What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
Electrify Your Home Fast
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Your water heater dies, your furnace quits, or your power bill jumps and suddenly you’re forced to make a big home decision fast. The problem is the process: confusing options, unclear pricing, and the dreaded parade of strangers walking through your house just to get an estimate. We sit down with Grant Gunnison, founder and CEO of Zero Homes, to talk about how he’s trying to make home electrification feel as simple as ordering any modern service from your phone.
Grant brings an unusual mix of experience: MIT engineering, satellite laser communications, a stint at NASA, and the real-world grind of running his late father’s general contracting business at 24. That combination makes him blunt about what’s broken in home improvement. When 25% of revenue can go to sales and marketing and homeowners still feel lost, the bottleneck isn’t the hardware, it’s the transaction. Zero Homes tackles that with a smartphone-based quoting flow, fast turnaround times, and a contractor network designed to deliver clean energy upgrades without the usual delays.
We also get concrete on the upgrades themselves: heat pumps that handle heating and cooling in one system, heat pump water heaters that can slash operating costs versus older electric resistance tanks, and induction cooktops that outperform the “cooking with gas” myth while improving indoor air quality. Along the way, we dig into why clean energy gets politicized, why “performance first” messaging works, and how helping homeowners save money can quietly drive decarbonization at scale.
If you’re curious about electric appliances, energy efficiency, and practical steps to electrify your home, hit play, then subscribe, share with a friend who’s dreading their next quote, and leave a review so more homeowners can find the faster path.
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Meet Grant And Zero Homes
SPEAKER_00I've never done that. My whole life. I've been holding back every time I've got to go back and put it all in.
SPEAKER_03Another dollar. Another one of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast. Yes, I'm biased. With me, literally. An MIT grad. Grant Gunnison. He's the founder. He's the CEO Zero Homes. It comes to energy technology. He's an entrepreneur. He's from Denver. He's a nationally recognized expert, sustainable home energy. Grant brings a unique perspective to the clean energy. It's baseballing deep technical experiences from MIT, NASA, and realized a Westgate fellow with practical insights from his work is a general contractor. You got to be the most highly educated GC, by the way. Grant started Zero Homes to solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in climate action. Purchasing a heat pump, it's complicated, expensive, and be spoke. His team built an intuitive smartphone-based platform to make it simple and affordable for homeowners to get off gas and electrify, helping communities in four states access clean cost-saving upgrades with an ambition to help home owners nationwide. How's it going, Grant?
SPEAKER_02Omar. Thanks for having me, man. And uh thanks for the gracious uh intro there.
SPEAKER_03Dude, that's man, you that's highly man. There's words like I I can tell you're an MIT guy. There's like three, four, five syllable words there. It's like, you know, if my degree in journalism was like, holy smokes, you know, I can only disseminate for you know the eighth grader. And it's like, you know, I was just like praying to make sure I didn't flub anything. So are you originally from Denver?
SPEAKER_02No, no, no. Um, I'm originally from Silicon, California. I know my well, I don't know if you are from Colorado, but um my uh my last name's all over the state, so I get offset asset all the time.
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, yeah, because I've I've Gunnison's uh pretty popular. Uh it wasn't one of my fraternity. Well, he was a fraternity brother. I I met a couple from Colorado State uh of my fraternity brothers, and their last name was Gunnison. And yeah, it's plastic, and and then also, you know, the the clean energy, although SoCal explains a lot as well, and all so I I gotta ask.
Why Clean Energy Got Political
SPEAKER_03But with the clean energy thing, and I I drive a Tesla, full disclosure. I've I've been a big proponent. I've I've I've always one of the adopters, early adopters, and keep on buying them. Why is there now such a negative connotation? Is it because of our new current administration?
SPEAKER_02Because I know there's a lot of divisiveness, right? Oh, yeah, man.
SPEAKER_03They're like, oh, that's back to the 1400s coal, baby. People pulled out their knives and pitchforks, you know. I I know. I mean, um I almost want to do that horrible dance that you know.
SPEAKER_02Look, my my two cents on this really is um a lot of oil lobbyists have have pushed a lot of money into the the folks' pockets that are in the current administration. No way, that that doesn't sound uh possible, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I thought we were draining the swamp. That that sounds like it's still lobbyists and everything, man. Are you trying to tell me that washes it doesn't matter? It's still the same machines. Oh, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, um new new story, different or same story, new time, you know.
