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New startup ideas · AI and software · AI infra and compute

startup idea

Swingbus

An agent that clears utility interconnection queues for new data center load.

Swingbus sells public power utilities and system operators an agent service that runs grid interconnection and load studies: it ingests the network model, runs power flow, stability and protection studies with learned surrogates instead of overnight solver batches, and produces the signed study package a regulator will accept.

4/5

venture judge

2

similar startups, last 2 years (3 all-time)

99%

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

$3,200 · 6 weeks · 25 prospects

For under $3,500 and six weeks, prove that municipal utilities drowning in large-load applications will issue a purchase order for a fixed-fee automated screening study before any agent or appliance exists.

1Focus group: who and where

Manager of system planning or T&D engineering at a municipal utility or public power district serving 20,000 to 200,000 meters that has at least three large-load or data center interconnection applications sitting in queue and currently sends studies to an outside consultant with a 6 to 12 month turnaround

where to find 25 · American Public Power Association member directory (about 2,000 public power utilities, filter to states with data center growth such as Texas, Nebraska, Utah, Georgia), LinkedIn Sales Navigator with title filters 'system planning' or 'T&D engineering' plus industry Utilities and company size 51-500, Texas Public Power Association member list, and IEEE Power & Energy Society local chapter rosters

2Sell first, build later

A fixed-fee interconnection screening study on one queued large-load application: power flow, thermal and voltage screens, and a PE-stamped yes-no determination memo the utility can put in the docket, delivered 10 business days after data receipt, first study delivered within 30 days of PO

the ask · $7,000 per screening study (about $10 to $20 per MW screened, versus $25,000+ and months for an outsourced cycle)

a real yes · A real yes is a signed purchase order under the utility's small-purchase authority with a named application and a data-delivery date, or a mobilization invoice paid. Not a yes: 'send us more information', an unpaid trial study, interest from an engineer who cannot issue a PO, or praise for the concept.

3Small experiments

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

  1. 1. Fifteen queue-pain discovery calls

    $250 · 14 days

    Book 15 calls with planning engineers sourced from the APPA directory and Sales Navigator using a three-line email about screening-study backlog. On each call walk a one-page spec of the service (screening study on one queued large-load application, 10 business days, fixed fee) and ask three numbers: applications in queue, current cost per outsourced study cycle, current turnaround. Founder runs every call.

    keep going if · 10 of 15 confirm 3+ queued applications and a current outsourced cost above $25,000 per study cycle, and 5 of 15 ask for the scoping sheet

  2. 2. Fixed-price offer letter mail-out

    $300 · 10 days

    Mail and email a one-page offer to 25 utilities: screening study on one named queued application, deliverables listed (power flow results, thermal and voltage screens, yes-no determination memo), $7,000 fixed, 10 business days from data receipt, reviewed and stamped by a subcontracted licensed PE. Include a mutual NDA ready to sign.

    keep going if · 5 of 25 recipients reply requesting a scoping call or send the NDA back signed

  3. 3. Concierge paid screening study

    $2,200 · 15 days

    Run one real screening study entirely by hand for the first utility that issues a PO: take their network model under NDA, run power flow and screening in pandapower or a PowerWorld evaluation license, write the determination memo, pay a licensed PE roughly $1,500 to review and stamp it. The utility never sees that no agent exists; they see the study package and the 10-day turnaround.

    keep going if · 1 completed study accepted by the utility with payment released, and the buyer agrees on the call to queue 2 more applications at the same price

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.

$3,500

per prospect, refundable

how · Paid concierge pilot invoiced up front: the utility issues a PO under its small-purchase threshold (typically $25,000 to $50,000 for munis, no bid required) and Swingbus invoices a 50% mobilization fee on PO signature, remainder on delivery; the engineering manager signs the scope, procurement signs the PO set up: Stripe Invoicing ↗

what it reserves · A slot in the first study cohort, the 10-business-day turnaround commitment, and a locked $7,000 price for the next five studies from that utility

refund · Mobilization fee refunded in full if the study package is not delivered within 15 business days of complete data receipt.

target · 2 signed POs with mobilization invoices paid from 25 utilities contacted within 42 days

Go: build it if

2 POs signed and 1 study delivered and accepted within 6 weeks, plus at least 8 of 25 utilities confirming 3+ queued applications and $25,000+ current study costs; that validates both the pain and the willingness to buy from a two-person shop.

Kill: stop if

0 POs and fewer than 3 scoping requests after 25 utilities contacted and 15 calls held, or a majority of calls saying the regulator or their charter requires studies to stay with the incumbent consultant regardless of price.

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.

97

Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 58.8 x 1.64

Warm

competition: more crowded than 32% of ideas · headwind x0.84

+3.7

government priorities, secondary (37 matching grants)

Trend

83

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)90
  • Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector68
  • Sector direction (live batch)100
  • 2026 trend analyst75

Demand

46

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)30
  • Someone already pays (similar companies, recent / all-time)33
  • Operator judge: real pain75

100x potential

74

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 axis33
  • Moat axis80
  • Neighbours still alive81
  • 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 clears, utility, interconnection, queues, center, load, sells, public.

