Photo inspections that sell auto repair work

B2B1 monthWeb

StackNext.jsSupabaseS3Twilio

Market read pendingWe are still researching this idea.
How scoring works

The idea

Customers decline repairs they cannot see. When a service writer phones to say the brake pads are at 2 mm, it sounds like upselling; when the customer is looking at a photo of their own worn pads next to a red badge, approval rates jump. Digital vehicle inspections reliably lift average repair order 20-40%, which is exactly why shops tolerate AutoVitals at 300+ USD a month.

The incumbents bundle DVI with marketing suites, CRM, and long contracts. The wedge is the core loop alone, done cleanly: tech snaps photos on a phone, customer gets a text, taps approve on line items, shop gets an authorisation record. At 79 USD/month it undercuts hard while selling the same revenue lift.

Who pays

The buyer is the owner of a 2-8 bay independent shop, at 79 USD/month - one approved brake job a month pays for the year. The ROI maths is unusually easy to demonstrate in the product itself (approved value this month, on the dashboard). Distribution: shop owner Facebook groups, auto repair podcasts, and the jobber/parts reps who visit every independent shop weekly.

MVP scope

  • Phone-first tech inspection flow with photos, video, and red/yellow/green ratings
  • Inspection templates with a default 25-point courtesy check
  • Per-item pricing and SMS-delivered customer report via tokenised link
  • Tap-to-approve/decline line items with timestamped authorisation records
  • Shop dashboard with approved-value tracking
  • Skip for v1: parts catalogue and labour-guide integration, shop management system sync, payment collection, review requests
// Build prompt — paste into Cursor / Claude Code / Lovable / Bolt
Build ShowTheWork, a digital vehicle inspection tool for independent auto
repair shops. Stack: Next.js (App Router), Supabase for Postgres and auth,
S3 with presigned upload URLs for photos and short videos, Twilio for
customer SMS. Two experiences: a phone-first tech flow and a no-login
customer report.

Tech flow: service writer creates a vehicle/customer record and opens an
inspection from a template (e.g. a 25-point courtesy check: brakes, tyres
with tread depth, fluids, belts, suspension, battery). On their phone, the
tech works item by item - snap photos, mark red / yellow / green, add a
one-line note, optionally a 10-second video for things like a wobbling
wheel bearing. Uploads happen in the background so the tech never waits.

Estimate step: the writer attaches a price to each red and yellow item.

Customer flow: the customer gets an SMS with a tokenised link - no app, no
login. The report opens with the vehicle photo, a green/yellow/red summary,
and each flagged item showing its photos, the note, and the price with an
Approve / Decline toggle. A running total updates as they tap. Submitting
fires an SMS and dashboard notification to the shop, and approvals are
timestamped and stored as authorisation records - shops need that paper
trail for disputes.

Pages: shop dashboard (inspections in progress, sent, awaiting response,
approved value today), inspection builder, template editor, customer
report, settings/branding. Pricing: 79 USD/month per shop via Stripe,
unlimited techs and inspections, 14-day trial.

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