SPEAKER_03So when you're trying to say it's it's it's a lot of marketing, but it's pretty much the same oiled machine. Because uh, I mean I mean you you have to admit, even if you're not into like climate change, or if you're not into clean energy, I mean it's kind of unexplainable some of the weather patterns that uh I mean it's it's been it it snowed more like it snowed like a foot of snow throughout the whole South last year. I mean, if that's like a wake-up call, and you're like, Well, you know, it it happens. Well, well, when did it happen? Because I mean, I graduated from LSU, and uh my assistant principal junior high told me it'd be a cold Dan Hell when I graduated college, and it snowed the day of my commencement. So he was absolutely right. But but my oldest was there, you know, she's a freshman or she was a freshman last year, and it's like 12 inches of snow in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Mississippi, Alabama. That's like that's like some heavy stuff, don't you think?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and I mean, look, you know, uh I think we have a huge problem on our hands, you know. Uh it's pretty obvious uh from the climate science and the current administration's trying to tamp a lot of that stuff down that that we do have a pretty substantial challenge on our hands. I I I I would like bring that up one or one level just to say, you know, it's it's not helpful to be like fear-mongering about these things, right? Like there's work to be done and we can just get it, we can just get it done. Um, I I do think in a lot of ways, right? Like you're a Tesla owner. I mean, maybe perhaps cool question is just, you know, is that a is that a better performing car? Uh is it fun to drive better than a gas car?
SPEAKER_03Well, I've I've had both. I I did it just did it to turn heads, man. I I mean, but I I mean, I'm not I uh I'm not hardcore left, never been hardcore right. I've always been in the middle, like most most sane people in this country. Yeah, yeah, right. You know, everybody both parties have have its good points and its bad points, but overall, I mean, heck, when you know the success ebb and flow of money when when things are tight, and I I can just and you know, gas is four bucks, five bucks a gallon, and I I can just you know fuel up for for free. That that actually, you know, it it was actually a god sense. So yeah, there I mean when I first purchased all these cars, I wasn't thinking, hey, you know, I I I didn't look at the opportunity costs, I was more like, yeah, man, you know, sure. Just like I I don't I I didn't care whether Elon votes Democrat, Republican. I don't care about his new party. Well, the guy's an innovator. You're an innovator, dude. Think about it. I'm you you you're you're ahead of uh of the time because if you think about it, I mean, I never thought any of these were realistic to have, you know, an all you you want to have pretty much an all-electric house.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, you know, you know, I think you kind of made my point there a little bit, just to say that, you know, electric or or fuel, whatever, uh, it doesn't really matter. I think at the end of the day, people want high performing, you know, solutions. And you know, it turns out that the electric solutions tend to be the highest performing. Um, now, of course, I'll be straight in saying I care about solving the climate problem. I don't think most people do. They mostly care about having cold beer and hot showers, and they kind of don't want to pay a lot of money for that, you know. And so, how can we deliver that to them in the most economic way? And it turns out, you know, those things get a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_03I don't want to cut you off, but when it when it comes to the environment, I think it's like the deficit and everything else. It's like we'll worry about it later. It's like me. I joke about it, and I'm like, I'm I'm gonna turn 52 in two days, so let my grandkids worry about that. And and I joke around because that's how everybody because you know, every every smirks because you know the Greta I ruined, I didn't ruin her childhood. That that was the boomers. Come on, bro. Let's you know, Gen Gen X and younger, we can't let's let's blame it on the boomers and everybody else that well, all the other long gone generations before that. But it's like I think honestly, uh, it's a everybody knows it's a problem, just like the deficit, just like if if you know somebody gave us a credit card and we kept on charging, but it was like total, let's let's worry about it. Because honestly, if anybody can say, Yeah, well, there's nothing going on. Uh either you have your head in your sand or or you should be like it with Jim Jones and Guyana drinking the Kool-Aid, because if you're a 100% buying into what any party person tells you, then you're not a free thinker. Well, well, well, my party told me that there it's it's not a problem, even though it's like 130 degrees everywhere, right?
SPEAKER_02And look, I mean, I know this has been like a highly politicized thing, right? And and I I think you're right. That the reality is like this is an ethereal problem for for most people, it's too far away, it's very abstract. Like, everyone has enough crap in front of them to deal with, so you know, it's really hard to go, okay. Well, sure, yeah, it's hot outside. I guess what can I do? Well, I guess I probably ought to install AC because I need to deal with that for myself. But do I need to try to go solve, you know, this massive, you know, planet-shaking thing? And and what can I even do, right? I got enough problems on my plate, right? And so I I think in a lot of ways, like maybe that's just me re-articulating what you just said, but um, you know, I I think at the end of the day, in order to go solve that problem, we just actually have to help people solve the problems that they care about, you know.
