Nearly two decades ago, a young college student wrote his final thesis about software capable of generating design documents for school buildings. Al Drams was studying architecture — following in the footsteps of his parents and grandfather — but it was technology that really intrigued him.

There was just one problem: the technology his idea required didn’t exist yet.

“Then ChatGPT came along,” said Drams, recalling when OpenAI released the generative AI chatbot that uses large language models (LLMs) in November 2022.

His old idea suddenly seemed a lot more possible. Within six months, he launched the concept of Blueprints AI, a startup that uses AI to produce code-compliant and permit-ready architectural construction blueprints in minutes from a 2D sketch or PDF.

Blueprints AI, which Drams officially incorporated in 2025 in Santa Monica with co-founder Coco Cao, was selected for the 2026 Startup Battlefield 200, a cohort of promising early-stage startups that have earned a spot to exhibit at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt, taking place this week from October 13 to 15 in San Francisco.

During that 20-year lead-up to Blueprints AI, Drams earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the University of Tehran and completed two years of Ph.D. coursework on digital design at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He moved to the United States and opened an architecture firm in 2018 called Drams Architects. Then, after obtaining a general contractor’s license, he added a construction business in 2021.

“I was saying, okay, maybe I can build new projects that change people’s life in that area, but it wouldn’t be a big impact,” he said.

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