New startup ideas · AI and software · Vertical AI agents

startup idea

Nodewright

Automated grid interconnection review for utilities and state regulators, built on learned power-flow models.

Nodewright is subscription software for municipal utilities, co-ops and state public utility commissions that runs the interconnection studies now done by hand: it ingests the applicant's design, builds a validated model of the local feeder, and produces the impact study, curtailment conditions and hosting-capacity findings as a signed, auditable work product.

Software subscription
Government and public sector
$1-10B market
Creates a new category
US first

3/5

venture judge

similar startups, last 2 years (73 all-time)

98%

of 4 nearest real companies still alive

yes

8 matching federal grants and programs

Direction supported by government programs and grants

Test it before you build it

$1,400 · 6 weeks · 25 prospects

For $1,400 and six weeks, prove a backlogged municipal utility will pay up front for a PE-stamped, model-generated interconnection study, before any surrogate model is built.

Riskiest assumption · A utility's engineer of record will stamp a model-generated interconnection study as the legally required compliance document, and the utility will pay a fixed fee for it this budget year without waiting for a three-to-five-year procurement cycle.

1Focus group: who and where

Manager of engineering or chief distribution engineer at a municipal utility or electric cooperative with 20,000 to 150,000 meters and 50 or more DER applications sitting in a public interconnection queue, currently quoting applicants a year or more and paying an outside consultancy per study.

where to find 25 · State public utility commission interconnection and hosting-capacity dockets, which name the backlogged utilities and their engineers (directory); APPA and NRECA member directories cross-referenced with the EIA Form 861 utility list (list); GridTECH Connect Forum regional events and IEEE PES local chapter meetings, where these engineers present their queue problems (event and community).

2Sell first, build later

A fixed-fee feeder pilot: we model one distribution feeder from your GIS, SCADA and as-built records and deliver PE-stamped impact studies, curtailment conditions and hosting-capacity findings for up to 20 queued applications, 45 days from data handoff.

the ask · $18,000 fixed per feeder, $4,500 due at signature, balance on acceptance

a real yes · A signed pilot SOW with the $4,500 mobilization invoice paid or a purchase order issued is a yes; verbal enthusiasm, an invitation to respond to next year's RFP, and unpaid data-sharing offers are not.

3Small experiments

The first one attacks the riskiest assumption; each ends with a number that says whether to run the next.

1. Sample study stamp test
$1,100 · 14 days
Build one complete impact study for a public feeder using OpenDSS and public GIS data, then pay two licensed distribution PEs $500 each to review it and name the fee at which they would stamp it as engineer of record. Walk 15 utility engineering managers through the sample on calls and ask two questions: would your engineer of record stamp this, and would you pay a fixed fee per feeder to clear your queue. The founder runs every call.
keep going if · 8 of 15 utility engineers say a PE-stamped version is acceptable as the study of record, and both paid PEs name a stamping fee of $2,000 per study or less
2. Fixed-fee pilot offers
$200 · 21 days
Send a one-page SOW to the warm utilities from experiment 1 plus 10 more from the docket list: $18,000 per feeder, up to 20 queued applications cleared in 45 days, licensed PE of record included, $4,500 invoiced at signature. Price it under typical small-purchase thresholds so the engineering manager can sign without an RFP.
keep going if · 2 of 15 utilities sign the SOW and pay the $4,500 invoice or issue a purchase order
3. Commission staff acceptance check
$100 · 10 days
Call engineering staff at five state commissions running interconnection rulemakings, pulled from the docket service lists, and ask whether a PE-stamped, model-generated study satisfies the tariff's study requirement. Bring the sample study from experiment 1.
keep going if · 3 of 5 commission staff confirm the tariff turns on the stamp and the content, not the method of analysis

4Collect a deposit up front

Tesla took $1,000 refundable reservations for the Model 3 and $100 for the Cybertruck before building either: the deposit is the measurement, not the revenue.