SPEAKER_03And well, you you started you start small in in the home, which in in the grand scheme of things, I mean that that's helping out a lot. Um I mean, I
Selling Performance Over Ideology
SPEAKER_03everybody has water here. And and I mean, what's the actual percentage of homes that have an electric water heater? It's it's probably like what less than one percent.
SPEAKER_02No, the the southeast is broadly electric. Um, so uh actually a pretty good percentage. I would probably say like 30% of homes, yeah. Um the the interesting thing though is that um there's kind of three classes of water heaters. Not that we need to get that deeply technical on the on these products, but there's gas water heaters, you know, tank water heaters, burn burn some fuel, heat the water up. There's electric resistance water heaters, work just like a toaster, there's like a hot coil inside of it. There's now heat bulb water heaters that are kind of a hybrid. They move heat into the tank from the surrounding area, and they also have a coil inside. Those hybrid units are about four times as efficient as the electric ones. They're also electric. And so, you know, instead of spending $700 a year on your electric resistance water heater, you could spend, you know, 150 bucks or something, right? And so there's like a real savings opportunity there when it's time to replace your water heater, and we just make that as easy as possible, right? Um, but I think there are a lot of folks out there that are like beaten down doors going like, man, you need to jump off your couch and do something, right? It's like, well, that's that's probably not gonna move the needle realistically, right? It would never move the needle. Yeah, right, right. So so can we then just say, great, when you want to or when you need to replace one of these appliances, let's make it the easiest, fastest, most cost-effective solution for your home is to install the all electric highest performing appliance. Simple as that. You know, we don't really even, I mean, sure, our business has got a mission for fighting climate change, but we don't communicate that in our language to folks generally, right? It's about saving money, it's about comfort, and and that's about it.
SPEAKER_03Well, you you got the main bullet points right there, usually sales 101. You didn't go through, and you see, I can tell you're an entrepreneur. Keep it simple. It wasn't like you weren't you weren't telling me all this technical jargon. Because a lot of times people want to feel like, oh, I'm smarter than the consumer. Let me just throw up a bunch of facts that per the person's gonna have this glazed look on the oh yeah, sure, sure.
SPEAKER_02Well, I learned that the hard way. I went to the school of hard match, I did sales for for for a long time. I I you know I learned a few times, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. You learn real quick whenever somebody says, Well, I can't do sales. Well, when
Water Heaters And Real Efficiency Gains
SPEAKER_03you do it and you realize your pay depends on it, you you pivot real quick.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you figure it out, man.
SPEAKER_03You figure out, you learn how to be yeah, it it's totally and it's not like you know, you you can do modules, you you can read stuff on out, you can read the pitch, or you know, you you can get people you know to role play, and it it will never be the same. It won't be the same.
SPEAKER_02I was so lucky. I grew up in a family. My my dad uh was a phenomenal salesman. Um and I just kind of naturally got that from him from a very early age. I mean, he had me involved in the business, and I was doing lots of things around that. And so when I stepped into a role, I was doing outside sales for folks, uh, for the business. Um, yeah, so it's a funny thing like walking into a stranger's house. It's kind of uncomfortable for them. They they're just meeting you, but you kind of have to go poke around their entire home and whatnot. Um, get comfortable, you got to do your little, you know, dance, so to speak, and and build some rapport with people and whatnot. Um and and you quickly learn what's effective and what's not effective, what resonates with people, what doesn't, you know, how to actually, you know, quickly build a relationship with someone and and and how not to also do that, right? Um sure. We could have a long conversation about like sales one-on-one, the just not to-do's items, you know. Um, but but I think very fortunately, I just learned how to do that from a young age. So when I jumped into business full time, I mean my close rate was 60%, which is like sort of unheard unheard of, right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's crazy. And so I I just got very lucky, I think, getting those those skills. I've never taken a you know, a formal sales course.
SPEAKER_03And you never read like Zig Ziggler or you never did any of those models, never read a book like on Ogman Dingo on how to be a better salesperson. Look at you.
