the board
ranked by committed monthly dollars. skin in the game is the only algorithm.
collectively-owned AI bookkeeping and back-office agents
we spend $2,100/month across three locations on quickbooks, bill.com, gusto, and an accountant who still needs us to manually reconcile everything. AI can do 90% of this but every AI bookkeeping startup wants $500/seat/month and locks in our data.
a knowledge base we actually own — no notion, no confluence, no vendor lock-in
our entire company brain lives in notion. eight people, $96/month, and if notion gets acquired or raises prices again we lose everything. we've tried self-hosting wiki tools and they all rot within 6 months because nobody maintains them.
supply chain visibility for small businesses — know your suppliers' suppliers
when avian flu hit our egg supplier's supplier, we found out when the delivery truck didn't show up. we had zero visibility into our supply chain beyond the guy we write checks to. enterprise tools for this cost $50K/year.
ai negotiation agents for vendor contracts — collective bargaining for small business
every small business negotiates vendor contracts alone. the landlord knows we need the space, the software vendor knows switching costs are brutal, and we lack the data to know if we're getting ripped off. i see it in my clients every day.
cooperatively-owned cybersecurity monitoring — neighborhood watch for hackers
our practice handles HIPAA-protected data and we're a constant phishing target. a real security operations center costs $5K-$50K/month. we have nothing except prayers and a firewall from 2019. 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses and the average breach costs $120K.
community wildfire early warning — owned by the communities that need it
fire insurance tripled in three years. enterprise wildfire monitoring costs $100K/year. our county notification system is a phone tree that's 20 minutes behind reality. by the time we know about a fire, it's already too late to save equipment.
route optimization and dispatch that actually works for small delivery companies
our routing software is built for UPS-scale operations and costs $3,500/month. it doesn't understand rural new mexico — dirt roads, acequia crossings, customers who aren't home on tuesdays. we need optimization that speaks our language, not manhattan's.
precision agriculture co-op — farming by the numbers, owned by farmers
john deere owns our tractor data and charges us to access it. precision ag tools cost $15K/year and they're built for 10,000-acre corporate farms, not our 800 acres. we generate data that feeds their models and we get nothing back.
donor management and grant tracking that doesn't cost more than a staff position
salesforce nonprofit cloud is $48/user/month and requires a consultant to configure. bloomerang is $359/month for basic features. we're a food bank — every dollar on software is a dollar not feeding families. and when the grant deadline hits, we're copy-pasting between four systems.
shared scheduling and dispatch for trades — HVAC, plumbing, electrical
our dispatch system costs $3,200/month, the mobile app crashes constantly, and when a tech calls in sick the whole schedule falls apart. built for national chains, not a 24-person shop.
CSA and farm-share management that isn't a spreadsheet
120 members, 40 different share configurations, 3 pickup locations, crop rotation planning, and it's all in google sheets. every CSA manager i know has the same problem. the few tools that exist cost $500/month and target 1,000+ member operations.
compliance automation for small healthcare and finance — HIPAA/PCI without the consultant
HIPAA compliance consulting costs $15K/year. PCI compliance for our small payment processing is another $5K. we're four providers — we can't afford dedicated compliance staff, but the penalties for getting it wrong are existential.
appointment booking and client management for service businesses — no per-seat scam
vagaro, fresha, square appointments — they all start cheap and then it's $1,100/month across two locations once you add inventory, email marketing, and the 'premium' features that should have been included. and they own our client list.
project management for construction — bids, schedules, and subs in one place
procore is $375/month minimum and built for commercial builders. i'm doing residential custom homes with a 15-person crew and 20 subs. i need bid tracking, scheduling, and sub coordination — not enterprise resource planning for a $200M GC.
peer-to-peer energy trading for community solar — fair pricing, owned by the community
community solar developers capture most of the value. members get a small discount but own nothing. our rural community has 40 solar installations and no way to trade energy fairly between neighbors. the utility controls everything.
a shared calendar + scheduling tool for small teams
calendly costs us $20/seat/month for basically a form and a calendar. google calendar is free but we don't want our scheduling data inside google's surveillance apparatus. we want something clean we own.
a slack replacement we actually own
slack costs us $15/user/month and raised prices 30% last year. we have zero recourse when they change terms, break features, or go down for 6 hours. we are not customers — we are hostages.
a notion/confluence alternative with no vendor lock-in
notion has our entire company knowledge base and raised prices again. if they get acquired or go under, we lose everything. the data export is garbage. we need something we own.
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