[fintechjock]

Really cool and interesting. I definitely think the market is there for this.

I'm betting that your biggest hurdle will be post-purchase. If I remember correctly, Tony Fadell talks about how hard it was to disrupt the contractor model when building Nest. People often just bought whatever thermostat their contractor recommended, and those contractors were incentivized to push them towards specific brands. They beat this by just making the product super easy to install by the consumer and cutting out the contractor all together (something I doubt is feasible with a heat pump).

Maybe that won't be a problem with the DTC model considering the contractor is only brought in post-purchase, but I wonder if this really takes hold if competitors start trying to corner local installers. Good luck!

[foobarian]

> They beat this by just making the product super easy to install by the consumer

I think it was more than that, I cannot possibly overstate how stupidly better the design/UX was compared to alternatives. In my home I spent years looking for a replacement for the ancient, round thermostat with a mercury switch. That thermostat is a marvel: you spin the dial with instant visual feedback, and there is an off/heat/ac switch. That's it! The Nest just added networking.