SPEAKER_02No, but I I should, you know, I should. I think it would be fun actually to do that. But uh, I don't do our homeowner sales anymore, I just do our B2B stuff and um I don't know. Much longer sales cycle than six to nine months for us, so it's it's a different gig.
SPEAKER_03But the best part about it is you said your dad excelled in that, so he didn't have that knee-jerk reaction because he could have been like Grant, you're educated. Why are you doing any type of sales? Because I I'm I'm sure you heard that uh outside your family because they're like Grant, being an entrepreneur is dangerous. Look at look at you're highly educated, you're highly qualified.
SPEAKER_02It might be a sickness, actually, might be the proper term. I think you you gotta have a little bit of uh a screw loose and and and then some to be oh definitely, but but you're you're wired different, you're an entrepreneur, man.
SPEAKER_03I dude, you went to MIT, you you you you have a background in NASA, you have all these things that quite frankly, an entrepreneur if we looked at your class at MIT and we found out any of these people were entrepreneurs, it it it would be very rare, unless you know they actually I think you you'd be surprised actually.
SPEAKER_02I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of founders um that that come out. I mean, they they do have a pretty robust ecosystem for that. I mean, of course, a lot of them are technical businesses and and whatnot. Um, I mean, there are a couple of people that do anything around home improvement um that I know of that came out of school there. But um, you know, I think uh I I heard some stat, and I'll probably butcher it here, but um, if you were to take the the market cap of all of the companies that have been created by MIT founders and be like the 13th largest economy on the planet or something like that.
SPEAKER_03Can you can you tell grants and a prod alum?
SPEAKER_02Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, look, I was very lucky to go to school there, you know. You you you apply and you and you press the school.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but you had the um you make it sound like you're all oh shucks, like anybody could, you know, most people attend like some state school, like me. Sure. I mean MIT, I mean, is MIT. I mean, I I let I mean I I know you're you're trying to be like, yeah, well, you know, I I had like you know, normal scores, and you know, I just had the normal GPA and I decided what the heck? And they loved my essay. So we were like, well, sure, we need a guy like Grant. Let's just let's just throw it out the woman, man. I mean, you you had the you had the everything uh pointing in the right direction, dude. If if I went to MIT, if I if I went to even like Emory or Georgia Tech or any of those schools, they would be like, are you lost or do you have a kid that that's a point? And I'm I'm being honest, and and you know, that's when when I read all this, and and you're a very personal guy, I I can tell that's you know, with uh sales and whatnot. Because looking at your stuff, I thought I was gonna be talking to like if Stephen Hawking was alive, he he was he wasn't on the island, he wasn't on Epstein Island at all. Oh dude, come on.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, look, I get it. I get it. What's the movie? Uh um oh my god, I'm in a blank. Um uh anyways, okay.
SPEAKER_03Well, uh I didn't see the movie because I was Eddie, any Eddie Redmane movie would just put me asleep. It's like Gambian. I saw he was in it. I I mean he he could be in any movie. Once once I see that he's in, I'm like, yeah, no, I'll pass. So I I I got the gist. So I saw the the trailer for you know, he's an amazing guy, he gets ALS, winds up on an island. They they make fun of him on memes after after he passes. End of story.
SPEAKER_02Well, um, yeah, I mean, look, I consider myself very lucky regardless of the circumstances. Of course, you you gotta uh you gotta perform and whatnot. But at the same time, there's there's a fair bit of luck in that in that contest, I think. Um, but look, you know, I think I've tried to make the best of it as well, you know, have been continually afforded some incredible opportunities. Um, and you know, that that's led me to be able to go do some really cool things, you know. I mean, it's kind of fun to uh take advantage of of those opportunities when they come up, you know. And I mean, you mentioned a few of them, but you know, I ended up getting two degrees from school there. In between that, went home and ran my family's general contracting business. Um, that that was that was, I mean, honestly, a hard circumstance. My dad passed away. I dropped out of grad school, went to go run the business, and um, you know, kind of school hard knocks, learn how to run a 18-person uh general contracting business when um, you know, times weren't weren't great, you know, around there, right? Um, but I think in a lot of ways, like, and that helped me grow up quick, you know. I was 24 at the time and um had to do a lot of hard things um pr pretty early in in in my career. So um I I think in a lot of ways, like what a blessing as well. Um, maybe not the the most sterling thing people point out on a resume necessarily, but I think um has just really helped me as an individual grow up and and really helped me do the things that we're doing today. Uh now great. Are you that's really cool?
