E124: Disaster Recovery Gets a Tech Upgrade with Tessi
From Everybody in the Pool by Molly Wood
February 26, 2026 · 33 min · Episode 124
About this episode
Molly Wood interviews Susan Hunt Stevens about Tessi's innovative approach to improving the post-disaster home repair system using technology.
Three million homes are damaged by natural disasters in the US every year — and with a billion-dollar storm hitting roughly every ten days, that number is only growing. But the system for repairing affected homes is stuck in the past, with mountains of paperwork, fragmented funding, and rampant fraud leaving vulnerable homeowners stranded. This week on Everybody in the Pool , Molly sits down with Susan Hunt Stevens, the founder and CEO of Tessi, a platform working to fix what she calls the “broken post-disaster home repair system.” Tessi brings homeowners, vetted contractors, insurers, government programs, and other funders onto a single platform that uses AI-driven damage assessments to quickly evaluate a home in the wake of a disaster. We talk about: How Tessi uses AI and aerial imagery to generate damage assessments within 24 hours How the surge in natural disasters has made homeowners increasingly vulnerable to contractor fraud Why only 4% of homeowners affected by flooding and hurricanes are actually covered by insurance How homeowners can use disaster repair as an opportunity to implement climate-adaptive upgrades Tessi’s role in a complicated ecosystem where any repair…
People in this episode
Host: Molly Wood
Guest: Susan Hunt Stevens
Topics covered
- disaster recovery
- technology
- home repair
- AI
- natural disasters
- contractor fraud
Keywords
- disaster recovery
- home repair
- Tessi
- AI assessments
- natural disasters
- contractor fraud
- insurance coverage
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Tessi
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