Start your Engines!

Kicking off a new project that should be loads of fun[*] to follow along as we try to build a new company from scratch.

What's the project? Something very niche that seems to be a pain point worth solving: pre-validating Planning Permission applications.

Doesn't sound very interesting? Planning validation isn’t about box-ticking; it’s about making sure the decision will be based on usable information. If the inputs are wrong or incomplete, everything that follows: public consultation, assessments, conditions is compromised or has to be re-done.

What makes it interesting is that it sits right at the boundary between clear rules and messy submissions. The rules are explicit; the applications often aren’t. Drawings don’t line up, boundaries drift, notices are wrong, documents are missing or recycled. Spotting those issues early saves weeks or months later. Perhaps that's why the Irish planning system is notoriously strict.

It’s also a constrained judgment exercise. You’re not judging design quality or policy compliance, just whether the proposal has been described accurately and consistently enough to be assessed at all. Small errors can materially change what’s being evaluated.

Finally, it’s one of the few parts of the process where automation actually helps. Machines handle the obvious checks; people focus on the edge cases and judgement calls that matter.

Not world-saving, but high leverage and quietly important. We have a housing crisis in Ireland that's been grinding on for years. Maybe we can help eliminate a bit of the friction in the planning process.

We've got some interesting stats coming up around invalidations, stay tuned.

[*] May not be fun unless you're into learning new businesses, data analytics, market research and building non-trivial multi-agent systems leveraging AI coding agents. It takes all sorts 🤷‍♂️