When most people think about permitting, they see paper mountains, clerks swimming in red ink, and project timelines that feel like geological eras. e-PlanSoft looked at that mess and engineered a different path. Born out of Owen Group in the early 2000s, where pallets of drawings were suffocating reviewers, the concept became its own company in 2008 after patents were secured for linking reviewer comments directly to drawings. Fast forward, and e-PlanSoft is now the Irvine-based SaaS platform powering governments across the U.S. And this week, they announced a growth investment from ParkerGale LLC. That’s not just money, it’s recognition that permitting software isn’t a back-office tool anymore, it’s the backbone of community development.
The foundation was built by Dr. Michael Chegini, a structural engineer who didn’t just see inefficiency, he solved it. His patented approach turned plan review from a slow relay into a concurrent, browser-based workflow. The results are measurable. In Syracuse, review timelines dropped from half a year, or more, to under eight weeks. Other cities like Safety Harbor, Bradenton, Montgomery County, and Tarpon Springs have followed suit. This isn’t about making things a little faster. It’s about shifting how governments and builders interact, cutting delays that stall both projects and progress.
This funding round comes not to rescue but to accelerate. e-PlanSoft already has traction, profitability, and products in market, Review Sessions for live collaboration, go Post for public-facing submissions, PDF Scout for quality control. The customers are there, the revenue is real, the platform is proven. ParkerGale’s capital ensures the scaling happens faster, broader, smarter.
Leadership is locked in. Dr. Michael Chegini continues to guide the technology vision and protect the intellectual property. Jon Sonnenschein steps in as CEO, bringing his private equity and growth-stage chops to scale operations. Paula Montoya drives services and customer success as COO. Finance is handled by John Kalkanian, marketing and demand generation by Edward Joseph, with ParkerGale Partner Ryan Milligan on the board as observer. This isn’t a rookie bench. It’s a roster built for execution.
The road ahead points to AI-powered compliance checks, deeper integrations with systems like Accela, and hardened multi-state cloud deployments. What that means is simple: governments will not just review plans faster, they’ll do it smarter, more consistently, and more transparently.
So the next time someone tells you permitting is just paperwork, remember e-PlanSoft. Because when a company makes red tape move this quickly, it stops being tape, it becomes infrastructure.
