Mary Stewart Malone

I started Brix after signing a lease on a lovely apartment on a great block, on the strength of one walk-through. Then came the leaks in the nursery, the heat that didn't work, and the family-room ceiling on the floor. The neighbors had lived the same thing years earlier, with the same landlord. All of it was already public. It just wasn't anywhere a person with a job and four kids was going to find it in an afternoon. That's the whole story.

So I built the thing I needed. Brix reads the city's own records — violations, complaints, permits, deeds, the calls neighbors have already made — for every apartment building in New York, and writes what they say in plain English.

The rest of the time I'm a principal and co-founder of Addison Partners, a New York real estate investment firm. Earlier stops: Allianz, Bank of Montreal, Hearst, and a transcription company I started and sold. BA in History from Roanoke College. I live in New York with my husband and four kids.