"That effort, Atmos, went through Y Combinator, raised $20 million from investors like Khosla Ventures and Sam Altman, and tried to use tech to streamline the custom home design process. It had designers on staff who worked with clients while software handled the back-end. It grew to 40 people and $7 million in revenue, and they designed $200 million worth of houses, and built 50."
""It became this extremely operational business," he told me on a Zoom call last week. "Kind of like a glamorized architecture firm." It never quite replaced the humans, in other words. Then the Federal Reserve started jacking up interest rates, and suddenly clients who'd spent months designing their dream homes couldn't afford them anymore. Nine months ago, Donahue shut it down."
"Drafted is now nearly five months old, and it's everything Atmos wasn't. No designers on staff. No operational complexity. Just AI-driven software that generates residential floor plans and exterior designs in minutes. You tell it what you want - bedrooms, square footage, whatever - and it spits out five designs. Don't like them? You can generate five more and keep going until som"
Nick Donahue grew up around residential construction because his parents built and sold houses. He dropped out of NC State, moved to the Bay Area, and founded Atmos to speed custom home design using technology. Atmos completed Y Combinator, raised $20 million, employed designers while software handled back-end work, grew to 40 people, generated $7 million in revenue, and designed $200 million of houses, building 50. Operational complexity persisted and rising interest rates made clients unable to afford projects, leading to Atmos's closure nine months ago. Donahue then launched Drafted, an AI-driven platform that quickly generates multiple floorplan and exterior options without on-staff designers.
Read at TechCrunch
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