Permitting shouldn't be a guessing game

The rules are public. The outcomes are public. Yet applying for a permit still feels like a black box. We're opening it up.

Our story

Every year, property owners leave enormous value on the table because the permitting process is opaque. An ADU that never gets built. A short-term rental that never gets licensed. A variance abandoned after one confusing rejection.

Here's the encouraging part: the information needed to get it right already exists. Zoning ordinances are published. Permit outcomes are public record. Board decisions are documented in meeting minutes. Nobody had connected it all — so we did.

Permitio started with a simple idea: if you analyze years of permit and zoning decisions, you can complete applications the way successful applicants do, and tell people their realistic odds before they spend a dollar.

Chattanooga riverfront and the Walnut Street Bridge at dusk

Framing crew raising a wooden wall on a residential build site

Why Chattanooga

Chattanooga is one of the fastest-growing cities in the Southeast, with real development pressure and a city government that genuinely invests in open data — its public data portal publishes permit records going back nearly two decades.

We also have deep roots here. Our team's relationships with the Chattanooga building community make it the right place to prove that data-driven permitting works — for applicants and for the city, which benefits from complete, well-prepared applications.

Chattanooga is first. It won't be last — join the waitlist and tell us where to go next.

The team

Brook Armstrong

Co-founder. Product and technology — building the data engine that turns public records into approval intelligence.

Luke Swab

Co-founder. Partnerships and market — deep relationships across Chattanooga's building and municipal community.

What we believe

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Public data should work for the public

Everything we build runs on public records — ordinances, permit datasets, board minutes. We make that information usable for the people it was published for.

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Good applications help cities too

Incomplete applications waste everyone's time. When applicants file complete, well-targeted requests, city staff review faster and boards decide on merits.

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Honesty over hype

We never invent facts, never guarantee approvals, and always show our sources. If your project is a long shot, we'll tell you before you spend money on it.

Building in Chattanooga?

Join the pilot, or reach out if you're an architect or engineer interested in our sign-off network.

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