Challenge: Spec overload, time-intensive estimating, and labor-hour mistrust with legacy tools.
Solution: Makeoff ingests plans/notes, flags high‑impact requirements, matches BoMs to real vendor catalogs, and spins up Value Engineering alternates in clicks.
Expected Impact: Fewer missed scope items, faster bids (hours saved per project), sharper pricing via co-pilot Value Engineering and real-time pricing.
Best Fit: Complex, non–cookie-cutter commercial projects (hospitals, dialysis/plasma centers, warehouses, mixed-use TI), plus mid-size independents that bid frequently. Government work benefits immediately from spec reader.
A week before this demo, Erin asked herself: “Surely AI should be doing something for me by now.” Paige connected her with Makeoff, whose promise isn’t to reinvent ConEst, it’s to pull all your bid docs together and make sense of it.Makeoff’s differentiator: it “thinks” through materials and notes, ranking what matters by financial severity and generating VE alternates on command.
Erin has been on the front lines of estimating in every form: ConEst (“labor hours were high”), Accubid (“hand‑jammy, heavy setup”), Excel, even pencil & paper. The real killer? 300‑page spec books packed with hidden gotchas and submittal packets that demand every “screw, nut, and bolt.” Missing one buried requirement can completely erase profit.
Time is another tax. Erin color‑codes specs by hand, cross‑checks labor tables against reality, and re-runs VE ideas manually. Government work in particular “jacks commercial up to 11” with thousand-page spec books and certified payroll.
“Specs are designed to screw you on footnote three, subparagraph S.”
– Erin Batyreva
