TL;DR: 

Verdant is building the modern tech infrastructure for local government, and we’re starting with end-to-end permitting software that dramatically cuts local government permit review time. 

We help applicants file complete, compliant applications upfront, then help staff review them - our AI reads documents, plans, and diagrams, then flags issues and drafts the final report. 

Launch Video

Our story

While studying international politics at Georgetown, I spent three years in and around government (Capitol Hill, then DOJ and Deloitte) and kept hitting the same wall: policy sets direction, but execution is throttled by legacy software. My co-founder Jason has worked in govtech for the past four years researching public benefits automation at Georgetown and building govtech products at Holly and Aidy (YC W24) for local governments.

Jason and I connected over our passion for improving local government processes. The people who keep cities running are stretched thin across understaffed offices, and we want to give them the capacity to do more of what they signed up for. After interviewing 200+ local government staff, we learned that permitting is one of their most painful processes and their software has not done enough to help.

What we’ve heard

Permit and entitlement review takes too long, and local government staff are overwhelmed. Applicants often apply with incorrect information, triggering rounds of back-and-forth with the government. And once complete materials are finally in, understaffed departments can’t review everything quickly enough. 

Pandemic-era incumbent contracts are churning because staff are frustrated with expensive legacy systems that only intake and track permits – no automation involved. Our end-to-end solution picks up where those systems stop, automating the review itself to fix permitting where it's most broken.

What we’re building

Say a homeowner wants to renovate their house. Before anything else, they have to figure out which permits and entitlements they need. Verdant starts here: applications chat with an AI agent trained on the city ordinances to determine what to apply for. From there, we route applications to a Turbo Tax-style permitting intake portal that guides them through the application, answers their questions, and flags gaps before submission, so what lands on the staff's desk is correct and compliant.

After submission, our AI helps building officials and planners run completeness checks on applications, flagging errors in site plans and drawings. When the application is approved, Verdant uses the context already gathered to draft the next deliverable, whether that's a staff report for the planning commission or a memo for city council.

Beyond the permit lifecycle, Verdant also supports long-range planning: our ordinance research tools let local governments compare how other jurisdictions have written their codes so they have reference points when updating their own.

Our asks

• Reach out! If you work in local government (planners, building officials, community developers, city managers, etc.) we’d love to chat.
• Spread the word! If you know anyone in the permitting or planning space, we’d love to connect with them.

Contact us at founders@verdantapp.com