New startup ideas · Direct giving, without the middlemen · Unbundling the $328 billion in donor-advised funds
startup concept
Payoutline
DAF payout and flow-through reporting for state charity regulators
Analytics built from Form 990 filings and sponsor disclosures that shows each state's regulator which DAF sponsors and fundraising platforms hold money longest, which charities they pay, and which payees are not in good standing.
- Software subscription
- Government and public sector
- California enforces its fundraising-platform law
0
similar startups, last 2 years (7 all-time)
yes
8 matching federal grants and programs
Direction supported by government programs and grants
Test it before you build it
$500 · 6 weeks · 15 prospects
Prove that one state charity regulator outside California will sign a dated LOI for a $7,500 sponsor payout dashboard, for $500 in 6 weeks, the minimum a procurement cycle allows.
Riskiest assumption · At least one state charity office outside California has funded platform oversight this fiscal year and can buy a sub-$10,000 pilot through a small-purchase path fast enough for a 3-person team's runway.
1Focus group: who and where
The charities bureau chief or charities program director in a state attorney general's office or secretary of state's office that is drafting or has just passed an AB 488-style platform statute, now holding sponsor and platform reports the office has no software to query.
where to find 15 · Work the published NASCO directory of U.S. state charity offices to name every office and its head (list); meet the whole buyer population at the NASCO Annual Conference each October, held alongside the NAAG meetings (event); reach the rest by phone through the charities division lines listed on each attorney general's and secretary of state's official site (channel).
2Sell first, build later
A 12-month payout, flow-through and payee-standing dashboard covering every DAF sponsor and fundraising platform registered in the buyer's state, live 30 days after the pilot start date, with a 30-day acceptance evaluation against written criteria.
the ask · $7,500 per state per year, deliberately priced under most state small-purchase thresholds.
a real yes · A real yes is a signed LOI with a start date inside 90 days, followed by a purchase order. Enthusiastic analysts, 'send materials for the file' and requests for free indefinite access are noes.
3Small experiments
The first one attacks the riskiest assumption; each ends with a number that says whether to run the next.
1. One-state demo briefings
$250 · 12 days
In 4 days, build a static dashboard for one target state such as Washington or Illinois from public Form 990 filings and California's published AB 488 report data: payout speed, flow-through and payee standing for that state's registered sponsors. Then email and call the office heads on the NASCO list offering a 20-minute briefing on their own state's numbers.
keep going if · 5 of 15 offices book a briefing
2. Budget and path interviews
$50 · 14 days
In each briefing, ask who owns platform oversight this fiscal year, whether any budget line funds it, what the office can buy without full procurement, the small-purchase dollar threshold, and who signs. Log answers in a per-state grid.
keep going if · 3 offices name a funded line and a small-purchase path under $10,000
3. LOI with dated start
$200 · 21 days
Send the 3 warmest offices a one-page LOI naming the $7,500 first-year price, a build start within 90 days, and written acceptance criteria for a 30-day evaluation; follow up by phone weekly until signed or refused.
keep going if · 1 signed LOI or purchase order
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.
$0
no cash yet: take a signed commitment
how · State charity offices cannot credibly move money before procurement, so collect a signed LOI naming a pilot start date within 90 days and the office's small-purchase path, followed by a purchase order under that threshold; the bureau chief or charities director signs.
what it reserves · The first non-California state build, the $7,500 first-year price locked, and that state's registered sponsors prioritized in the dashboard as other states copy the statute.
refund · No money moves at signature; either side may withdraw in writing before the purchase order issues.
target · 1 signed LOI with a dated start from 15 offices within 6 weeks.
before taking money · This is a government sale: follow each state's procurement and ethics rules, register as a vendor before invoicing, and do not let free demos or briefings cross state gift limits.
Go: build it if
One signed LOI with a start date inside 90 days plus 2 more offices with named, funded budget lines: build the first state and take the purchase order.
Kill: stop if
No LOI after 6 weeks and fewer than 3 of 15 offices report any funded budget for platform oversight this fiscal year: procurement outruns a small team's runway, exactly as the card warns, stop.
