CurbScan Program & Data Economics
PropChain's CurbScan program is the operational backbone for Terra Net's curb-level data ingestion and the predictive features that differentiate PropChain's valuation models. This comprehensive analysis details hardware costs, operational expenditure, scanning economics, phase-by-phase modeling, and feasibility under each raise size.
$14K
CapEx Per Rig
Complete hardware and installation cost
$5.9K
Monthly OpEx
Fully loaded operating cost per rig
1,050
Miles Per Month
Conservative scanning output per rig
45
Total Rig-Months
Across all three deployment phases
Everything adheres to the capital plan's explicit assumptions, ensuring $307,500 total cost for full 3-rig rollout over 24 months while maintaining Seed runway constraints.
Hardware Bill of Materials
Planning-grade production BOM for a single CurbScan rig, engineered for reliability, edge processing capability, and weatherproof operation in diverse urban environments.
Core Compute
Jetson AGX Orin Dev Kit ($3,999) — Primary edge compute device for ML pre-processing and frame selection
2TB NVMe SSD ($350) — High-write endurance onboard storage for raw video and pre-processed frames
Imaging Systems
4K Wide-FOV Camera ($1,200) — High-dynamic-range street imagery capture
Secondary Side-FOV Camera ($650) — Improves driveway and side-frontage detection
Connectivity
GNSS Multi-band GPS ($270) — Sub-meter GPS trace with timestamp synchronization
Cellular LTE/5G Modem ($400) — Telemetry pings and metadata uplink
Infrastructure
Sensor Rack & Enclosure ($2,850) — Weatherproof, vibration dampened housing
Roof/Window Mount ($900) — Calibration-friendly base with dampening
Power System ($275) — DC-DC converters hardwired to vehicle
Cooling & Airflow Kit ($200) — Prevents Jetson overheating
Installation & Support
- Professional installation & calibration: $1,000
- Cables, harnesses, misc. hardware: $200
- Incremental NAS-side allocation: $500
- Spares kit (camera, cables, mounts): $1,000
Total Per-Rig CapEx
≈ $13,000 BOM + $1,000 install = $14,000 per rig
This matches the Capital Plan's non-negotiable number and ensures consistent budgeting across all phases.
Per-Rig Operational Expenditure
Fully loaded monthly operating cost per rig, covering all aspects of continuous scanning operations including labor, vehicle costs, connectivity, and infrastructure support.
Cost Breakdown Details
Driver wages ($4,620): $22/hr plus 25% burden across 168 hours per month, representing the largest operational expense.
Vehicle lease/finance ($500): Mid-size sedan or SUV suitable for urban scanning operations.
Fuel ($250): Approximately 1,500 miles per month at $3.10/gallon with 22 mpg efficiency.
Connectivity ($60): LTE/5G telemetry and control plane, not bulk data upload.
Total OpEx Per Rig
$5,895 → rounded to $5,900/month per rig
This number is fixed in the Capital Plan and used consistently across all financial modeling and phase planning.
Scanning-Mile Production Economics
Seed-baseline scanning output per rig, using intentionally conservative assumptions to protect margin and runway while ensuring reliable data collection across target markets.
Active Scanning
5 hours per day of productive scanning time
10 miles per hour while actively scanning
21 days per month of operational coverage
Monthly Output
≈1,050 scanned miles per rig per month
~1,500 total vehicle miles including transit and positioning
Unit Economics
$5.60 per scanned mile — OpEx divided by productive scanning output
$3.93 per total mile — OpEx divided by all vehicle miles
Conservative Planning Rationale
These numbers intentionally build in buffer for weather delays, traffic conditions, equipment calibration, driver training, and urban access challenges. Actual production may exceed these baselines, but planning conservatively protects runway and ensures deliverable commitments to investors.
Efficiency Opportunities
As the program matures, efficiency gains from route optimization, driver experience, and improved calibration protocols may increase productive scanning hours to 6-7 per day, potentially reducing per-mile costs by 15-20% without additional capital investment.
CapEx Cost Model
Three-rig deployment timeline aligned with program phases, ensuring capital efficiency while building multi-market coverage necessary for predictive model generalization.