SPEAKER_03Were you the only child? Is that why you had to take over?
SPEAKER_02Or um no, no, I I'm a middle child. I got an older brother and a and a younger sister. Um, but uh you know, I mean, yeah, my my sister was in high school at the time. My brother was uh actually track and traveling the world. He's worked worked remote as a spot marking here. Um no interest in doing some of that stuff. So um, anyways, I
Sales Skills And Trust In Homes
SPEAKER_02uh I jumped in feet, you know, two feet first and did my best to figure it out.
SPEAKER_03And then what? You did you sell out? I mean, you know, you you brought it up to in enough profitability that you scaled it and that you sold it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, or well, that that was the ambition for sure. I think uh let me paint you a picture of kind of what what it was like when I jumped into day one. I mean, 17, 18 people, like three or four-person management team. When I got there, there were three divisions a garage door business, a full rental business, and a window indoor business. Um, the bread and butter of that business was a window indoor business. But when I got there, there wasn't a salesman to sell anything. There wasn't a price to sell it. And everyone's looking at me going, hey, what do we what do we do today? You know, you're kind of like, whoa, okay, I guess we need to invent a business so that, you know, somehow we can employ all these folks and somehow we can, you know, turn a profit to put food on the table. Um and and so it was kind of man, you know, right out of the gate, right? Um and you know, to to make a sort of a long story short, I mean, there's a there's a very long story to be had uh there around just what a what an incredible challenge that was. But um after about 14 months, we I did get it in the black, um, you know, kind of got our sales engine moving again and and whatnot. But um, you know, I was also running a business with my mom, and that was a really obvious obviously hard time for her. Um, and that just ended up like really fracturing our relationship. So at the end of the day, I decided. I'd much rather have a relationship with my mom and no business than maybe a business and probably not a relationship with my mom. You can always do another business, you know. Always. Right. Good call on that one. And also the business needed a cash infusion. And so I would have had to bet, like, you know, probably my mom's retirement on, you know, my success there. And I didn't think that that was really, really appropriate either. So, you know, I sort of licked my wounds and said, okay, great. Like I learned a lot doing this. And you know, I'm gonna go do something else. Let's just close the business down. It was there wasn't really much to sell there, wasn't enough infrastructure really to sell the business. Um, and uh, you know, and moved on to some, you know, I I don't necessarily want to call it greener pastures, but you know, the the next adventure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but if you think about if you heard that story, how many 23 24-year-olds can take on that responsibility? Because you still had to I mean, this your your sister was in high school, your mom was widow. I mean, that that's a lot of adversity. It wasn't like you know, you guys opened up I mean, like like you know, some franchise and decided, you know.
SPEAKER_02So it's not you just pop in and clock in, clock out. No, man, I was working 100 hour weeks trying to figure out how to start a business while I already employed 18 people, and you know, we were in the black 30 grand a month or or more. Uh sorry, in the red 30 grand or more. I mean, it was it was not pretty. Um, and and it went from bad to worse, like almost overnight. You know, we had to fire a couple of people on the management team, and then I ended up just being the guy running running the whole business all in like a hundred days then.
SPEAKER_03So uh also they're like, Oh, you know, college kid, or you know, am MIT. It's always everybody has like some excuse, especially when there's uh I'm not gonna say toxicity, but you know, you weren't there, you're the outsider, so they they had to use the excuse, oh, you know, he's this or he's that.
SPEAKER_02But you know, well, sure, there's that. And then I had, you know, I had my my I mean, look, a lot of my family and friends that knew what was going on were were really like, wow, that's you know, good on you for for doing the best you could for your family. A lot of folks that didn't really understand what was going on, they would kind of look at me and go, like, wait, dude, you dropped out of school to go run a contracting business? Like, you must have your you must have a screw loose. Like, what are you insane?
SPEAKER_03You know? Well, because it's just not you know, you're a GC, so that's why I'm like, dude, that make looking at your at your resume. That's what I'm like, it makes zero sense. That's why I'm like, you're the most highly educated. I've I've I've I've met millions of GCs that built my businesses. I'm like, man, yeah, I'm pretty sure none of them were as highly qualified and highly educated.
SPEAKER_02Uh well that that that's probably that's probably fair, but I would say I'm probably you know, well, honestly, I've done so much work in the trade, done hundreds and maybe maybe it
Taking Over The Family Contracting Business
SPEAKER_02could a thousand jobs at this point. So, you know, I I'm pretty well well versed in the trades, but my professional experience it didn't didn't come from there, right? It it came from software, it came from you know electronics and um all that.