5 Scripts to run itoutreach message, landing copy, deposit terms · click to open
outreach message
Your office now collects platform and sponsor reports it has no software to query, while California has already issued its first AB 488 cease-and-desist. I pulled the Form 990 and disclosure data for the DAF sponsors registered in your state into one dashboard: how long donor money sits, which charities actually get paid, and which payees are out of good standing. Can I take 20 minutes to show you your state's numbers before your platform rule is drafted?
landing page
See every DAF sponsor and fundraising platform operating in your state $7,500 a year: payout speed, flow-through and payee standing for your registered sponsors, live 30 days after start Request your state's 20-minute briefing
deposit terms
No payment is due now: this letter of intent reserves the first non-California state build at $7,500 for year one and names a start date within 90 days. Your office issues a purchase order only if the 30-day evaluation meets the acceptance criteria written into the letter. Either party may withdraw in writing before the purchase order issues.
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
Ranked against every idea in the catalog: trend, demand and 100x potential from the corpus, competition relative to the other ideas. A generated concept has no judges or swipes yet, so its pillars use the data signals only.
58
Idea Score, 0-100 · raw 35.6 x 1.64
Open
competition: more crowded than 12% of ideas · headwind x0.94
+3.0
government priorities, secondary (12 matching grants)
Trend
29
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)3
- Rounds announced 2025+ in the sector33
- Sector direction (live batch)50
Demand
44
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)58
100x potential
33
Can it return a fund? The venture judge (double weight), market-size and moat axes, neighbours still alive, the technologist judge.
- Neighbours still alive33
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 382 ideas in the catalog; the terms matched were daf, payout, flow-through, reporting, state, charity, regulators, analytics.
The concept in full
- What
- Analytics built from Form 990 filings and sponsor disclosures that shows each state's regulator which DAF sponsors and fundraising platforms hold money longest, which charities they pay, and which payees are not in good standing. Sold to state charity offices drafting platform rules and enforcing existing ones. It stops fraud before money moves by surfacing sponsors granting to organizations with bad standing or no filing history.
- Grounded in (2025-2026 signals)
- 'First annual reports were due July 15, 2025; in November 2025 the Attorney General issued a cease-and-desist to a platform' (AB 488 update, December 22, 2025); 'a 25.2% payout rate' across '1,512 sponsors' (2025 Annual DAF Report); 'under 1% of exempt organizations are examined in a year'
- What it rides
- California enforces its fundraising-platform law, and 'other states are drafting platform rules of their own' need the data layer California built by hand
- Why now
- The first AB 488 annual reports landed July 15, 2025 and the first cease-and-desist followed in November 2025, so regulators now hold platform data they have no software to analyze while other states copy the statute
- Wedge: first customer and entry point
- One state charity regulator outside California drafting its platform rule; deliver a payout and standing dashboard for the sponsors registered in that state as the pilot for the model statute
- Closest real companies, as the generator saw them
- none tracked
- Main risk
- State procurement moves slower than a small team's runway and only a handful of states ever fund enforcement tooling
Similar startups in the directory
Companies whose pitch matches most of the concept's terms (daf, payout, flow-through, reporting, state, charity, regulators, analytics).
Vanta for carbon compliance
Next-Gen Financial Analysis and Reporting with AI Agents
AI to track and analyze public policy
Providing Amazon level logistics to e-commerce businesses.
Developer of brand influencer management platform designed to offer online video marketing services. The company's platform discovers talent, onboards influencers, tracks campaigns, data analytics, payout automation, and reports metrics, enabling businesses to grow successful media content around creators.
Singularity Energy uses real-time carbon data to make better energy decisions.
HData is a RegTech company that is digitizing the entire regulated energy industry by automating access to critical analytics.
Public money in this direction
US federal grants and open opportunities matched to the concept's terms.
National Science Foundation · I-Corps · $50K
NIH / NEI · SBIR phase II · $1M
NIH / NIDA · SBIR phase I · $307K
National Science Foundation · OFFICE OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY AC · $492K
National Science Foundation · OFFICE OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY AC · $307K
National Science Foundation · CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems · $316K
National Science Foundation · CPS-Cyber-Physical Systems · $677K
National Science Foundation · MATHEMATICAL BIOLOGY · $250K
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Fictional concept generated 2026-08-26 by claude-fable-5 from the collection's brief and MarkosWeb data. Treat it as a research prompt, not a plan.