BlancAI and its founders Aryan Bedi, Ahkay Mysore, and Praglvha Sharma serve the construction industry through the automation of quoting and takeoff processes that provide for efficient workflows for their customers.
What drew you to entrepreneurship? Do you have family who were an entrepreneur? Have you always been creative/entrepreneurial?
Entrepreneurship has been second nature to me for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I spent summers on job sites with my dad, watching him build houses and sell them one by one. Seeing the way things were built—both physically and as a business—made me want to innovate in that space. That drive led me to get my real estate license, and now, it's what’s pushing me to build BlancAI, an AI-driven solution for real estate and other industries.
Even before that, I was always looking for ways to build something. In grade 7 and 8, I flipped Raptors tickets during their championship seasons, testing out supply and demand before I even knew what those terms meant. In grade 10, I started trading crypto and co-founded a fund that eventually included holdings like Gary Vee’s VeeFriends. That opened doors to working with startups like BitSwap, EyeCane, and Mitra Biotechnologies—companies pushing boundaries in Web3, assistive tech, and biotech.
My experience has been all over the place—real estate, blockchain, AI, SaaS—but at the core of it, I’ve always been driven by the same thing: building. I don’t know exactly where the ceiling is for me, but I do know I love innovating and am really pushed by hard working and fast iterating environments.
What problem are you solving, and what is your unique approach?
BlancAI is an AI-powered platform for general contractors, developers, and enterprise construction teams that streamlines quoting and accelerates takeoffs helping them move faster, cut costs, and win more projects. Contractors waste countless hours on manual quoting—an essential but unpaid task. BlancAI automates estimates with AI, delivering fast, accurate quotes so teams can focus on building instead of paperwork.
How did you come across this problem and why did it appeal to you?
We found this problem by talking to people in the industry. A friend of my co-founder, Pragalvha, is a carpenter, and he told us how much time he wasted making quotes manually. He said he’d love a tool that could do it for him. That got us thinking, and as we talked to more contractors, we realized it was a huge pain point in the industry. Contractors spend hours on estimates—work they don’t even get paid for. We knew we could fix that with AI, so we built BlancAI to make the process faster, easier, and more accurate. Now, we’re almost ready to launch.
What are you hoping to accomplish for your start-up at the Western Accelerator?
I’m hoping to get our first customers, iterate based on their feedback, and start scaling BlancAI. But beyond that, I know that your network is your net worth, and I want to focus on building strong connections with founders, mentors, and industry leaders. I also want to become a community builder—bringing people together, sharing ideas, and learning from others. The Accelerator makes that easy, and I plan to take full advantage of it.
What is the biggest lesson you've learned so far during your time at the Western Accelerator?
The biggest lesson I've learned is the critical importance of marketing. I didn't realize how intricate marketing is and how specific things can get, especially in areas like market segmentation. My favorite sessions have been with Assistant Professor of Marketing, Dr. Kirk Kristofferson, whose work in marketing has genuinely inspired me to learn more, particularly as a non-technical founder. Understanding the nuances of marketing has opened my eyes to how essential it is for the success of our startup.