Sereno, Inc. — Community Economic Development
We are a nonprofit community economic development organization working at the intersection of technology, tourism, and place-based investment — building the infrastructure New Hampshire needs from the ground up.
Our Purpose
"New Hampshire doesn't need another government program. It needs infrastructure that works for people — owned by the community, built from the ground up, funded by the economy already moving through it."
Sereno is a nonprofit community economic development entity. We build, steward, and deploy technology and place-based projects that close the gap between what communities need and what government moves fast enough to provide. Our model is simple: the tourism economy generates real value. We create a platform that captures a sliver of that value — transparently, through a platform fee rather than a tax — and reinvests it into the housing, transportation, and community infrastructure that makes a place worth visiting in the first place. We build independently, prove the model in the market, and believe the strongest partnerships are the ones you earn — not the ones you ask for before you've demonstrated anything worth partnering with.
We build platforms that work independently of government — faster, community-accountable, and designed to be better than whatever the state would build on its own timeline. When we're good enough, partnership follows. We don't wait for permission to start.
Our physical projects follow New Urbanist design principles: walkable, mixed-use, economically inclusive, and rooted in the specific character of each place they're built.
Residents aren't just beneficiaries of our platform — they're participants. Savings flow directly to households. Locals build and monetize experiences. Community members share in the upside.
Our physical centers integrate permaculture design, sustainable building methods, and renewable energy — not as an afterthought, but as the operating system for community life.
Not the brochure version. Not the government directory. The real New Hampshire — where to stay, what to do, and the itineraries that locals actually run — all in one place. Book it, discover it, build it, sell it.
The Platform
Unofficial Pass replaces the scattered, outdated patchwork of state tourism websites with a single living platform — a directory, a booking engine, a social discovery tool, and a creator marketplace. Built for visitors who want the real experience. Built for locals who want to share it and get paid.
A comprehensive, always-current directory of everything New Hampshire has to offer — lodging, dining, attractions, trails, events, and local businesses. Not algorithm-sorted by ad spend. Curated for quality, searchable by vibe, filterable by what actually matters to the traveler in front of you.
Replaces State Tourism SitesLodging, event tickets, experiences, tours — booked in one place with a single transaction layer. Unofficial Pass runs the commerce independently, with a small processing fee that funds what taxes can't. Residents who join as members see that fee reduced after five transactions per month — turning everyday use into a direct savings benefit.
Lodging · Tickets · ExperiencesBuild a trip the way you'd actually want to take it. String together stays, meals, hikes, and hidden stops into a sharable itinerary that lives on Unofficial Pass. Browse what others have built. Discover places you'd never find in a guidebook. Follow local adventurers whose taste you trust. This is where the platform becomes somewhere people go just to be there — not just to plan a trip.
Social Discovery · Early Instagram EnergyLocal adventurers build itineraries and sell them. A weekend in the White Mountains from someone who actually lives there. A seacoast day from a Portsmouth local who knows every back road. Travelers buy access. Creators get paid. The platform gets better every time someone who knows a place shares it.
Locals Get PaidUnofficial Pass is designed to complement and eventually collaborate with state tourism efforts — not replace or compete with them. We're building the platform, the audience, and the proof of concept first. The strongest partnerships are built on demonstrated value, not good intentions. We earn our seat at the table by building something worth sitting down for.
Collaboration Over CompetitionNew Hampshire residents join for $5/month, verified through their driver's license. After five transactions on the platform, platform fees drop. The savings are real — marginal per transaction but meaningful over time. Aggregated across thousands of residents, it becomes a genuine increase in household disposable income. Without a single new tax.
$5/mo · No New TaxesThe Model
Unofficial Pass works because it aligns the incentives of visitors, residents, businesses, and the state — and routes the margin toward community development instead of overhead.
A visitor books a stay, buys an event ticket, or purchases a local itinerary through Unofficial Pass. A small platform processing fee is applied — transparent, consistent, and far below typical booking platform fees.
An NH resident with a $5/month membership transacts the same way — but after five transactions per month, their platform fee drops. Marginal per transaction. Real over time. No new tax required.
As transaction volume and community engagement grow, Unofficial Pass becomes a natural complement to state tourism efforts — more nimble, more current, and more community-connected. Formal partnerships develop organically from demonstrated shared value.