$4,500

per prospect, refundable

how · Paid pilot with a 25 percent mobilization invoice at signature: the utility's engineering manager or general manager signs a one-page SOW priced under the small-purchase threshold, and accounts payable pays the $4,500 invoice or issues a PO. Chosen because municipal utilities and co-ops can buy an $18,000 professional service this quarter but cannot put money on a card or a checkout page. set up: Stripe Invoicing ↗

what it reserves · A feeder slot in the first cohort with data collection starting within 10 business days and the 45-day delivery date locked

refund · Refunded in full if the utility's engineer of record declines the delivered studies or the 45-day delivery date is missed.

target · 2 paid pilots from 15 SOW offers within 6 weeks

before taking money · Interconnection studies are engineering work product governed by state PE licensure, so nothing labeled a study may be delivered without a licensed engineer of record in that state stamping it.

Go: build it if

2 utilities pay the $4,500 mobilization invoice, at least 8 of 15 utility engineers accept a PE-stamped model study as the study of record, and at least one PE agrees in writing to stamp; then hire the field engineer and start the surrogate.

Kill: stop if

0 paid pilots after 15 SOW offers, or fewer than 3 of the 10 PEs consulted will stamp a model-generated study at any fee, or 4 of 5 commission staff say the method itself disqualifies the study.

5 Scripts to run itoutreach message, landing copy, deposit terms · click to open

outreach message

Your commission docket shows dozens of solar applications sitting in your interconnection queue, and you are quoting applicants a year or more. I am a power systems founder whose software produces the full impact study, stamped by a licensed PE, in days instead of months. We will clear one feeder for a fixed $18,000 in 45 days, and you pay nothing further unless your engineer of record accepts the studies. Do you have 20 minutes this week to look at a sample study?

landing page

Clear one feeder's interconnection backlog in 45 days $18,000 fixed per feeder: PE-stamped studies for up to 20 queued applications, $4,500 at signing Book a scoping call and reserve an October feeder slot

deposit terms

A $4,500 mobilization payment reserves your feeder slot and starts data collection within 10 business days. It is credited against the $18,000 fixed fee and refunded in full if your engineer of record declines the delivered studies or we miss the 45-day delivery date. The remaining balance is invoiced only on acceptance.

Would you run this test?

One tap. The yes-share feeds the Demand pillar of this idea's score; nobody sees who answered.

Budgets are out-of-pocket estimates for a team of one to three, US market. Size the deposit to the deal, and check the terms before taking money in a regulated line.

Scorecard

One score that balances how trendy the idea is, the demand for it and its potential for 100x, with competition measured relative to every other idea in the catalog. Recent startup trends first, government priorities second.

Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 36.9 x 1.61

Crowded

competition: more crowded than 90% of ideas · headwind x0.55

+4.9

government priorities, secondary (270 matching grants)

Trend

Is the wave forming now? 2025-26 entrants vs 2023-24, rounds since 2025, the sector's live-batch direction, the 2026 trend analyst.

Entrants 2025-26 vs 2023-24 (similar companies)65
Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector25
Sector direction (live batch)100
2026 trend analyst25

Demand

Does anyone want it? YC's current RFS, companies already paid for something similar, the operator judge, founders' yes-rate in decks, readers who would run the test.

YC asks for it (current RFS: idea / sector)0
Someone already pays (similar companies, recent / all-time)100
Operator judge: real pain75

100x potential

Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.

Venture judge50
Market size axis33
Moat axis100
Neighbours still alive37
Technologist judge100

Score = 100 x cbrt(Trend x Demand x 100x) x (1 - 0.5 x crowding) + government bonus (max 5), calibrated so the 95th-percentile idea scores 90 (order never changes). A geometric mean: a weak pillar cannot be papered over. Percentiles are among the 272 ideas in the catalog; the terms matched were automated, grid, interconnection, review, utilities, state, regulators, built.

