St. Petersburg homeowners gathered Thursday at The Floridian Social in downtown to celebrate the official launch of the Indigo risk management platform. The software is designed to give property owners greater transparency and control over renovation and repair projects, addressing common concerns such as fraud, cost overruns, and delays.
How Indigo Works
Indigo allows users to claim their properties, register specific projects, and connect with vetted partner contractors. Throughout the construction process, homeowners can monitor progress, view documentation, and receive updates as work is completed. An artificial‑intelligence‑powered assistant, a virtual “dog” named Dig, helps users navigate the platform and answer questions.
Founder’s Motivation
Founder Matthew Cleary spent most of his career in the construction industry before turning his attention to residential risk management. A personal dispute with a contractor left him without recourse and resulted in a significant financial loss. “I got into a situation with a contractor, I had no recourse to rectify that situation and I lost a lot of money,” Cleary said. That experience sparked the idea to create a tool that would bring accountability and transparency to the homeowner‑contractor relationship.
Development on Indigo began in 2022. A 2023 accident delayed the project, but the team persisted and brought the platform to market this fall. Cleary emphasized that the current process is often informal – “everything is done verbally and through email and text. There’s no real transparency about what’s going on.” Indigo aims to change that by digitizing communications and providing a clear audit trail.
Technology Behind the Platform
Technical lead Verdi Ergün explained that artificial intelligence is central to Indigo’s functionality. AI is used for risk‑assessment scoring, matching homeowners with appropriate contractors, extracting and understanding documents, and analyzing photos of work sites. “AI in general is creating a paradigm shift in how people use technology,” Ergün said. He expects the way users interact with technology to evolve dramatically over the next one to two years.
Community Impact and Future Plans
Beyond the software, Cleary is establishing The Dig Foundation, a nonprofit partner that will provide grants and scholarships to support trade‑school education. He noted that the nation faces a shortage of skilled construction workers – “we’re about half a million to maybe a million workers short in this country.” By promoting trade careers, the foundation hopes to help families achieve a stable, sustainable livelihood.
Indigo’s team plans to expand the platform’s capabilities, adding features that address additional risk‑mitigation factors as they arise. Local contractors who join the Indigo network will benefit from a vetted pool of homeowners seeking reliable work, while homeowners gain a structured, transparent process for managing their projects.
Local Reception
Attendees at the launch event expressed optimism that Indigo could reduce the frustration many homeowners experience when dealing with contractors. The platform’s emphasis on accountability aligns with the community’s desire for trustworthy, family‑focused services that protect personal investments.
Indigo is now available to St. Petersburg residents, with plans to roll out to the broader Pinellas County area in the coming months.
Original reporting: St. Pete Catalyst — read the source article.