SPEAKER_03There's no even if you went to a business school, you know, there that's not something that they teach that that all something like that, you have to jump in and fire and and learn. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Totally. I mean, the school of Hard Knox is the way is, in my opinion, the way to go, right? And and in fact, you know, it's funny you bring that up. So after we closed the business, I actually went back to grad school at a friend say, Hey, we need some help in this lab, or we're building satellites, would you you know be interested? And uh while I was in grad school, I took courses at both MIT's um uh you know graduate program, uh, the business school, and then also at at Harvard's business school. And it was just very funny, kind of going into some of those classes, and people would say, you know, here's some business case, and they would go, okay, well, we need to clean out management and this and that. And I would I would look at them and just go, like, oh, aren't you high and mighty? You know, like it's just that easy to get some of these things.
SPEAKER_03Well, it's because they only have real world experience, man.
SPEAKER_02No, no, I know, of course. And it's like it's always so much more complex than that, right? So it's like easy to look at a piece of paper and go, okay, well, here's the obvious decisions. It's like, okay, and what about the other 100 things you need to consider potentially while making said decision, how you're gonna actually execute against those things? Um, and it's just very funny because I had a very different POV than a lot of people that were in those classes at the time. Um, I gotta get back to memory.
SPEAKER_03You're you're gonna laugh at this. Getting a master's degree in uh broadcast journalism that uh it is a joke within itself, uh taught by uh doctors of communication. So uh there was this woman. Uh I got my master's mid-20s, 26 or something like that. There was a woman, uh, she had an MBA real world experience. She went back to school. I don't know why, because she thought getting a master's degree in journalism was the way to go, and she was like maybe 45, 46, 47. And these doctors were ripping her. Uh, because you know, who is she? Uh and I'm like, gosh, for starters, if we want to go to academia, she's got an MBA. I that that holds to me more water than a doctoral degree in communications, and it's like she's got real world experience, doctors. This woman was out there in the corporate world for like 30 years and decided on a whim or whatever. I don't know whether it was on her bucket list to get a master's degree in journalism. So instead of applauding her and be like, okay, well, she's got real world experience, you're treating her like you know, she's like some 18-year-old kid that just decided journalism was the way to go. And it it's just funny because you say that, and I I always snicker when it comes to like you know the real world compared to like something you learn. Sure.
SPEAKER_02I mean, look, experience is experience, you know. I mean, I think if you're if you're applying yourself and pushing the boundaries, like, great, you know, I don't really care what environment you were in necessarily. I I just think um, you know, apply yourself and try to work on some hard problems. Um, there's a big difference between that and then just kind of hanging out, you know, and and in a controlled environment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right. Let's do some case studies. Yeah, yeah, right, right, right. I mean, that's that's that's edgy. We're we're real edgy now. We're doing multiple case studies, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02That that that's right, you know. So um, so did after that you went to NASA or like yeah, well, my my my I'll give you the the chronological order of my professional I I need it, man, because after a second, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You're reading your bio.
SPEAKER_02It's a little I I got another curveball that's around there for you, too. So um my uh I'll just start at the beginning of college because this is kind of where all this began. So um, you know, my my parents wanted me to be well educated, obviously got the chance to go do that. Um, but the first thing I got really enamored with, because I grew up using my hands. I mean, fifth grade, my dad had me on job sites, learn how to use skill soft, you know. You know, like that that was my my first kind of experience doing anything. Um very much the school hard box kind of thing. Um, anyways, when I was in high school going into college, my dad said, Hey, you need to learn how money works. So he put some some money in like a Roth IRA and said, Hey, you should go learn what the stock market is, how money moves around the world and whatnot. Um, well, I I jumped in pretty quick and you know, started learning uh how to trade options. You know, my senior in high school, I was doing that. When I jumped into uh college, I started, you know, running algorithms to do that. And in like 12 months, took a uh a trading account from like five grand to like $85,000 and got totally addicted. You know, it's like I mean, it's basically like gambling, right?
SPEAKER_03Um well, options, yeah. So were you doing like naked calls too or cover calls?
SPEAKER_02And oh, sure, yeah. I mean, I'm making making dozens of trades a day. I mean, impressive.
SPEAKER_03I mean not not not the way Peter Lynch would have told you to do it or Warren Buffett or well again, no formal training.
