EstiMate × Lyra: From No Engineer to $120K ARR in 8 Weeks
How one Lyra engineer built EstiMate's drawing-reading AI and took it from no engineer to $120K ARR in 8 weeks.
About EstiMate
EstiMate turns a builder’s plans into a detailed, itemised quote in minutes. Quoting a bespoke luxury home can take a builder 2 to 8 weeks by hand. EstiMate was founded by Baylin Spencer and Ashton Dobbin, who both come from the trades.
The challenge
EstiMate had customers asking for the product, a Startmate demo day in October and no engineer. The founders needed a product live within 10 weeks while they focused on sales and the raise.
The solution
A Lyra engineer joined three days after the intro and owned the whole product, working directly with the founders. He built:
- Drawing reading: each sheet is split into drawing, table, notes and title regions. Each region is read up close, and OCR handles scanned pages.
- Bounding boxes: every item the AI finds is boxed on the plan and lined up with its printed label. Builders can edit a box, or draw one so the AI reads that area again.
- Quoting: an AI that turns plans into an itemised estimate builders can send
EstiMate launched its alpha within 3 weeks, then a public beta before demo day. The founders flew their Lyra engineer out to be with them for demo day.
Beyond engineering
Lyra Capital invested in EstiMate after demo day, and the founders raised an angel cheque from an investor they met at our Halloween party in San Francisco. We also opened up our network of 100+ investors, made VC intros for their next round, and connected them to an R&D tax credit partner that could refund up to 43.5% of their engineering spend.
The result
- 3 days from intro to an engineer shipping code
- $0 → $120K ARR in 8 weeks
- $150M+ in construction projects priced
- Product live in time for Startmate demo day
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