New startup ideas · B2B, security and compliance · B2B SaaS
startup idea
Baseplate
The record network linking contractors, engineers, and state DOTs on federal-aid projects.
A network of record for federal-aid construction: contractors submit materials certifications, test results, submittals and inspection records once, and Baseplate routes them in each agency's required format to state DOTs and engineers of record, with AI pre-review trained on previously approved submittals.
- Software subscription
- Enterprise
- $100B+ market
- Network effects, winner takes most
- US first
4/5
venture judge
4
similar startups, last 2 years (22 all-time)
96%
of 3 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
$1,200 · 5 weeks · 25 prospects
For $1,200 and 5 weeks, prove that heavy-civil contractors will prepay $1,500 per project for DOT-formatted submittals before any agency mandates the network, so revenue never waits on a DOT procurement cycle.
Riskiest assumption · Contractors on federal-aid projects will prepay per project for submittal formatting and tracking before any DOT mandates or endorses it, so the first revenue does not have to wait for a state procurement cycle.
1Focus group: who and where
The project manager or project engineer at a $20M-500M heavy-civil contractor with an active federal-aid highway project, whose field office loses hours every week to materials certs, Buy America letters, and submittals bounced back for formatting.
where to find 25 · Iowa DOT bid tabs and awarded-contract lists, also mirrored on Infotech's Bid Express, which name every contractor on every active federal-aid job; AGC of Iowa chapter meetings, where those same PMs show up monthly; the engineering firms of record named on those awarded projects, as the referral channel the card's own wedge calls for.
2Sell first, build later
An 8-week pilot on one active federal-aid project: every materials cert, test result and submittal delivered in Iowa DOT's required format with a Buy America documentation checklist, starting on a named date within 3 weeks of signing.
the ask · $1,500 prepaid per project for the 8-week pilot
a real yes · A real yes is the prepaid $1,500 invoice with a start date on the scope; 'send me the one-pager', unpaid trials, and DOT enthusiasm without a contractor's money are not.
3Small experiments
The first one attacks the riskiest assumption; each ends with a number that says whether to run the next.
1. Prepaid pilot to active contractors
$800 · 21 days
Pull the last 6 months of Iowa DOT awarded federal-aid contracts and list the 20 contractors with live projects. The founder calls and visits their PMs pitching a $1,500 prepaid 8-week pilot: every materials cert, test result and submittal on one project delivered in Iowa DOT's required format with a Buy America checklist - formatted by hand at first, because the wire format, not software, is what is being sold. Invoice goes out the same day as the yes.
keep going if · 3 of 15 pitched PMs sign the one-page scope and prepay the $1,500 invoice with a start date on it
2. DOT written acceptance check
$0 · 7 days
Email the Iowa DOT construction and e-construction office, the team behind its Doc Express workflow, with one question: will the agency accept submittals prepared by a third party in the required format when the contractor of record signs them? Reference the FHWA ADCMS digitization push and the 2026-09-16 grant deadline for context. Founder-run, free.
keep going if · 1 written email from the DOT confirming third-party-prepared, contractor-signed submittals are acceptable
3. Engineer-of-record channel test
$400 · 14 days
From the same bid tabs, identify the engineering firms of record on 8 active projects and meet their document control leads at AGC of Iowa meetings or on site. Ask each to route one project's submittal flow through the pilot and co-sign the workflow, since the card's wedge runs through this channel.
keep going if · 2 of 8 document control leads agree in writing to route one project's submittals through the pilot
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.
$1,500
per prospect, refundable
how · A prepaid pilot invoice: the contractor's PM signs a one-page scope and pays $1,500 by ACH or check, the way contractors already pay subs and suppliers - no card checkout, because a $20M heavy-civil firm does not buy on a web form. set up: Stripe Invoicing ↗
what it reserves · The pilot start date, a slot in the first Iowa cohort, and the per-project price locked for that contractor's next 3 federal-aid projects.
refund · Refunded in full if the pilot does not start within 5 business days of the agreed date.
target · 3 prepaid $1,500 pilots from 15 pitches within 30 days
before taking money · Never submit records to the DOT in Baseplate's name or touch certified payroll before the agency's written acceptance; the contractor of record signs every document and Baseplate stays a formatting vendor, not a responsible party.
Go: build it if
3 contractors prepay $1,500 pilots with dated starts ($4,500 collected), the DOT confirms third-party-prepared records in writing, and 2 of 8 engineers of record co-sign a routed workflow.
Kill: stop if
0 prepaid pilots after 15 pitches and 8 engineer-of-record conversations, or a written DOT refusal to accept third-party-prepared submittals - either one means the network cannot start without the procurement cycle the card says will outlast the runway.
5 Scripts to run itoutreach message, landing copy, deposit terms · click to open
outreach message
You're on the Iowa DOT awards list, which means your field office is buried in materials certs, Buy America letters, and submittals that bounce for formatting. I run Baseplate: for $1,500 prepaid, we take every submittal on one of your active federal-aid projects for 8 weeks and deliver it in the DOT's required format with a Buy America checklist attached, starting the first week of October. Do you have 20 minutes this week to pick the project?
landing page
Every submittal in your DOT's required format, accepted the first time $1,500 prepaid covers one federal-aid project for 8 weeks, Buy America checklist included Reserve your project's start date - 3 slots in the first Iowa cohort
deposit terms
$1,500 prepaid covers one active federal-aid project for 8 weeks, starting on the date we set together in the scope. If we miss your start date by more than 5 business days, the full amount is refunded; if the DOT bounces a submittal we formatted for a formatting reason, we fix and resubmit it within 24 hours. Invoice payable by ACH or check on signing.
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.
