In his days as a general contractor in Rhode Island, Luke Fleury spent too much time receiving and reviewing bids for his projects. Time consuming and paper heavy, the process ate up too much of the work week, he said.
Frustrated, Fleury turned to the internet to see what kind of technology might be available to help him wade through the work. To his surprise, he found nothing. This week, Fleury, along with co-founder Case Olszewski, launched the app Dibbs as a one-stop shop for construction supplies and services.
Fleury said the app uses built-in bidding templates to cut the time it takes to place and receive bids in half.
"Having a CEO who understands the field and operates on a day-to-day basis with other contractors and suppliers, helps us to ensure we are creating a tool that actually helps our users,” Olszewski said in a statement.
Based out of Newport, the app is available to Rhode Island and Massachusetts residents. The company hopes to expand its reach in phase two of its launch plan in April, according to a release.
“We developed Dibbs to provide suppliers, contractors and home/building owners choice, quality, and the lowest prices,” Fleury said. “We aim to take the friction out of bidding, buying and selling products and services in the marketplace. Our mission is to improve infrastructure, increase construction sales and provide access to more jobs.”
Fleury said Dibbs has raised several million dollars over the last year through investors, but he declined to elaborate.
Some of Dibbs’ top advisors include Rob DeSantis, the former co-founder of Ariba; Ed Kinsey, CFO and co-founder of SAP Ariba and board member of DocuSign; and Zack King, CEO and founder of SHYFT Analytics.
“Having the support from our advisors has been extremely helpful and has instilled confidence amongst the team,” Fleury said. “These advisors and board members share decade's worth of combined trustworthy development and delivery of the most successful technology solutions in existence.”
Dibbs has 23 full-time employees with two more starting soon.
"Dibbs can help people increase productivity and profitability," Olszewski said. "The app enables users to save money on their next project with more options and lower costs as well as higher quality."
