Rishi Pankhaniya is Co-Founder and CEO of Rudus, a Y Combinator-backed AI-powered takeoff and estimation platform purpose-built for concrete subcontractors.

Rishi studied Computer Science and Economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and went on to work as a Software Engineer at Airbnb, where he was the first new grad engineer hired in over two years, and previously at Apple as a Software Engineer Intern on Ad Platforms.

Rishi recognized that concrete subcontractors were stuck in a decades-old manual estimating workflow, with a single bid consuming 20 to 40 hours of an estimator's time, and that no existing AI tool was built specifically for the trade.

Co-founding Rudus with Sahil Goel, Rishi applied his deep software engineering background to build a computer vision platform that auto-classifies structural PDFs, detects every concrete element, and expands each into full assembly line items with rebar, formwork, and volume calculations.

Rudus cuts takeoff time by 70% and enables estimators to bid 2 to 5 times more projects without adding headcount, backed by Y Combinator as part of the Spring 2025 batch.