77
Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 48.0 x 1.61
Active
competition: more crowded than 47% of ideas · headwind x0.76
+4.5
government priorities, secondary (105 matching grants)
Trend
44
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)66
- Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector61
- Sector direction (live batch)0
- 2026 trend analyst50
Demand
50
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 pain50
100x potential
84
Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.
- Venture judge75
- Market size axis100
- Moat axis100
- Neighbours still alive77
- Technologist judge75
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 record, network, linking, contractors, engineers, state, dots, federal-aid.
The idea in full
- What
- A network of record for federal-aid construction: contractors submit materials certifications, test results, submittals and inspection records once, and Baseplate routes them in each agency's required format to state DOTs and engineers of record, with AI pre-review trained on previously approved submittals. Contractors and engineering firms pay per project; agencies join free. Buy America and Davis-Bacon compliance checks are built into the pipeline, which is why the heavily regulated setting is the advantage rather than the obstacle.
- Why now
- FHWA is paying agencies to digitize right now - the FY25 and FY26 Advanced Digital Construction Management Systems grant closes 2026-09-16 - and YC S26 funded both Alloovium (construction paperwork) and Verdant (AI-native permitting for local gov), yet nobody owns the contractor-to-agency wire format those tools would all have to speak.
- Wedge: first customer and entry point
- One state DOT pilot funded by its ADCMS grant, delivered through the engineering firm of record as channel, onboarding the roughly twenty contractors active on that agency's current projects.
- Path to 100x
- Federal-aid construction runs well over $100B a year and every project generates submittals, tests and inspections that today move as PDFs; a per-project take on that volume, plus AI review trained on the only corpus of approved submittals in existence, is the mechanism. Record networks in construction tip winner-takes-most - each agency pulls all its contractors, each contractor pulls its subs and suppliers - which is how a $1B+ company comes out of a regulated niche.
- Ceiling
- If each state DOT demands a bespoke fork, the network fragments into integration projects and the per-project take never compounds across states.
- Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
- Verdant sells planning and permitting software to local government and Alloovium fixes construction paperwork inside a single team; neither builds the cross-party network between contractors and state DOTs. Complir is compliance for physical products, not construction records.
- Main risk
- State DOT procurement cycles outlast the runway before the first network node closes, leaving a product with no network to charge for.
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
4/5
Record networks tip winner-takes-most, and owning the contractor-to-DOT wire format on $100B+ of annual federal-aid work is a genuine rail.
Bootstrapper
2/5
State DOT procurement cycles are explicitly named as likely to outlast the runway, and one pilot does not pay a two person team.
Operator
3/5
Contractors pay per project and the paperwork pain is real, but agencies join free and one state DOT procurement cycle gates the whole network.
Technologist
4/5
AI pre-review trained on the only corpus of previously approved DOT submittals is a data asset that grows with every project routed.
Risk
3/5
Buy America and Davis-Bacon give clear footing, but revenue hinges on state DOT procurement cycles outlasting the runway.
trends
3/5
The FHWA ADCMS grant closing 2026-09-16 gives a dated buyer budget, but grant-driven timing is secondary and DOT cycles may outlast the window.
Similar startups in the directory
Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (record, network, linking, contractors, engineers, state, dots, federal-aid): 22 all-time, 4 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.
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Discover trends as they happen
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.
8
grants and programs matching the idea
16
startup-relevant grants in B2B SaaS
$3M
awarded in the sector, tracked
1
opportunities open now in the sector
National Science Foundation · SBIR Phase II · $1M · posted 2026-08-27
- Collaborative Research: VINES: Track 2: FALCON: Flexible Aerial Links for Control, Observation, and Navigationawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · TIP-CHIPS KTA-6 Communications · $5M · posted 2026-08-24
NIH / NIEHS · STTR phase I · $306K · posted 2026-08-24
- Implantable Intelligent Engineered System to Enable Virtual Bidirectional Muscle-Prosthesis Mechanical Interaction for Amputeesawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · M3X - Mind, Machine, and Motor, Dynamics, Control and System D, Special Initiatives · $809K · posted 2026-08-21
- I-Corps: Translation Potential of a Privacy-Aware Stress Sensing and Conversational Companionawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K · posted 2026-08-19
- GOALI: Machine Learning Enabled Multiscale Modeling Platform and Virtual Sensing Digital Twin for Fatigue in Metals Additive Manufacturing (MAM)awardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · Mechanics of Materials and Str, AM-Advanced Manufacturing, Special Initiatives · $900K · posted 2026-08-18
- SBIR Phase I: Wireless Sidestep Network: Harnessing Sub-terahertz to Enable New Degrees of Freedom in AI Data Center Architecturesawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · SBIR Phase I · $305K · posted 2026-08-18
- I-Corps: Quantum and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Powered Knowledge Management System for Nuclear Fusionawardhigh relevance
National Science Foundation · TIP-CHIPS KTA-3 Quantum · $50K · posted 2026-08-17
Market signal
What the radar sees in B2B SaaS: new companies by cohort year, the forming YC batch, and outcomes since the February snapshot.
B2B SaaS · 189 → 205 → 206 → 116 → 92 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 90% aliveYC F26 live: 5 in this cluster, 4% of the batch (was 4% in S26)Since February, of 756 YC companies here: 10 acquired, 15 shut down, 80 rewrote their pitch
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
- Enterprise
- Business model
- Software subscription
- Path to 100x
- Network effects, winner takes most
- Market size
- $100B+ market
- Capital intensity
- Capital-medium (ops, field teams)
- Speed to revenue
- Revenue in 1-3 years
- Technical depth
- Real engineering
- Go-to-market
- Partners and channels
- Moat
- Data moat
- Geography
- US first
- Regulation
- Heavily regulated
- Vibe
- Hot space
Listed under
An idea sits in its own sector and in any sector its text clearly touches.
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