When Southwest Philadelphia native Schola Chioma Eburuoh was a graduate student living in Boston, her refrigerator broke down. Her landlord, thankfully, was responsive, but it still took time for him to diagnose the problem and repair it.

Eburuoh had to wait at home all day while he worked on repairs. She was venting to her friend, Sophia Cabral Casino, who shared she had a similar issue: Her drain was blocked up. The problems were stressful and at times overwhelming.

As women who lived alone, they were nervous about having repairmen — and it was almost always a man — who they didn’t know in their homes. They didn’t always feel confident talking to contractors about the problems. Casino was frustrated when the issue with her drain worsened after her landlord failed to address it in a timely manner.

“Repairs are already overwhelming … FiXA is an empowerment tool.” — Sophia Cabral Casino

They knew they weren’t alone: Friends and classmates, especially those who owned their homes and were first time homebuyers, were also intimidated by finding and hiring contractors to work on their homes. Some worried they would get ripped off because they didn’t know anything about home repair. Others wished they had learned to make basic repairs themselves — so they didn’t have to rely on a contractor every time something went wrong.

Women tended to express some of the same concerns about being alone with a male contractor that Eburuoh and Casino had. It’s a problem that’s becoming increasingly common as more and more single women buy their own homes. In 2024, 24 percent of first-time homebuyers were women, up from 11 percent in 1981.

Eburuoh and Casino decided they could help fix this problem. Last month, the pair, who now live in Philadelphia (Eburuoh) and Boston (Casino), launched FiXA, an online tool that teaches homeowners to DIY their repairs and matches them with local, vetted, and often women contractors when they need a little extra help.

An everyday AI tool

FiXA began as a school project. Eburuoh and Casino met while students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and both enrolled in an AI Ventures course at MIT, where their final project had them using AI to solve an everyday problem.

But the pair was more ambitious than that: They partnered to create an AI tool that could analyze dilapidated buildings in Nigeria to see if they could be developed into affordable housing. This was admirable, but not what the assignment called for. “Our professor was like: You’re trying to save the world. We just need you to solve one problem,” Eburuoh recalls.

So, they narrowed their focus to home repair and found their backgrounds complimented one another. Casino had studied architecture and how technology could aid people in design and construction. Eburuoh had worked with her father, a real estate broker in Southwest Philadelphia, and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. She loved seeing the impact purchasing a first home had on families.

“We want to see FiXA becoming the first call for Philadelphia-area homeowners when something goes wrong in their home.” — Schola Chioma Eburuoh

They scrapped the international idea and instead built an AI tool that could analyze repairs and offer advice. They turned in their final project in December 2024, graduated in May 2025, and kept thinking about what they’d built.

So many people had come up to them after their presentation and said, “I need this,” Eburuoh recalls. “Homeowners came up to us, and contractors themselves were like, I need this to give to a homeowner to troubleshoot before I come onto site.”

That spring, they set to work on the business in earnest. They began with interviewing more than 100 people — homeowners, property managers, contractors in and around Philadelphia, since Eburuoh has knowledge of the industry landscape — about their home repair challenges. Next, they found a group of mostly women to test the product.

By summer 2025, formed a partnership with Habitat for Humanity in Delaware County and hosted basic home repair workshops, using their tool for reference. They launched the tool to the public on March 2. Eburuoh is the company’s CEO. Casino its chief technology officer.

For the homeowner who was never taught these things

When users go to FiXA’s website, they’re asked if they want to DIY their repairs or hire a contractor. Then, they’re asked to describe their problem or upload pictures, say, of a leaking pipe or busted window. Then, AI analyzes the inputs and sends videos and written how-to guides to help them fix it. Feeling overwhelmed? You can always opt to connect with a contractor who can handle the repairs and the platform will connect you.

“We personalize it so you are able to choose whether you’re a visual person and you want a video, or if you just want to read,” Eburuoh says.

That’s it. Four steps total. The process and the interface are intentionally straightforward. “Repairs,” Casino says, “are already overwhelming.” They wanted FiXA’s design to be underwhelming and easy to navigate by comparison.

“FiXA is an empowerment tool,” Casino adds. “It’s meant to empower you to take action and to help you be knowledgeable [about your home].”

Even if a user ends up hiring a contractor, the initial analysis and DIY guides can help them feel more confident describing their issues. During the trial phase, they found about 65 percent of users needed a contractor to help with repairs.

Though homeowners are an obvious audience for the tool, FiXA can also help renters who might be having a problem better understand what the issue is — so they can be more informed when they ask their landlords to make repairs. In an emergency, FiXA can sort through its contractors to find someone who can respond ASAP.

The service is free for users. FiXA earns money through commissions when users purchase tools and materials via the repair guides, and by charging contractors who get jobs from the platform modest ($25 to $75) lead generation fees. Eburuoh and Casino vet each contractor, interviewing them, calling three references and checking to make sure their licenses and insurance are up to date. They can connect folks with plumbers, electricians, HVAC specialists, contractors, appliance repairmen and women, handyperson services, carpenters — just about anyone who can fix something in or on a house.

Mary Richter is a contractor and managing partner with Home Advantage Builders, a company that uses FiXA. She became a carpenter after working in journalism and realizing she wanted a more active, better paying job. She appreciates that FiXA exists to help women and people who feel anxiety. She remembers being intimidated herself when she went back to school to study carpentry and had to work in largely male-dominated environments.

“There’s a huge demand for female contractors, because, for so many reasons women may be uncomfortable with a male contractor,” Richter says. “Sometimes just having another woman around makes you feel better.”

A brand-new go-to for Philly homeowners

FiXA launched at the beginning of March. In its first two weeks, nearly 800 people visited FiXA’s site and 64 accessed repair guides and three chose to connect with a contractor. They launched with four contractors in the network, serving Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, Chester and Bucks counties. They’re working with partners, like Habitat for Humanity or small mortgage lenders to get contractor recommendations and grow their contractor network. Eburuoh and Casino vet each contractor, interviewing them, calling three references and checking to make sure their licenses and insurance are up to date

It’s still early for the business, so they’re in the proof-of-concept stage right now. Their target demographic is people with contractor anxiety. That tends to be women, who might worry about having an unknown man in their home to do repairs, but it can also extend to first-time home buyers and immigrants, who might be trying to manage a language barrier when looking for and hiring a contractor.

“It’s for anybody with contractor anxiety,” Casino says. “We want this to be a tool that really diminishes stress about maintenance.”

All of the contractors they work with are women or family-owned, which can help ease anxiety about hiring a contractor for many homeowners. Eburuoh and Casino hope that FiXA will one day be the first stop for Philly homeowners when they need to make repairs. Once the company gets its sea legs in Philly, they want to expand to other cities, like Boston or Baltimore, which tend to have a similar housing stock.

“We love seeing Philadelphia homeowners using this tool and getting their problem solved,” Eburuoh says. “We want to see FiXA becoming the first call for Philadelphia-area homeowners when something goes wrong in their home.”

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