1
Rig 1 — Month 1
$14,000 CapEx
Included in $30k Hardware budget. Enables Phase A launch with immediate NJ/NY metro coverage and pipeline validation.
2
Rig 2 — Month 10
$14,000 CapEx
Funded from reserve or reallocation. Launches Phase B with second-market expansion, critical for multi-market predictive generalization.
3
Rig 3 — Month 19
$14,000 CapEx
Feasible primarily at $1.6M raise. Enables Phase C third-market coverage and cross-market drift detection capabilities.
Total Rig CapEx Investment
≈ $42,000 across all three rigs
This represents the complete hardware capital requirement for the full CurbScan program, excluding operational expenditure which scales with active rig-months.
Program Phases A, B, C
Phase definitions are canonical and used across all Seed planning. Each phase delivers specific data coverage, predictive capabilities, and product milestones while managing capital deployment against runway constraints.
Phase A: Foundation
Months 1–9 | 1 Rig | 9 rig-months
9,450 scanned curb miles
Cost: $67,100 ($14k CapEx + $53.1k OpEx)
Phase B: Expansion
Months 10–18 | 2 Rigs | 18 rig-months
18,900 scanned curb miles
Cost: $120,200 ($14k CapEx + $106.2k OpEx)
Phase C: Scale
Months 19–24 | 3 Rigs | 18 rig-months
18,900 scanned curb miles
Cost: $120,200 ($14k CapEx + $106.2k OpEx)
Phase A Deliverables
- Full pipeline validation
- NJ/NY metro coverage
- Alpha → Beta predictive calibration
- Early CurbScore™ signatures
- MLS-backed pilots enabled
Phase B Deliverables
- Multi-market generalization
- New ORI-2 state (FL/TX preferred)
- Valuation reliability proof
- Beta + partner dashboards
- Cross-market model validation
Phase C Deliverables
- Third ORI-2 state (CA/WA/GA)
- Cross-market drift detection
- Enterprise market analytics
- Partner dashboard maturity
- API monetization readiness
Total Program Cost Summary
Complete financial picture for the full three-phase CurbScan program, representing PropChain's proprietary data acquisition investment over the 24-month Seed period.
$265.5K
Total OpEx
45 rig-months of operational expenditure across all phases
$42K
Total CapEx
Three complete scanning rigs with installation and spares
$307.5K
Total Program Cost
Complete A + B + C deployment over 24 months
Cost Distribution
Fixed Across Capital Plan
This $307,500 total appears consistently across all Capital Plan documentation and financial modeling. It represents the complete investment required to build PropChain's proprietary curb-level dataset across three distinct ORI-2 markets.
The 86% OpEx / 14% CapEx split reflects the labor-intensive nature of systematic urban scanning while keeping hardware costs manageable within Seed constraints.
Raise-Size Feasibility Grid
Critical analysis for investor conversations showing exactly which scanning phases are feasible under each raise scenario, with explicit tradeoffs against reserve and runway.
Planning Assumptions
Base Seed plan (non-scanning): $1.22M over 24 months
Reserve baseline: $180k for contingency and flexibility
Allocation rules: Do not reduce headcount or MLS/data budgets unless explicitly specified
Strategic Implications
At the $1.4M target raise, PropChain can confidently execute Phase A and carefully execute Phase A+B with reserve management. Phase C requires either $1.6M raise or strategic tradeoffs in discretionary spending.
This grid provides transparent guidance for investor conversations about capital deployment and data acquisition strategy.
Recommended Approach
Minimum viable: $1.4M enables Phase A+B, delivering multi-market predictive validation
Optimal: $1.6M enables full A+B+C program with comfortable reserves
Fallback: $1.2M limits to Phase A with potential Phase B if early traction enables reallocation
Reserve Tradeoff Analysis
Precise impact of each scanning phase on reserve buffer and effective runway, showing exactly how CurbScan investment affects financial flexibility and risk management.
Base Plan Without Scanning
Planned spend: $1.22M
Reserve: $180k
Effective runway: 22–24 months
Provides comfortable buffer for hiring delays, market shifts, or strategic pivots without scanning investment.
