how destroysaas itself works
if we're going to tell you that ownership and transparency matter, we should start with ourselves.
what it is today
destroysaas is a personal project. it was started by ara t. howard — a software engineer who has spent 30 years building tools for other people and wants to see small businesses stop renting software they should own.
there is no corporation behind this. no venture capital. no board of directors. no investors to pay back. right now it's one person with a domain name, a codebase, and a thesis.
we think that's worth being honest about.
why it's not an LCA yet
we tell every cell that forms through this platform to organize as an LCA — a Limited Cooperative Association with real legal standing. so why isn't destroysaas itself one?
because premature formalization kills projects. forming a legal entity before you have members, revenue, and a working product is theater. it's optimizing for structure before you've proven the idea.
the platform needs to work first. real businesses need to submit real ideas. real cells need to form. real software needs to ship. once there's something worth governing, the governance will formalize.
what we're considering
the right structure for destroysaas itself is an open question. the options on the table:
LCA
eat our own cooking. destroysaas becomes a cooperative owned by the businesses and cells that use it. the platform belongs to its participants.
non-profit
destroysaas operates as infrastructure — a public good that facilitates cooperative formation. no profit motive, funded by membership fees or grants.
B-corp
a for-profit entity with a legal mandate to serve stakeholders, not just shareholders. sustainable revenue model with accountability baked in.
stay informal
keep it as a personal project with open-source code and radical transparency. no legal entity, no overhead, no governance theater.
the decision will be made publicly, with input from the people who are actually using the platform. if you have opinions, we want to hear them.
how it's funded
right now, destroysaas is funded by sweat equity. one person's time, paid for by one person's savings. there are no investors, no grants, and no revenue.
the long-term model is a small platform fee on cell treasury contributions — enough to keep the lights on, not enough to create a profit motive that conflicts with the mission. the exact number will be set transparently and subject to collective input once there are cells to consult.
if destroysaas ever takes outside money, it will be disclosed publicly. if it ever changes structure, that will be disclosed too. the thesis is that transparency scales better than control.
the code
the destroysaas platform is open-source. you can read every line of code that runs this site. there are no private repos, no hidden services, and no proprietary components.
this isn't just ideology — it's insurance. if destroysaas as a project disappears tomorrow, anyone can fork the code and keep going. the platform practices the same fork freedom it preaches.
destroysaas is a personal project today. it might become a cooperative, a non-profit, or something else entirely. what it won't become is a company that extracts from the people it claims to serve. that's the one thing we've decided.