In November 2019, I left my job as a security engineer at Slack. I’d spent years helping scale the infrastructure of a company that changed how people work—but something was pulling me in a new direction.
That “something” was a run-down house I had just bought.
It wasn’t much to look at, but it was ours. My wife, my dad, and I rolled up our sleeves and dove headfirst into renovating it ourselves. We learned how walls were framed, how water lines snaked through the house, how appliances failed, and how repairs could go from manageable to overwhelming when you didn’t have good information.
When we finally finished, something unexpected happened: the neighbor knocked on our door and said, “Hey, we’re selling our place next.” That house was a short-term rental. We saw the potential, took the leap, and bought it too.
Together, we turned that second house into a beautiful and functional Airbnb. We learned even more—about property management, remote maintenance, renter expectations, and how valuable documentation could be. We kept it running smoothly until we eventually sold both houses and moved on to an even bigger challenge.
That third home—our current one—is the most ambitious fixer-upper yet. It’s where we live, and the work is ongoing. But somewhere in the dust, paint, and spreadsheets, an idea was forming.
The Birth of a Problem (and an Idea)
After managing and renovating multiple properties, we had developed a pretty deep understanding of how homes work. We tried to stay ahead of preventive maintenance, but like many homeowners, we felt constantly overwhelmed.
To survive, we built systems: a giant Airtable spreadsheet tracked filter replacements, appliance models, paint colors, receipts, and renovation timelines. It helped—but it wasn’t enough.
We even tried building an Alexa skill for Airbnb guests, so they could ask, “Where’s the Wi-Fi?” or “How do I use the fireplace?” But the prototype never made it out of our dev environment.
Still, the pain was clear. Homeownership had a documentation problem. We weren’t alone in this. Every homeowner we knew had a pile of manuals, scattered receipts, or a garage shelf filled with forgotten to-do lists.
So I started working on the early stages of a solution. A property management app. Something that could centralize everything. That project was called dib. But like so many side projects, it sat on the shelf for a while.
A New Chapter
Years passed. Then my daughter was born—and everything changed.
Suddenly, the idea of “home” meant even more. I wanted to build something lasting, not just for myself, but for her. I wanted her to inherit not just a house, but a record of its story—every improvement, every repair, every decision we made to take care of it.
At the same time, something else was shifting: the rise of AI.
I’d been out of tech for a few years and honestly felt behind. But the new wave of developer tools, like Cursor, reignited something in me. I dove headfirst into learning again. The speed and power of AI tooling made it feel like I could finally build the product I’d always envisioned.
Late nights in my garage office became the norm. The same curiosity and drive that once pushed me to tear down drywall was now pushing me to write code, train models, and refine interfaces. Slowly but surely, Dib came to life.
Why Dib Exists
Dib is the product of lived experience. It’s not some generic platform built in a vacuum—it was born from years of hands-on renovation, trial and error, missed maintenance, lost receipts, and one too many late-night YouTube tutorials.
It’s for homeowners like me who want to take care of their home but don’t have hours to spare figuring out which HVAC filter they need—or when it was last changed.
Dib makes homeownership smarter. It turns scattered documents and forgotten tasks into structured knowledge. It helps you stay ahead of maintenance, document improvements, and even prepare for resale or insurance claims.
Most importantly, Dib remembers so you don’t have to.
Looking Ahead
We’re still just getting started. But the mission is clear: to make home ownership simpler, more organized, and more rewarding
Thanks for reading, and thanks for being part of this journey.
— Alex, Founder of dib.io
