Meet Paces, the startup building the largest permitting and power-availability dataset in the United States — enabling developers, data-center builders, and renewable-energy players to move faster than ever.
From automating 80%+ of the energy-development workflow to unlocking hidden power on the grid, Paces is quietly shaping trillions of dollars worth of energy infrastructure.
00:00 – Why America Has 28,000 Permitting Jurisdictions
01:12 – How Paces Began: The Origin Story
03:40 – Early Problems in Renewable Development
06:30 – Why Paces Joined YC
08:55 – Building the Largest Permitting Dataset in the US
11:20 – Scraping, Cleaning & Using LLMs for Zoning Laws
14:05 – Finding Power on the Grid (and why it got harder)
16:50 – Transformer Shortages & Multi-Million-Dollar Deposits
19:40 – Data Centers vs Utilities: The New Reality
22:15 – Can Clean Energy Actually Power AI?
24:30 – Solar + Batteries vs Gas vs Nuclear for Speed
27:00 – The True Bottleneck: Capital & Supply Chain Timing
29:10 – How Startups Can Innovate in Energy Hardware
32:45 – The One-Person Billion Dollar Power Company
36:00 – Automating 80% of Energy Development
38:10 – Future of Energy, AI & Infrastructure
40:00 – How to Contact Paces / Hiring
The Electric Slide
https://www.notboring.co/p/the-electric-slide
Rho
Website - https://www.rho.co/
Public
Website - https://public.com/
James McWalter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmcwalter/
Nichole wischoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/