Launch HN: Electric Air (YC W23) – Heat pump sold directly to homeowners
I&#x27;ve seen other construction related businesses try to go direct and it is <i>extremely</i> difficult. By going direct to the homeowner you are targeting the venn diagram union of &quot;people who are willing &amp; able to do the work themselves&quot; and &quot;people who will pay more&quot;<p>How are you going to build your service network? You say you will &quot;connect them with a contractor to do the actual install.&quot; But contractors make their money on equipment sales, not on labor. I bought my residential HVAC system direct from a friend and it took me 3 weeks calling around to find a contractor that would do the install and THAT was only because of the same friend connection.<p>Who are the decision makers in your target market exactly? Wil Joe Homeowner be deciding? Will you pursue developers who install and build? Are you pursuing multi-family complexes and engineers will be specifying the equipment? Each of these will require you to provide value above and beyond what they are receiving now and it&#x27;s not clear what your value proposition is.<p>&gt;&gt; &quot;contractors struggle with installs because of the difficulty of properly sizing the system, and understanding if your duct work is compatible with a heat pump&quot;<p>What? How could duct work possibly be incompatible with a heat pump? Any forced air system is already ready for hot or cold air. Additionally if you are banking on contractor unfamiliarity or incompetence as part of your business plan, you are in for a rude surprise.<p>One other headwind is that you&#x27;re VC funded. No one wants to buy a HVAC unit from a company with a 5-7yr liquidation event timeline. If you do go into <i>any</i> other channel than direct to home owner, no one wants to SELL a unit that may not exist in 7 years. How will support work? What about parts? A well built machine could be in working for 15 years (or longer) and the question everyone has is: will you?