I’m very excited to announce a new online service created for the home building and improvement industry and developed by my close friend and fellow UC Berkeley CED alum, Grace Tsao Mase. Her company Beyrep is a “Matchmaker” and “Wedding Planner” combo package in one. Grace has not only created an online matchmaking service for homeowners and design/building professionals, but also the essential project management tools, like a planner, to make a home improvement/building project flow effortlessly and sustainably. She has streamlined the administrative and management process of a project’s design and construction process, enabling the homeowner to confidently take control of his/her project from start to finish.
The What: Home improvement and building projects can be challenging, stressful, and frustrating, and it’s not an isolated problem. In fact, homeowners’ dissatisfaction with their projects has ranked in the top-three nationwide (United States) consumer complaints for over 20 years.
Professionally trained and with extensive experience, the team at Beyrep understands that home improvement projects can represent a significant, emotional and financial investment for people. With many learned lessons under its belt, Beyrep can help people avoid the unnecessary stress, heartaches, and costly mistakes that can occur during the design, build, or renovation of their home.
Part 1: The Matchmaker
Finding the right designer and/or contractor for a home improvement project can be a lot like dating, and can be just as daunting. Beyrep utilizes smart matching technology to play the Matchmaker. Both clients and designers/engineers/builders register online and answer a few questions. Beyrep utilizes this information to match homeowners with reputable, fully vetted Pros who are eager to collaborate, understand, and share the client’s vision, style, and budget. Clients can communicate with their matches through Beyrep to set up meetings, obtain bids, and finalize the deal.
Part 2: The Wedding Planner
After the client and Pro finalize the project contract, then the fun really begins. In comes Beyrep the (digital) Wedding Planner to simplify the design and construction planning process. Beyrep’s cloud-based collaboration platform provides both the client and the Pro the administrative tools all in one place to make the entire process simple, transparent, and collaborative. Everything that needs to be kept track of – the schedule, budget, decisions, payments, to-do’s, building inspections, building permits, and everything else – is managed and tracked easily on Beyrep – anytime, anywhere.
Pros can customize Beyrep’s pre-designed documents such as change orders, progress updates, and payment requests and submit them to the client. Clients can review, approve, and provide comments online through the Beyrep system. Payments can be held in Beyrep’s exclusive, escrow-like account and released upon confirmation of completion of work per phase throughout the project. All these features not only streamline the process for everyone but also reduces the time and effort spent managing the project, and consequently saves everyone time and money. Additionally, Beyrep helps improve efficiency and productivity with real-time insights and a direct communication channel, resulting in accountable and honest partnerships.
The Who: Grace Tsao Mase, the founder and CEO of Beyrep, was trained as an architect – with an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and a graduate education from Yale University. She has managed capital improvement projects for U.C. Berkeley and worked in the tech industry for the past two decades. She has had experience managing her own home renovation projects while working full-time. As a mother of two, she also struggled to get organized while juggling her time spent on family, work, and the renovation projects.
After searching for online systems that would help her manage her renovation projects and coming up empty, she ended up using the traditional physical folder, notebook, and notes app. She quickly decided that a physical folder of stuff was still not good enough. Out of the necessity to provide herself and others some sanity, she created Beyrep to reduce stress and simplify her life during her family’s renovation projects.
Currently in its Beta testing mode, Beyrep already has helped many homeowners succeed in managing their home improvement projects. It has simplified the process to connect homeowners with pros. Beyrep helped homeowners understand what decisions needed to be made and when, and provided them a dashboard to easily monitor progress. It has also given pros a complete electronic back-office to replace their traditional paper management methods. Most importantly, Beyrep holds both the homeowners and the pros accountable for all the decisions made in the projects.
A Matchmaker + Wedding planner for home improvements, Beyrep provides everything a homeowner needs to confidently embark on a home improvement project and manage it to completion. And, it provides pros a smarter way to manage their projects and grow their business.
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