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This sounds like a perfect startup idea: take one ignored segment that has an abnormally high amount of value, disrupt it, profit! I love it. However, it cuts

This sounds like a perfect startup idea: take one ignored segment that has an abnormally high amount of value, disrupt it, profit! I love it. However, it cuts both ways, people don't have obvious, specific problems with their thermostat (for the most part). It's a thing, it came with the house, it turns heat on and off, whatever. Why do I need to spend $250 on it? The very first thing (or maybe second, after the picture of the Nest) on the web site should be "See how much you can save!" with some guesstimates price-savings based on the state you're in, and when it will pay for itself. Or, if it doesn't pay for itself, how much fossil fuels/CO2 it saves, and what that translates to in conceivable units ("that's like saving 30 trees a year!"). Make it a product that provides an obvious, specific solution to a problem you didn't know you had. Right now, it looks like a luxury item for luxury people, and that's not the economy we're currently in. EDIT: I found this information right at the bottom of: http://www.nest.com/living-with-nest/index.html http://www.nest.com/living-with-nest/index.html , alongside "Download our white paper!" (ugh). This is what you're selling! Put it front and center!

alphakappa 15y ago
This is their friendly explanation http://www.nest.com/why-we-made-it/index.html http://www.nest.com/why-we-made-it/index.html
jxcole 15y ago
People didn't have obvious, specific problems with their CD players either. Or their cassette tape players for that matter. Are you saying the iPod was a bad idea?
- Lewisham 15y ago
  Actually, cassette tapes did have obvious, specific problems. They degraded. The tape kept falling out. The quality wasn't very good. Fast-forwarding and rewinding wasn't great. CDs solved that. Then people wanted to take more of their music on the go, and MP3 players solved that. Look at DVD -> Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray has not had a good adoption. For most people, they don't see the difference between digital and HD (see the number of people who incorrectly tune their TVs to not use the HD channels on their HD TV). All the pain points were solved by VHS -> DVD.
- achompas 15y ago
  People didn't have obvious, specific problems with their CD players either. I hated carrying around a clunky CD player plus a collection of CDs that I could lose at any moment. Fidgeting too much with the player would also, you know, scratch and destroy the physical media that stored my music. There were a number of obvious problems with CD players. Thermostats...not so much.
  - qq66 15y ago
    There's an obvious problem with thermostats... your heating bill. Many people have financial trouble caused by heating costs -- Nest's challenge will be to 1) create a product that actually reduces heating costs, 2) convince people they've done that, and 3) create an easy adoption plan (dead simple installation, and financing of the cost, or making a compelling investment case)
rdtsc 15y ago
Tell people how much they are wasting per year in heating costs. Estimate perhaps what happens if you keep the heat on too high while you are gone. How much is that. Compare to something like 'a plane ticket for a vacation'. Mention continued rising costs of electricity + fuel. Also tout the AI aspect of it. With Siri and Watson, people recently have started hearing more about interesting AI applications. Tell them this thing learns and adapts, has AI. There is another aspect -- energy tax credits and other incentives. Unfortunately it would be hard to get your device rated & approved I would guess. Imagine if there was a state or federal rebate to pay for 25% of the cost, even 10% would get people excited. Up until last year there was a $1500 tax rebate on upgrading to a high efficiency HVAC systems. Some states have their own rebates on top of that. That led to quite a few people I know to all of the sudden decide to 'upgrade' their heat pumps... go figure.

alphakappa 15y ago

This is their friendly explanation http://www.nest.com/why-we-made-it/index.html http://www.nest.com/why-we-made-it/index.html

jxcole 15y ago

People didn't have obvious, specific problems with their CD players either. Or their cassette tape players for that matter. Are you saying the iPod was a bad idea?

Lewisham 15y ago
Actually, cassette tapes did have obvious, specific problems. They degraded. The tape kept falling out. The quality wasn't very good. Fast-forwarding and rewinding wasn't great. CDs solved that. Then people wanted to take more of their music on the go, and MP3 players solved that. Look at DVD -> Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray has not had a good adoption. For most people, they don't see the difference between digital and HD (see the number of people who incorrectly tune their TVs to not use the HD channels on their HD TV). All the pain points were solved by VHS -> DVD.
achompas 15y ago
People didn't have obvious, specific problems with their CD players either. I hated carrying around a clunky CD player plus a collection of CDs that I could lose at any moment. Fidgeting too much with the player would also, you know, scratch and destroy the physical media that stored my music. There were a number of obvious problems with CD players. Thermostats...not so much.
- qq66 15y ago
  There's an obvious problem with thermostats... your heating bill. Many people have financial trouble caused by heating costs -- Nest's challenge will be to 1) create a product that actually reduces heating costs, 2) convince people they've done that, and 3) create an easy adoption plan (dead simple installation, and financing of the cost, or making a compelling investment case)

rdtsc 15y ago

Tell people how much they are wasting per year in heating costs. Estimate perhaps what happens if you keep the heat on too high while you are gone. How much is that. Compare to something like 'a plane ticket for a vacation'. Mention continued rising costs of electricity + fuel. Also tout the AI aspect of it. With Siri and Watson, people recently have started hearing more about interesting AI applications. Tell them this thing learns and adapts, has AI. There is another aspect -- energy tax credits and other incentives. Unfortunately it would be hard to get your device rated & approved I would guess. Imagine if there was a state or federal rebate to pay for 25% of the cost, even 10% would get people excited. Up until last year there was a $1500 tax rebate on upgrading to a high efficiency HVAC systems. Some states have their own rebates on top of that. That led to quite a few people I know to all of the sudden decide to 'upgrade' their heat pumps... go figure.