Business Plan

The business case

Stamped is the AI-drafted permit packet for the small contractors and DIY homeowners that enterprise permit software won't price for. $99 per packet, flat. Five Accela cities at launch. $132,000 honest seed.

The Problem

The 1–5-employee residential contractor and the DIY homeowner share one bad option: file a permit yourself and absorb a 30–60% first-submission rejection rate, with two-to-six weeks of back-and-forth on each rejection. The other option — a human expediter at $300–$1,500 per permit — is unaffordable for the segment that most needs it.

Existing software doesn't solve this. PermitFlow raised $91M to serve enterprise GCs at $50K+/yr contracts. GreenLite targets commercial. The 1–5-employee residential segment was priced out of the category.

Target Customer

The Austin-pilot wedge is the residential electrician, plumber, HVAC tech, or remodeler with one to five employees, doing 25 to 60 permits per year, in an Accela-connected city. The secondary segment is the DIY homeowner doing one major remodel — different volume, same pain. Both segments share the one trait that matters: they will not sign a $50K/yr enterprise contract.

Solution

Stamped drafts a reviewer-ready permit packet in three steps. The user inputs the address and scope. Stamped resolves the jurisdiction, code edition, and reviewer checklist for that city. We pre-answer the inspector flags we've seen, cite the relevant code section, and assemble the form set with attachments. The user reviews the packet, signs as the named submitter, and files it with the city. Stamped never submits on the user's behalf.

Pricing is $99 per packet, flat. No subscription. No per-seat tax. Per-packet billing avoids the trap that broke prior trade-pro SaaS attempts: the contractor with 25 permits a year does not buy a 12-month seat license.

Why we win

An empty wedge between PermitFlow and Zermit AI

PermitFlow ($91M, enterprise) explicitly skips the SMB-trade-pro segment. Zermit AI's homeowner-marketplace tilt leaves the trade-pro voice unclaimed. Stamped occupies a genuinely empty wedge.

Compounding switching costs that a marketplace can't copy

Personal reuse library plus reviewer-checklist depth compound for repeat operators (25–60 permits/year). Zermit's homeowner-marketplace flywheel pulls them toward ratings and matching; ours pulls toward operator retention.

Pricing that's viable on a $132K seed

$99/packet sits structurally below the $300–$600 expediter floor while remaining unit-economically viable on a $132K honest seed. No per-seat scaling tax.

Honest risks

  • Zermit AI launched March 2026 in 9 cities, including 2 of our targets. Competitive pressure is in-market, not theoretical.
  • Regulatory surface drove the seed from $35K to $132K. UPL exposure across five states, ICC code copyright, and Colorado AI Act compliance are real line items, not afterthoughts.
  • Founder-operator with municipal-permitting / expediter / Accela-ecosystem chops is the actual moat. Engineering is solvable. The right hire is gating the round.

Financials at a glance

Honest seed
$132K
Time to break-even
18 mo
Year-1 ARR target
$250K
Year-2 ARR target
$1.25M

Coming in v2

Detailed financial model

Provided to investors on diligence request. Includes operator-cohort retention, COGS per packet, and ICC content-license amortization.

Full use-of-funds breakdown on the investor brief.

Looking for

A founder-operator with deep residential-construction industry relationships — a former GC, ex-Houzz/Procore exec, or municipal-permit-office alum — who can walk into a Phoenix kitchen-remodel trade show and have 20 contractors trust them by lunch. Five-plus years in residential construction or permit-office operations. Comfort with regulated B2B SMB sales. Willingness to make 50 in-person trade-show appearances year one. The wedge is operational, not technical.

Stamped operates as a preparation tool only. You remain the named submitter on every permit. We do not file on the user's behalf in any jurisdiction.