Phase A Only (1 Rig, Months 1–9)
Added cost: $67.1k
New total spend: $1.287M
Reserve after Phase A: ≈$113k
Runway impact: modest (−1 to −2 months)
Phase A is the only "guaranteed-safe" scanning path at $1.4M
Phase A + B (2 Rigs, 18 months)
Added cost: $187.3k (B: $120.2k + A: $67.1k)
New total spend: $1.407M
Reserve after A+B: ≈−$7k → requires trims or full reserve use
Pushes burn near runway limit. Possible at $1.4M, comfortable at $1.6M.
Phase A + B + C Impact
Added cost: $307.5k
Total spend: $1.527M
Reserve after A+B+C: ≈−$127.5k
To make Phase C work at $1.4M, PropChain must:
- Activate reserve fully
- Cut discretionary GTM spend, or
- Delay 2nd Engineer / Sales hire by 1–2 quarters
Conclusion: Feasible at $1.6M, a stretch at $1.4M.
Risk Management Framework
The reserve buffer serves multiple purposes: hiring flexibility, market timing adjustments, unexpected technical challenges, and strategic opportunity capture.
Depleting reserve for scanning is justified only if the proprietary data advantage creates sufficient competitive moat and revenue acceleration to offset reduced financial flexibility.
At $1.4M, Phase A+B represents the optimal risk-adjusted scanning investment, delivering multi-market validation while preserving minimal reserve.
What Scanning Delivers
Investors often ask "Why scan at all?" This section provides PropChain's answer: scanning creates proprietary data that no MLS, aggregator, or competitor possesses, powering differentiated product capabilities and multiple revenue streams.
Proprietary Visual Intelligence
Curb-level imagery, roof and maintenance inference, parking and driveway features, exterior condition trajectories over time. No competitor has systematic, timestamped visual data at this scale.
Micro-Block Signatures
Street-level quality assessment, tree canopy and solar shading signals, micro-block desirability signatures that capture hyperlocal value drivers invisible in traditional data sources.
Superior Predictive Models
AVM valuation accuracy improvement, renovation ROI modeling, predictive search ranking, block-level trend detection. Terra Engine's models outperform competitors by incorporating visual and contextual signals.
Multiple Revenue Streams
Premium paid Pro tier differentiation, data and API monetization to lenders, investors, and SFR operators. CurbScore™ and condition intelligence create defensible B2B revenue beyond consumer subscriptions.
"Telemetry + MLS = the differentiated value of the predictive engine."CurbScan data transforms PropChain from another real estate search app into a proprietary intelligence platform with defensible competitive advantages and multiple monetization paths.
Why This Program Fits Seed Economics
At Seed stage, PropChain must simultaneously build proprietary datasets, deliver multi-market Beta performance, prove valuation differentiation, and preserve 22–24 months of runway—all without million-dollar cloud costs or premature fleet scaling.
01
Build Proprietary Dataset
CurbScan creates defensible data moat that no aggregator or MLS can replicate, establishing long-term competitive advantage in predictive accuracy and product differentiation.
02
Deliver Multi-Market Beta
Phase A+B provides sufficient geographic diversity to prove model generalization, critical for investor confidence in national scalability and enterprise partnerships.
03
Prove Valuation Differentiation
Curb-level signals demonstrably improve AVM accuracy and renovation ROI predictions, validating the core value proposition that justifies premium pricing and B2B monetization.
04
Avoid Premature Scaling
Phased deployment prevents million-dollar cloud costs and fleet management complexity, keeping burn rate manageable while building proof points for Series A.
05
Preserve Runway Flexibility
Conservative Phase A+B approach at $1.4M maintains 20+ month runway with minimal reserve, providing flexibility for hiring, market timing, and strategic pivots.
Engineering Precision
The A → A+B → A+B+C phased scanning program is engineered precisely for Seed-stage constraints. Each phase delivers measurable product and data milestones while managing capital deployment against runway requirements.
This isn't aspirational—it's a detailed operational plan with validated unit economics, conservative assumptions, and explicit tradeoff analysis.
Investor Confidence
Sophisticated investors recognize that PropChain's scanning program demonstrates:
- Strategic thinking about defensible advantages
- Operational discipline in capital deployment
- Technical depth in data infrastructure
- Clear path from proprietary data to revenue
The program's phased structure provides natural checkpoints for Series A conversations.