Platform revenue flows back to Sereno for community reinvestment: middle-class housing, multi-modal transportation, and purpose-built community centers developed around New Urbanist design and permaculture principles.
The Creator Economy
Local adventurers, food writers, trail runners, weekend explorers — anyone with genuine knowledge of a place can build an itinerary on Unofficial Pass and list it in the marketplace. Every time a visitor purchases access, the creator gets paid.
Unofficial Pass isn't just a planning tool — it's a place people come to discover. Browse itineraries from local builders. Follow creators whose taste matches yours. Save stops to your own collections. It's a living, breathing map of New Hampshire built by the people who actually live there.
The best version of any destination isn't in a brochure — it's in the head of someone who's been going there for years. Unofficial Pass transfers that knowledge into a marketplace where locals keep the upside.
Creating and sharing itineraries is free. The platform takes a small percentage only when an itinerary sells. No upfront cost, no listing fees, no subscription required to participate as a creator.
Join the Platform
Unofficial Pass is open to anyone. But for New Hampshire residents, membership turns an already-useful platform into a direct financial benefit — verified by your driver's license, priced less than your morning coffee.
Why This Model
New Hampshire's anti-tax culture isn't a bug — it's a feature that forces creative solutions. Unofficial Pass is designed specifically for NH's political and economic reality.
A processing fee on voluntary transactions is fundamentally different from a tax — legally, politically, and practically. Businesses choose to list on the platform. Visitors choose to book through it. The fee is transparent, consistent, and tied directly to a transaction. No legislation required to impose it. No government entity controls where it goes.
Because Unofficial Pass is operated by Sereno, a nonprofit, platform revenue cannot be redirected by a government budget process to unrelated purposes. The community development mission is structurally protected — not dependent on a legislative session, a budget cycle, or a political relationship going the right way.
A 2025 BEA feasibility study found that a statewide Convention and Visitors Bureau isn't currently viable — in part because there's no clear funding mechanism in a low-tax state. Unofficial Pass builds the platform, audience, and transaction infrastructure that makes that conversation possible. We see ourselves as part of the solution, building the foundation that a future statewide effort can grow from.
Meetings, conventions, and tourism don't just need marketing — they need infrastructure. Middle-class housing for the workforce that runs hospitality. Multi-modal transit so attendees can move around. Community centers that make a place worth coming back to. Unofficial Pass funds those things directly, closing the loop between tourism revenue and community investment.
On the Ground
Sereno builds credibility through visible, community-good work — before asking anything of anyone. These are our current projects.
In the early 1900s, Willand Pond was a thriving community destination — dance halls, roller-skating rinks, bowling alleys — accessible by trolley car. When the trolleys died, the park died with them. We're bringing it back. Not to what it was, but to what it should be: a beautifully maintained, historically interpreted, community-owned outdoor space that's as good on a Tuesday in November as it is in August. Phase one is cleanup, interpretation, and community activation. Phase two is something bigger.
Get InvolvedThe technology layer that makes everything else possible. We're building Unofficial Pass as a purpose-built community tourism platform for New Hampshire — starting with the directory and booking infrastructure, moving toward the itinerary builder and creator marketplace, and eventually providing the funding mechanism that makes a statewide CVB viable without a new tax. Development is underway. Early partnerships forming now.
Partner with UsWho We Are
Sereno, Inc. is a community economic development nonprofit based in New Hampshire. We were founded on a single idea: that the tourism economy already moving through this state generates more than enough value to fund the community infrastructure that makes it possible — if you build the right platform to capture and redirect it.
We are not a government agency. We are not a tourism marketing firm. We are a community-owned technology and development entity that believes infrastructure should be democratically held, transparently funded, and genuinely accountable to the people who live in the places we build.
Our founder holds an MBA in Community Economic Development. The concept behind Unofficial Pass has been in active development since 2017 — through a pandemic, through a state government collaboration, and through the kind of sustained effort that only comes from someone who considers this their life's work.
Leadership
Sereno is governed by a volunteer board of New Hampshire professionals who bring expertise across finance, law, technology, and community development.
We're looking for early partners, advisors, local creators, and community members who believe New Hampshire's best years are ahead of it. If that's you, let's talk.