Where we came from
Complex Key founder Steven Saham earned his FAA Part 107 license in 2019 and started out teaching drone technology through the Drone Apprenticeship Program in Detroit. Since 2021 he has flown critical infrastructure inspections across the country: thousands of wind turbines, plus utility poles, telecom towers and farmland.
That work showed what separates useful inspection programs from expensive photo shoots. The best ones learn exactly what their client needs to make decisions, capture it the same way every time, and deliver it in a form people can act on, instead of burying them in images.
Why multifamily
In 2023 Steven teamed up with a roofer to learn the trade. Two things stood out. Insurers regularly dispute storm claims because there’s no proof of the roof’s condition before the storm. And while a homeowner can walk around a two-story house and get a decent read on their roof, a property manager with dozens of buildings, some of them several stories tall, can’t.
Owners of large portfolios need what utilities already have: recurring, independent inspections that show how every asset is changing over time.
Why independent
Energy and telecom companies don’t want an inspector telling them how to run their assets. They want reliable data, because they’re the experts. Experienced property managers are the same. We don’t sell roofs or repairs, so the evidence is never shaded by a sales pitch.
Where the name comes from
Our first reports were 30 to 80 pages per building. To make a whole complex manageable, we built a single index that linked every building’s report, photos and key findings, and tracked the trends from one year to the next. We called it the complex key. That index grew into the Complex Key portal, and gave the company its name.