The contractor whose hardest project inspired a company built to give every project participant something the industry too often withholds: the complete, defensible truth.

Cheers to the instigator behind the answers

Dominick Armato is the co-founder and President of MySmartPlans—and the instigator behind our search for a better way.

In Kansas City, Dominick is the go-to guy. Mention his name or make a dinner reservation, and someone inevitably asks, “Do you know Dominick?”

I always answer, “Yes. I’m his wife.” Then the stories begin: “I worked with him.” “He knows my parents.” And because Dominick is Sicilian, “We might be cousins.”

Behind that familiar smile is 45 years of construction knowledge—and the experience that ultimately created MySmartPlans.

The project that changed everything

After 45 years of running a respected union painting business, Dominick was relentlessly pursued by an out-of-town contractor to take over for a subcontractor that could not perform on the Whiteman Air Force Base housing project.

“We’ll make you whole. We’ll work with you. You don’t know what you don’t know about the mess you’re taking over.”

Dominick knew his craft. He trusted the wrong contractor, bonded the project with all our assets, and stepped into a nightmare.

The emails came in a deluge. PDFs piled up. Calls demanded, “Just do this, and we’ll catch you up.” But they never caught him up.

At the end of the project, we closed the doors on a 45-year-old business. We spent $850,000 closing it responsibly.

Where are all the good subcontractors?

The industry keeps asking that question. The answer is painful: too many good subcontractors have been destroyed by greed, broken promises, missing information, and contract games.

The greed of the industry forced that business to close. It did not end us.

The question that created MySmartPlans

We refused to let the loss be the end of our story. Instead, we asked:

What if everyone could defend their contract? What if every participant had the complete project record? What if the truth were organized, preserved, time-stamped, and available when it mattered most?

With a $15,000 check, we launched MySmartPlans from a 700-square-foot garage.

Today, MySmartPlans delivers independent, owner-controlled project record governance. We have prevented litigation, helped deliver a federal project with only one change order—and it was a deduct—and redefined what is possible when project data is complete, governed, and ready to answer.

From our greatest loss came an industry-changing mission

Dominick’s experience became the foundation for a better way: a project environment where no owner, contractor, or trade partner has to face a claim without the facts needed to defend the contract.

Cheers to Dominick Armato—the craftsman, the co-founder, the instigator, and the man who helped turn our greatest loss into a solution for an entire industry.

The industry can do better. We proved it.

Join us.