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Shovels - We use permit inspection data to evaluate contractors

Suggested by Ryan Buckley over 1 year ago

Note: this is take #2 on https://os.platformstud.io/guild/unmet_needs/aggregated-contractor-database-by-ryan-buckley


The contractor discovery and evaluation process is still broken. That’s why your neighbors have so many horror stories about construction jobs gone wrong.

Shovels harvests and analyzes millions of permit and inspection records to discover great contractors.

We sell data to builders and the companies who finance them.

Full deck is here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TxTtbOHlwKl61Ytj10Af8X5b-zS5CxKfHBuwacK_S6w/edit#slide=id.p




alarm Why Now?

Permitting jurisdictions are moving their processing online at a rapid pace. This public data is now available for scraping. Meanwhile, the need for more affordable housing and green building contractors has never been greater. The industry needs help.

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over 1 year ago

CEO @ Shovels

First customer! $250/mo to serve contractor data for all of the bay area. They're a new green home building service.

Lissette Arias core team
over 1 year ago

Partner and Chief Design Officer @ Platform Venture Studio

@Charles Donnelly

Jeremy Burton core team
over 1 year ago

CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio

Awesome. @Lissette Arias

Lissette Arias core team
over 1 year ago

Partner and Chief Design Officer @ Platform Venture Studio

Yep

over 1 year ago

CEO @ Shovels

Here's a better problem statement:

--

There's an agency problem in the trades. In my economics classes we called it "information asymmetry," a term popularized by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz who proved that this asymmetry leads to inefficient markets.


However, you don't need an economics degree to know that hiring a home contractor is fraught with risk. Just talk to anyone who's done it. More often than not, and far more frequently than any other hiring decision I can think of, it's a bad experience.


The problem is contractors have far more knowledge of their skill level and fit for the job than the people who hire and finance them.

over 1 year ago

CEO @ Shovels

Sorry for not getting this right... again.


Problem statement:


Choosing a general contractor (GC) is the most important decision a builder will make for a real estate development project. Most contractors are chosen by word-of-mouth because there’s no comprehensive list of active contractors and no quantitative means to evaluate their performance in a particular geography. As a result, builders are not able to discover and evaluate the best GCs for their real estate development projects.

over 1 year ago

@ Cass Mental Health

Yes this is a real problem, I have two friends who have done massive renovations with newly bought properties, and experiences are always bad. One of them fixed it with a knowledgeable guy to manage the general contractor, and that turned out to take away so much stress, work interruptions, and even save a whole lot of money.


So basically having a GC to manage your GC. All that to say, yes this is a real problem, and can certainly use some fixing through data and better feedback loops.


Carbon Health set out to rate primary care clinics and get them better software, but eventually realized they had to build primary care clinics themselves to really make an impact. In this case I wonder if you'd have to do the having a GC for your GC yourself on your own platform, before the data / software element starts making sense. What do you think?

over 1 year ago

CEO @ Shovels

Interesting comment! I suppose there's a future where Shovels could step in to manage the process or at least make referrals to the highest scoring GCs.

Jeremy Burton core team
over 1 year ago

CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio

Also, feel free to submit your deck to me at https://os.platformstud.io/decksend/inbox/jb

Jeremy Burton core team
over 1 year ago

CEO | Founder | Managing Partner @ Platform Venture Studio

@Ryan Buckley - as written, this seems to be a description of your solution, versus of the unmet need. Would you mind separating out the two? You can hit "Propose a Solution" to add your proposed solution once the Unmet Need is described.

comment  Ryan Buckley commented Comment • over 1 year ago
comment  Ryan Buckley commented Comment • over 1 year ago
lightbulb  Ryan Buckley proposed Shovels • over 1 year ago
comment  Ryan Buckley commented Comment • over 1 year ago
comment  Jeremy Burton commented Comment • over 1 year ago
comment  Jeremy Burton commented Comment • over 1 year ago
emoji_people  Ryan Buckley is interested in being a founder to address Shovels - We use permit inspection data to evaluate contractors • over 1 year ago
lightbulb_outline  Ryan Buckley suggested that we solve Shovels - We use permit inspection data to evaluate contractors • over 1 year ago
groups Can you Help?

Are you interested in addressing this Unmet Need?

emoji_people I can be a founder 💡
Ryan Buckley 💡

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emoji_people I can code / build <>

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emoji_people I can sell / market 🚀

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emoji_people I can provide expertise 🎓

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emoji_people I can coach 👏

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