The idea in full

What: Nodewright is subscription software for municipal utilities, co-ops and state public utility commissions that runs the interconnection studies now done by hand: it ingests the applicant's design, builds a validated model of the local feeder, and produces the impact study, curtailment conditions and hosting-capacity findings as a signed, auditable work product. The engine is a learned surrogate for power-flow and short-circuit analysis, so a queue position that takes 18 to 30 months of engineering time is cleared in days. A field engineering team goes on site during onboarding to reconcile GIS, SCADA and as-built records into a usable model, which is why this is capital-medium rather than pure software.
Why now: The S26 batch funded Edviro ("AI That Operates Energy Infrastructure") and Marengo ("Automating engineering design, starting with data centers"), showing investors will now back agents that touch physical grid work, and the cluster's cohort curve (167 new companies in 2023, 213 in 2024, 240 in 2025) shows the talent has moved from generic copilots to regulated verticals.
Wedge: first customer and entry point: One mid-size municipal utility with a backlogged residential and commercial solar queue: model three feeders, clear the backlog for a fixed fee, and use that signed study record as the reference for the state commission and neighbouring co-ops.
Path to 100x: US interconnection and permitting review software is a $1-10B market, and the winner takes most because every study performed adds a validated feeder model to a shared national grid graph that no competitor can reconstruct, so developers file once and pull their next utility in. When applicants demand Nodewright-format studies and commissions accept them as the compliance artifact, a new category of automated regulatory review exists and the incumbent study consultancies become suppliers of labor to it.
Ceiling: Utilities buy in slow, three-to-five-year procurement cycles and there are only a few thousand of them in the US, which can cap this as a $150-300M revenue business rather than a category owner.
Closest real companies, as the generator saw them: Edviro operates energy infrastructure assets for owners; Nodewright sells to the utility and the regulator and produces the legally required study document rather than running operations. Marengo automates engineering design for data center developers, which is the applicant side of the same queue.
Main risk: A utility engineer's signature carries legal liability, and if no licensed engineer will stamp a model-generated study the product cannot be the system of record.

Five judges

Each judge scores every idea in the catalog with a named rubric; the venture judge decides whether a card is shown at all (4-5 is venture-grade).

Venture investor
3/5
The shared feeder graph compounds, but only a few thousand US utilities on three-to-five-year procurement caps this near $150-300M.
Bootstrapper
3/5
Fixed-fee feeder studies for one municipal utility pays early, but three-to-five-year utility procurement and field engineering teams strain a small team.
Operator
4/5
An 18 to 30 month interconnection queue is a budgeted engineering cost utilities already pay consultants to clear, and the output is the required study.
Technologist
5/5
A learned power-flow surrogate plus every study adding a validated feeder to a national grid graph is a moat that compounds with usage.
Risk
3/5
Regulator acceptance would be durable footing, but a licensed engineer must stamp each study and only a few thousand slow-procuring utilities exist.
trends
2/5
An 18-30 month interconnection backlog was just as painful in 2023; two S26 energy companies existing is not a dated shift that enables this.

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Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (automated, grid, interconnection, review, utilities, state, regulators, built): 73 all-time, 26 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.

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Run this as an Idea Check →

The generator's reference companies

Real companies the model named as closest when it wrote the card, with their fate. A check mark is a company the radar could verify in its directory.

Public money in this direction

US federal grants, SBIR/STTR awards and open opportunities from the radar's public-money feed, matched to the idea's terms; the sector totals give the context.

grants and programs matching the idea

startup-relevant grants in Vertical AI agents

$135M

awarded in the sector, tracked

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National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-10
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I-Corps: Translation Potential of Privacy-Preserving Internet of Things (IoT) for Clinical and Home Health Monitoringawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-20
I-Corps: Translation Potential of a marine-adapted radio frequency identification (RFID) and analytics platform for digital inventory management in shellfish aquacultureawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-19
I-Corps: Translation potential of Automated Artificial Intelligence (AI) Reliability Evaluation Platformawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-19
I-Corps: Translation Potential of Quantum-Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Energy and Infrastructure Security and Resilienceawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · TIP-CHIPS KTA-3 Quantum · $50K · posted 2026-08-17

All public money by sector →

Market signal

What the radar sees in Vertical AI agents: new companies by cohort year, the forming YC batch, and outcomes since the February snapshot.

Vertical AI agents · 159 → 261 → 364 → 411 → 353 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 93% aliveYC F26 live: 25 in this cluster, 20% of the batch (was 25% in S26)Since February, of 698 YC companies here: 19 acquired, 9 shut down, 219 rewrote their pitch

Vertical AI agents: companies, trend and grants →

Design attributes

The card is one cell of a designed set: every axis below was chosen before the text was written, and the text had to realize it.

Buyer: Government and public sector
Business model: Software subscription
Path to 100x: Creates a new category
Market size: $1-10B market
Capital intensity: Capital-medium (ops, field teams)
Speed to revenue: Revenue in 1-3 years
Technical depth: Deep tech: ML, hardware, bio
Go-to-market: Founder-led sales
Moat: Network effects
Geography: US first
Regulation: Heavily regulated
Vibe: Hot space