Sabastian Hunt is in the market to rent a house in Midtown Omaha. 

But the recent University of Nebraska at Omaha grad isn’t in the market for himself—he’s looking for a group of four to six entrepreneurs.

Hunt is trying something different. An accelerator without some traditional means: no funding, no offices. The funding comes from their own savings. The office comes in the form of a shared startup house.

It’s called Year of the Startup. Applications are open through June and move-in is September 3. 

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Each month for a year, residents will pay $833 as if they’re paying rent, but all rent will be returned at the end of the year to allow individuals to start their companies. 

Individuals will leave the house with a minimum of $10,000 in startup capital. Grants, partnerships and a 3 percent stake in the companies will help cover costs. Year of the Startup is a nonprofit, so the need to turn a profit isn’t there, Hunt said.

Hunt admits it sounds like a different idea, and that’s because it is. 

“Accelerator programs offer some sort of educational component and seed funding, but how do we offer that without having any money?” he said. “This is the thing that makes this interesting and different from anything else.

“You pay us money every month and then it all gets returned at the end so you have up to $10,000 for really early-stage funding.”

The accelerator still has a network of mentors, in-house web dev and graphic designers and occasional guest speakers. Curriculum will center on the Kauffman Foundation’s Ice House entrepreneurship program.

Hunt said entrepreneurs will also benefit from living together. 

He said the economy of scale and sharing overhead costs will make it easier for businesses to launch while still learning and growing from interacting with one another.

The startups don’t necessarily have to have a tech focus— Hunt wants to have a mix of services, software and products.

Since Year of the Startup is a nonprofit it can measure return on investment differently. That means ROI companies can focus on social entrepreneurship or helping the community in some way, he said. Job creation and economic impact are also measures of success, not just profits. 

Hunt, an economics major, studied some facets of new urbanism and said he hopes companies would contribute to Omahans. Things like creating a company to take advantage of rooftops by creating green roofs or outdoor basketball courts on top of apartment buildings.

“It would take underproductive things that make Omaha a more fun place to live,” he said.

Another applicant, for instance, said the city can only demolish so many houses a year because of the lack of companies, and this applicant wants to create a demolition company to help accelerate that process so dilapidated homes don’t sit in neighborhoods for months.

Next year, he hopes to open a startup house in North Omaha that stipulates applicants must locate their business within the bounds of North Omaha or must somehow serve North Omaha.

“We can build a vibrant business community in that section of the city and everyone can benefit from the positive spillover effects created,” the website states. “Furthermore, we can select for/encourage socially conscious models and practices which can contribute to the accomplishment of broader policy objectives.”