The city permit tracker that showed 5x more AI startups than I expected

Pulled the Austin public records API on Friday just to check commercial permits for my side project. Found out 312 new tech companies registered in the last 90 days, but 62% list zero physical address. They're all virtual, no office space, no sales tax filings. That shocked me because every networking meetup I go to has 40 people claiming they're launching. Turns out most of them are just running data scrapers or reselling APIs. Has anyone else dug into the public permit data and seen this huge gap between who says they're a startup and who actually has a legal footprint?

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skyler_jackson2716d ago

Honestly, I read it the opposite way. The whole "no physical address" thing might mean theyre actually being smart with their money instead of burning it on office space downtown. Plenty of real businesses just register a virtual address and work from home. Filing taxes late doesn't equal fake.