Launch HN: Fresco (YC F24) – AI Copilot for Construction Superintendents
Superintendents are the busiest and most expensive people on construction sites. Just like doctors in a hospital, supers diagnose and triage issues, make observations about conditions, and delegate action items to their team. Also, like doctors, supers are responsible for an enormous amount of document generation, accounting for the work done in the field so that back office people can keep records for billing purposes.
Right now, supers are taking 30-200 photos per day to document site progress (mostly for liability reasons, or in case of a dispute with the owner over delays and deliverables). At the end of the day, they'll spend a few hours uploading those photos into OneDrive, or project management software like Procore or ACC. They might transcribe those photos; few supers have time to do this thoroughly, so these photos aren’t very searchable. And supers might use those photos to create "daily logs", which are structured documents that account for the work done on site on any given day.
Fresco uses generative AI to compile reports and punch lists for superintendents during their site walks, not after. Supers simply take short videos with voiceover, or upload photos, and Fresco does the rest, creating notes with transcription, photos, assignees, and due dates. Supers can easily text their crew action items, and receive texts back to keep informed of when tasks are done. We also route this to whatever project management software they're using with a single click.
Right now, we charge per site per month, which includes unlimited users on any given construction project. The typical price is $1k/month, but we offer discounts for multi-month or multi-site commitments. If you want to try Fresco yourself, you can sign up for demo access at fresco-ai.com.
We’ve also gotten some interest from other verticals where site walks are common, like commercial real estate. We’re hoping that in the future it may be possible to address these as well.
If you’ve worked in the construction field, we’d love to hear your experiences and insights. We look forward to your comments and feedback!