The idea in full

What
Swingbus sells public power utilities and system operators an agent service that runs grid interconnection and load studies: it ingests the network model, runs power flow, stability and protection studies with learned surrogates instead of overnight solver batches, and produces the signed study package a regulator will accept. Each utility gets a hardened appliance inside the substation network so the agent works on live topology data without exporting it. Utilities pay per megawatt studied, roughly a tenth of what an outsourced study cycle costs today.
Why now
AI load is the reason the queues are jammed, and the capital is chasing power directly: Atomarine (YC S26) is building floating nuclear powered data centers at sea against YC's Fall 2026 Compute at Sea request, and Callosum raised a $100M seed led by Atomico to tackle AI compute bottlenecks; Vorelios (YC F26) shows learned physics surrogates running 1000x faster, which is the technical precondition for study automation.
Wedge: first customer and entry point
One municipal utility or public power district drowning in large-load applications: automate the screening study stage only, where the answer is a yes-no and liability is lowest.
Path to 100x
Grid study and interconnection engineering is a $1-10B global spend growing with every gigawatt of AI load, and pricing per megawatt screened means revenue tracks the buildout, not the team. The moat is distribution: studies are sold through the SCADA and protection integrators utilities already trust, and once the appliance holds a utility's network model, the same agent extends into operating and reclearing the queue.
Ceiling
Utilities treat studies as a regulated cost pass-through with no incentive to cut them, which caps price per megawatt and turns the business into slow-growing licensed software.
Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
Vorelios simulates physics 1000x faster as a horizontal capability; Swingbus is the regulated grid application of that idea, with the study package, protection settings and audit trail a regulator signs off. Atomarine and Callosum add the load that creates the demand rather than clearing it.
Main risk
Regulators require a licensed engineer to re-derive every result, so the agent saves cost but never removes the study cycle.

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

    Priced per megawatt studied, revenue tracks the AI buildout rather than headcount, with the appliance holding the utility's network model.

  • Bootstrapper

    1/5

    Substation appliances sold to regulated public utilities means hardware capex plus a procurement cycle measured in budget years.

  • Operator

    4/5

    Utilities already pay outsourced study cycles at ten times the price and the queue is visibly jammed; the screening-only wedge fits the existing regulatory step.

  • Technologist

    5/5

    Learned surrogates replacing overnight power flow and stability solvers, running on a substation appliance against live topology, is deep domain engineering.

  • Risk

    4/5

    Sells to many separate public utilities behind their own substation firewalls, with regulator-accepted study packages, though licensed-engineer sign-off rules could blunt the savings.

  • trends

    4/5

    Interconnection queues jammed specifically by 2025-2026 AI load growth, the same scarcity behind the Compute at Sea RFS, make per-megawatt study automation newly sellable.

Similar startups in the directory

Companies whose pitch matches most of the idea's terms (clears, utility, interconnection, queues, center, load, sells, public): 3 all-time, 2 from the last two years. Same matching as Idea Check.

  • Libra Roboticsyc S26 · 2026 · Robotics and physical worldalive

    Robotic crews for large-scale infrastructure construction

  • Clear Currentplugandplay PnP 2025 · 2025 · Climate and energyalive

    Our platform helps you optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and make informed decisions—all from one centralized platform

  • iMUplugandplay · Healthcare and bioalive

    Visualizing the total load on the knee joint during walking to recommend optimal exercise levels.

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.

8

grants and programs matching the idea

225

startup-relevant grants in AI infra and compute

$271M

awarded in the sector, tracked

8

opportunities open now in the sector

All public money by sector →

Market signal

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

AI infra and compute · 10 → 33 → 57 → 61 → 52 new companies 2022 → 2026 · 98% aliveYC S26: 18 in this cluster, 8% of the batch (was 4% in X26) (F26 is still forming: 21 listed)Since February, of 117 YC companies here: 3 acquired, 2 shut down, 25 rewrote their pitch

AI infra and compute: 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
AI agent as a service
Path to 100x
Collapses a cost 10x
Market size
$1-10B market
Capital intensity
Capital-heavy (hardware, bio, infra)
Speed to revenue
Revenue in 1-3 years
Technical depth
Deep tech: ML, hardware, bio
Go-to-market
Partners and channels
Moat
Distribution moat
Geography
Global from day one
Regulation
Heavily regulated
Vibe
Boring business

Listed under

An idea sits in its own sector and in any sector its text clearly touches.

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Swipe ideas like this in the deckTalk to the radar about it

Fictional company written 2026-08-22 from MarkosWeb data; the companies, grants and numbers around it are real and tracked. Treat the idea as a research prompt, not a plan.