Built by a contractor, for the work he already does.
IkenaAI is the customer-facing version of the software John Thomas built to run his own residential design + build projects in Honolulu. Property Brief, Aloha Off-Market Network, and BlueWave Projects are the externalized stack — the same tools the Ikena crew uses internally on real Hawaii jobs every day.
John Thomas
Owns and runs Ikena Design & Build Group, a residential design-build firm working across O'ahu. Backgrounds in Alaska expedition logistics and Hawaii hospitality. Lives in Waikiki. Builds the software at night and uses it on his own jobs by morning. The fastest way to email him: [email protected].
Why this exists
Hawaii's property data is excellent, fragmented, and slow. The state's Office of Planning publishes 384,262 statewide TMK parcels. Honolulu DPP exposes building permits going back decades. Hawaii County publishes seven different planning-permit layers. Maui and Kauai keep theirs behind portals. All of it is public record. None of it is in one place.
When you're scoping a real renovation in Kahala or planning an addition in Hilo, you need that data fast, accurate, and in one view — not split across six county portals with mismatched UIs. So I built one. First for the Ikena crew. Then for any homeowner, agent, or contractor who works the same way.
Ma ka hana ka ʻike. — Hawaiian ʻōlelo noʻeau · "In the doing, the knowledge"
How it works
Three products, one statewide data layer, all built native for Hawaii — meaning the watch-outs that matter here (lava zones, Act 125 cesspool conversions, shoreline setbacks, salt-air corrosion, archaeological monitoring) are baked into every brief, every scope, every quote.
- Property Brief · for homeowners watching one property
- Aloha Off-Market Network · for agents hunting pre-MLS signals
- BlueWave Projects · for contractors running residential design-build
See all three plans side-by-side with a feature compare, or just try the free address lookup — that's the front door for every product.
Principles
Build native, don't stitch
If a third-party SaaS would sit between Ikena and a client, we build the feature ourselves. No Procore. No Polycam wrapper. The client sees Ikena, not a Frankenstein of vendor logos.
Use it before selling it
Every feature in IkenaAI runs on real Ikena projects first. If it doesn't survive a real job site, it doesn't ship. Property Brief is what John reads before bidding a remodel. The scope generator drafted his last six proposals.
One paddler, one paddle
Customer-facing emails come from real humans, not marketing automation. Reply to anything you get from us — it lands in John's inbox.
Hawaii first, mainland later
The data, the watch-outs, the language — calibrated for Hawaii. Lava-Zone-1 Pahoa is not the same as "near a stream" in mainland model. Salt-air hardware codes are not in any national property AI. We built for here.
What's behind the hood
What's next
- Maui + Kauai county-permit layers (when they publish REST)
- Aloha Network signal automation (currently hand-curated by John)
- ProBuildCalc on the App Store (LiDAR scans + 60s instant quotes)
- Multi-tenant BlueWave Projects rollout (other Hawaii contractors as Tenant 2+)
- Aerial imagery + roof-condition analysis on parcel detail
Public changelog and feature work shows up on the Field Notes. If you're an early subscriber, you get the changes the same week they ship.
Want to see it work on a property you know?
Try the lookup tool free — punch in any Hawaii address and you'll see the same parcel data the paid products run on. Then decide if you want it delivered to your inbox.
The short version
A Honolulu contractor built Hawaii-specific property + project software for his own crew, then made it available to anyone working the same problem. No outside investors. No data resale. No automated marketing. The product you see today is the version that survived a real Friday on a real job site.
Questions, partnerships, press: [email protected]. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii — full mailing address available on request.