The Journey
Eight years of lessons learned, partnerships forged, and a vision refined — from NH Rocks to a platform designed to change how communities everywhere connect visitors to place.
Where We Started
"New Hampshire didn't need more marketing. It needed a better way to connect people to the incredible places, businesses, and experiences that were already here."
In 2017, NH Rocks began as a labor of love — a determination to build the most comprehensive directory of what makes New Hampshire worth exploring. The first two years were spent traveling the state, photographing hidden gems, and painstakingly cataloging over 4,000 listings from restaurants and trails to local artisans and historic sites.
It wasn't about inventing something new. It was about shining a light on what was already there — and making it easier for visitors and residents alike to find it.
We learned by doing. Two rounds of custom code that didn't work. A no-code stack (Airtable and Softr) that we outgrew within months. A full rebuild in Bubble that taught us we'd gotten ahead of ourselves — too many features, not enough focus on what people actually needed.
But along the way, we built something real: a media library of thousands of images, a network of partnerships across the state, and a deep understanding of what works — and what doesn't — when you're trying to build technology that serves communities.
Unofficial Pass is what happens when you take everything you've learned and build it right.
The Journey
Founded with a mission to celebrate New Hampshire's businesses, trails, and hidden gems. The first two years were spent traveling the state, building a visual library, and collecting over 4,000 listings from across New Hampshire.
Launched the Locals Card membership program with resident verification and local business participation. Hundreds of members joined in the first 30 days, saving real money on everyday purchases — proof that the model worked.
Partnered with Stay Work Play to produce a digital concert and auction to raise awareness around voting and civic engagement among young people. A first taste of what happens when you combine community, technology, and live events.
When the pandemic hit, we made a choice: support local businesses through the crisis rather than chase growth. Pivoted to business services, helping restaurants, shops, and venues survive. Grew 300% by putting community first.
During the darkest days of COVID, we took the show on the road — hosting remote concerts at venues across New Hampshire to support the art scene and keep people engaged when live gatherings were impossible.
Completed MBA at Southern New Hampshire University with an academic framework built directly around the eTourism for Development model. Every lesson learned from NH Rocks now grounded in economic development theory.
Produced an all-day fundraising music festival for music education at Twin Barns Brewery in Meredith. The Governor showed up. Hundreds attended. It was beautiful, well-organized, and proved we could execute large-scale community events from start to finish.
Sereno, Inc. was established as a community economic development nonprofit. NH Rocks transitioned under Sereno's broader mission of building the infrastructure communities need to thrive.
Joined the Bureau of Economic Affairs shortly after Harvest Fest. Gained invaluable insight into how state economic development works from the inside. Left in 2024 to refocus on building Sereno and Unofficial Pass.
After leaving the BEA, took time to get organized and execute with renewed focus. Applying everything learned — from NH Rocks, the MBA, and state government experience — to build Unofficial Pass the right way.
Taking everything we've learned — the partnerships, the database, the mistakes, the wins — and building Unofficial Pass as a refined, focused platform designed to scale beyond New Hampshire. Development is underway. Partnerships are forming. The work continues.
Proof We Can Execute
An all-day music festival for music education. Live performances, local vendors, community support. The Governor showed up. And we pulled it off — from concept to execution, soup to nuts.
What We've Learned
Eight years of trial, error, and iteration taught us what works — and what doesn't — when you're trying to build technology that serves real communities. Here's what we know now.
Business owners won't maintain another directory listing. But travelers will eagerly build itineraries of places they love. Start with the itinerary builder — let users create the content. When businesses see their names showing up in travelers' plans, they'll claim their listings and pay the platform fee.
Constantly sourcing and updating events is a challenge we haven't cracked yet. Event ticketing for locals would be ideal, but maintaining a current event calendar requires resources we don't have. For now, we focus on what we can sustain: places, itineraries, and experiences that don't expire weekly.
We learned the hard way that the best path forward isn't to replace what exists — it's to complement it. Work with NH Made for marketplace logistics. Collaborate with Granite State Ambassadors for activity curation. Build relationships, not rivalries.
Harvest Fest taught us that when you deliver — when you actually pull off a large-scale, well-organized event from start to finish — people notice. The Governor showed up. Vendors came back. Community members trusted us. Trust isn't built with promises. It's built by doing the work.
Who We Work With
Unofficial Pass doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's being built alongside the organizations that have spent years serving New Hampshire's communities, visitors, and economy. These are our partners.
Fostering the power of shopping local
NH Made is a nonprofit that champions New Hampshire's local producers, artisans, and service providers. With physical locations in Portsmouth and at I-95 rest areas, they've built a trusted marketplace for locally-made goods — from handcrafted wooden bowls to artisanal foods, wines, and craft beers.
Their mission aligns perfectly with ours: every dollar spent on a New Hampshire product returns three times more money to the local economy. We've established a standing partnership where NH Made will handle the purchasing and logistics for the marketplace side of Unofficial Pass. We bring the platform and the audience. They bring the products, the fulfillment, and the trust.
We're exploring ways to solve last-mile deliverability for local goods through this partnership — making it easier for visitors and residents to support New Hampshire businesses, whether they're staying in Portsmouth or passing through the White Mountains.
Welcoming the world to NH since 1996
The Granite State Ambassadors are New Hampshire's volunteer tour guides and hospitality corps. Over 300 certified volunteers serve 20,000+ hours annually at welcome centers, special events, and the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, personally assisting over 100,000 visitors each year.
We don't have an official partnership yet, but we're friendly with their leadership and hopeful that — over time, as we demonstrate that we're not a competitor to state tourism efforts — they'll be able to support our work. Our vision: Granite State Ambassadors become the main curators for in-state activities on Unofficial Pass, sharing the tours their volunteers lead and the insider knowledge they've built over nearly three decades of welcoming visitors.
Ambassadors provide $5.4 million in hospitality value through volunteer service. Unofficial Pass could amplify their reach by giving them a digital platform to share itineraries, hidden gems, and authentic New Hampshire experiences with visitors before they even arrive.
Attracting & retaining young people in NH
Stay Work Play is a nonprofit dedicated to making New Hampshire a top destination for young talent. They focus on the challenges that matter most to 20- and 30-somethings: affordable housing, workforce development, work-life balance, and creating a welcoming, inclusive community for people of color.
We partnered with Stay Work Play in 2019 to produce NH Rocks the Vote — a digital concert and auction to raise awareness around voting and civic engagement among young people. It was our first taste of what happens when you bring community, technology, and purpose together in one place.
Unofficial Pass is designed to help young people discover and engage with their communities — the exact population Stay Work Play works to attract and retain. If the platform succeeds in making New Hampshire more discoverable and accessible, it becomes a tool that supports their mission.
Where We're Going
"What we're building here — a platform that connects people to place through itineraries, local knowledge, and community-driven discovery — works anywhere there are communities worth exploring."
New Hampshire is where we prove it. But the model scales. Unofficial Pass for Vermont. Unofficial Pass for the Adirondacks. Unofficial Pass for coastal Maine. Anywhere there's a tourism economy generating value that could be redirected back into the communities that sustain it.
We're not building a directory. We're building the infrastructure that lets residents profit from the knowledge they already have, lets visitors discover the places locals actually love, and lets communities reinvest tourism revenue into housing, transit, and the things that make a place worth visiting in the first place.
We have the database. We have the media library. We have the partnerships. We have the lessons learned. Now we're building it right — starting with the itinerary builder, proving the model works, and scaling from there.