own 60% of the Community Startup. Participants will receive a normal and customary uncapped Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) with a discount. 40% of the Community Startup will be owned by The saasmvp Project and it’s Limited Partners (LPs) using a Venture Debt Agreement with Community Startup friendly terms.  

• 100% community ownership. Once the Venture Debt obligation has been retired, the 40% ownership held by The saasmvp Project and it’s Limited Partners will be released back to the Community Startup participants.

Proposed Control Structure

Subject to agreement by the participants in the majority owned Community Startup and in consideration of the overall goal of democratizing innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone, we’d like to propose to you the following member managed control structure for your initial consideration.

• Community management. We propose empowering the participants of the Community Startup with the following control mechanisms: board representation, hiring of the management team, personnel decisions (including the management team), policy decisions, business and strategy decisions; and funding and exit decisions.

• Member obligations. With the overall goal of democratizing innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone, the participants of the Community Startup will develop the Code of Conduct and Contribution Guidelines for all members of the Community Startup. We will help each other and succeed together.

Open to Everyone Regardless of Age, Skill Sets & Experience

Are you looking for an opportunity to improve your life and learn new skills in a tech startup? We will find a role for you. Are you one of the following? Register with the saaskamp Community Startup today.

• Full time employees looking for a change while keeping their job
• Underemployed professionals looking to grow and use their skills
• Older discriminated against experienced professionals. We need you!
• College & high school students who want hands on experience
• New, aspiring and experienced Entrepreneurs just like you
• Community businesses and non-profits
• Anyone looking for an opportunity to improve their life and learn new skills

Onboarding Now

You can begin accruing participation shares today by simply registering with the saaskamp Community Startup. You will receive one (1) share for registering and given a seat on our Slack channel. Get timely information, ask questions and get answers; help us craft policy and begin working on our innovation and technology challenges.

In the next few weeks, we will be working to educate the community on this innovative approach to democratizing innovation and entrepreneurship for everyone. Our first order of business is obtaining agreement by the participants of the Community Startup regarding the ownership and control structure. Once this has been completed, the required legal agreements will be made available on our website for registered members. We are also working diligently to roll out a comprehensive onboarding experience and can’t wait to see what we create as a startup community together.

It’s Time to Call Your Own Shot

Rick Gregg February 25,2025 What do you think?

Introducing The saaskamp Community Startup

Unsure about the future? Join the saaskamp Community Startup. The Community Startup is a funded early stage tech startup majority owned and managed by you, the participant. You can contribute to the Community Startup while keeping your current full-time job, earn ownership for every hour of effort and attain a full-time paid position with benefits if you wish. You can also take what you learned and create your own startup. We’ll even help you get funding for your own pursuits. And, you’ll still retain ownership for what you contributed to the Community Startup.

Motivation

  “I have this problem. Everyone else MUST have this problem since I do. I’m going to solve this problem today. The Total Available Market (TAM) is enormous! Someone else is going to beat me to this. I must act now!” I run into this type of thinking frequently in my work with aspiring Entrepreneurs. Always, it seems, a solution is looking for a problem. Going fast and breaking things is simply useless if you are not moving in the right direction. If you are not pursuing a valuable market opportunity, or not playing in the right field, you are wasting your time, energy and resources … and those of others too. Finding the right direction is not obvious at all. Your unique abilities and resources can address different needs for different sets of customers, thereby creating several potential market opportunities for your venture and a set of possible paths for your entrepreneurial race.

Internet-of-Things (IoT) SaaS MVP Framework

One of our more recent exercises at The saasmvp Project was the development of an open source Internet-of-Things (IoT) SaaS Framework for building an IoT SaaS Minimal Viable Product (MVP) quickly. The reference implementation uses a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W for the IoT device. The source code along with detailed documentation is available for free under the MIT open source license.

We absolutely have no idea if the cool technology we built is useful for anyone. We haven’t identified a market opportunity and one may not even exist. If we do identify a market, how will we know its the right market? Who is going to fall over themselves to pay us money?

What’s the Market Opportunity?

What’s the first step in our Community Startup? Identifying the Market Opportunity using the methodology developed by Gruber and Tal in their foundational teaching entitled “Where to Play”. We’ll take our time, do this together and then proceed with business model innovation; and customer discovery and validation. When we are done figuring this all out … we’ll build something really cool. But only then.

Put me in Coach!

Interested in controlling your own destiny, learning valuable skills and owning a piece of the action along the way in a majority owned Community Startup with little risk? We have the answer for you while staying in your current job. The Community Startup is open to anyone of all skill sets, experience levels and age. Sign up today. In the mean-time if you want to get a head start on where we are going, register for the free six (6) week on-line course entitled “Find the right markets for your innovation – A tool for entrepreneurs and innovators for choosing which markets to play in”. We can’t wait to see what we create as a startup community together.