In Pacific Palisades, rebuilding is no longer just about replacing what was lost; it is about reengineering the entire system that supports recovery.
This month, local founders Frank Renfro, Mike Furnari, and Kambiz Kamdar quietly launched a platform that could reshape how homeowners, contractors, insurers, and lenders navigate post disaster reconstruction. All three live in the Palisades. All three watched neighbors struggle through opaque insurance claims, chaotic contractor bidding, and rising construction costs. Their response was PaliBuilds; a homebuilding marketplace designed to bring speed, transparency, and intelligence to a fractured process.
At the center of the ecosystem is Bidsy, a new B2B software platform built specifically for general contractors and subcontractors. Until now, most contractors managed bidding through long email chains, blind carbon copies to dozens of subcontractors, scattered PDF attachments, and manual Google Drive folders. Plans were blasted out; bids trickled back over weeks; comparisons were done by hand. It was inefficient, error prone, and costly.
Bidsy automates the entire workflow. Contractors upload project plans once. Subcontractors are invited directly onto the platform to submit bids, documentation, and timelines. Everything flows into a centralized dashboard where general contractors can view, organize, and compare proposals at a high level.
The most powerful layer is artificial intelligence. Instead of manually reviewing multiple framing, foundation, or electrical bids, contractors can now see side by side comparisons that highlight scope differences, pricing gaps, and anomalies. What once took days now takes minutes.
The platform also opens the door for homeowners acting as their own builders. If a homeowner chooses to self manage their rebuild, they can use Bidsy to source and compare subcontractors directly; creating access to professional grade tools that were previously reserved for large firms.
From the subcontractor perspective, the platform solves a long-standing pain point. Many subcontractors invest heavily in estimating staff and software, sometimes spending tens of thousands of dollars annually just to produce bids. Yet they rarely receive feedback when they lose work.
Bidsy introduces market intelligence for subcontractors as well. Using anonymized data, the platform can show how a bid compares to similar projects in the same neighborhood. If a foundation bid is twenty percent above market for that scope, subcontractors finally have insight into pricing gaps and competitiveness. It transforms bidding from guesswork into strategy.
Since launching, Bidsy has already onboarded more than 200 general contractors and subcontractors across the Palisades. The growth signals both urgency and appetite for smarter infrastructure as rebuilding accelerates.
But PaliBuilds is not stopping at construction logistics. The company’s broader vision connects directly to insurance reform and disaster resilience.
Through its sister platform ClaimArchitect.com, PaliBuilds helps homeowners challenge low rebuild estimates issued by insurance carriers. When insurers undervalue reconstruction costs, homeowners are often left with massive funding gaps. ClaimArchitect generates detailed rebuild reports based on hyper local construction pricing data drawn directly from real bids inside the PaliBuilds ecosystem.
That data creates leverage. Instead of theoretical cost models, policyholders can present insurers with real world market pricing tied to their exact geography and scope. It strengthens negotiations and creates accountability grounded in actual construction economics.
Renfro and his team are now preparing a capital raise to further integrate Bidsy and ClaimArchitect; creating an end to end recovery platform that connects contractors, homeowners, insurers, and lenders through a shared data backbone.
On the resilience front, PaliBuilds has partnered with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a nonprofit organization that sets research backed standards for disaster resilient construction. These standards address wildfire hardening, wind resistance, and structural durability.
The partnership helps builders understand how to construct homes that meet emerging safety benchmarks and identifies architects who already design to these standards. As lenders and insurers increasingly incorporate resilience requirements into mortgages and underwriting, these benchmarks are likely to become normalized across California.
The shift is already underway. Mortgage lenders are forming new risk frameworks. Insurance carriers are tightening underwriting criteria. Homebuyers are becoming more educated about fire hardened construction. What was once optional is becoming operational.
PaliBuilds is positioning itself at the intersection of all three forces; technology, insurance reform, and resilient rebuilding.
For Pacific Palisades, the implications are significant. Instead of rebuilding in isolation, homeowners now have access to platforms built by neighbors who understand the stakes firsthand. Instead of fragmented systems, the community gains shared infrastructure designed for speed, fairness, and long term durability.
Rebuilding after wildfire is never simple. But innovation born locally, shaped by lived experience, and scaled through technology offers something rare; momentum grounded in purpose.
As Los Angeles prepares for a future shaped by climate reality, housing pressure, and insurance reform, platforms like PaliBuilds may become less of an experiment and more of a blueprint.
Not just for Palisades, but for how communities everywhere rebuild stronger, smarter, and together.
https://app.getbidsy.com/register
By Michelle Edgar