SPEAKER_02I read about a book and a half and I said, okay, let's just get busy here.
SPEAKER_03Um that's the way to do it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right, exactly. So, anyways, well, while I was in in college, I spent a bunch of time writing software, both uh sort of part-time in terms of hedge funds, and I I did some internships there. Um, and you know, made those folks a lot of money. Um, it turns out I just didn't really like doing that so much. So, but but a lot of good experience. And then um, you know, graduated undergrad um with a degree in electronics and software, then you know, quickly went into grad school. Actually, that last summer I I interned at SpaceX for a summer, did did some electronic stuff there, and um, you know, my first semester into grad school jumped out of grad school to go run the family business. So I took a two-year hiatus basically from that. Um, and then went back into grad school, uh, same place, and uh was in a space system lab for the next three and a half years. And we were building uh small satellites doing laser communications, so basically the fanciest laser pointers you you can think of, uh low Earth orbit to ground. So you got like a little optical telescope, and and then increasingly also satellite to satellite. So a lot of those networks that SpaceX or constellations that SpaceX and Blue Origin and whatnot are are launching are all doing inter satellite laser comm. Um and we were one of the first, you know, kind of groups to to pioneer the technology. So uh really cool like grad school project. I mean, it's really rare to have that like ambitious of a project going on in a in a university lab. Um and you know, the the small handful of us that were working on it ended up being successful doing it. So it was really, really a cool time. And when I finished my grad degree, I then was full-time at NASA working on the same project for uh almost a year or so. Um I was like in the middle of COVID, kind of an insane time as well, but um pretty cool to get to do that. Uh I think sort of to wrap this story full circle is just how did that transition into what I'm doing now, which is uh I think about halfway through that project, just find myself eyes wandering, going, you know, there's a lot of project management here. There's a ton of bureaucracy trying to put things into space. But you know, doing space lasers comes with the FAA and a whole bunch of other FCC and things. And that was just not fun work I found. And I wanted to go do the cool engineering stuff. So um I think in the midst of all that, I sort of recognized there might be an opportunity to actually leverage some of the technology we're building in the lab and apply
From MIT And Space Lasers To NASA
SPEAKER_02it to one of the core challenges I found in running that general contracting business. And thought that was interesting. So by the time I we had delivered our satellite, I was sort of ready to to launch the business I'm working on now.
SPEAKER_03Wow, talk about a mouthful dude. So out of all that, you're but what one now did you found your company on the principle that hey, let me start with me? You know, if I want to change the world, let's start small, let's start with this company. Is that what it ultimately was or was it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, the the the core insight was simply a previous frustration, um, which was the business I was running, my dad's business, um, had an incredibly expensive funnel. I mean, 25% of revenue was going to sales and and marketing. And I looked at that and I just said, my God, like, you know, how do you even run a business when a fourth of your entire revenue is just going to pay salespeople and paying to acquire more customers? Um I sort of quickly found out that that's how almost an entire industry runs, you know. And that that's one thing from the perspective of the contractor, the separate is that homeowners just have a hell of a time figuring out what to purchase to solve the problem they have in their home, trying to figure out who they can trust to get this stuff done. Um, and it's just this laborous, incredibly time-intensive process. In my perspective, it's just the worst purchasing experience that exists anywhere. Um, and and then there's this sort of like unspoken, deeply uncomfortable activity. You got to invite a bunch of strangers into your home. It's not fun for the homeowner, nor is it fun for the salesperson. So um I thought there was a really interesting opportunity to go just solve the transaction problem there, um, actually leveraging some of the imaging technology that we had um, you know, been building in in the lab. And I said, well, if you could put that on a smartphone, well, could you convince a homeowner to just send us the information we needed to then send them a price? I wouldn't have to drive all over the place. I was, you know, driving around LA at the time, which you know, if you've ever spent any time around there, it's really not fun. Um, not at all. And um and so I thought, well, hell, that as a product in and of itself could be really interesting um to homeowners and contractors if you could really eliminate the the sales friction there. Um, but I think at the same time, quickly found the challenge, uh, the climate challenge being in single-family homes. About 20% of all of emissions in the US come from heating our water and space conditioning our homes. And I said, well, I know enough about you know how to retrofit homes and how to do work there. I also understand the technology that we could build to make this process a lot easier. I think there's a business that can be built to solve both of those things. So um I I the day after we, you know, waved uh goodbye to our satellite, I you know, quit and started at zero.
SPEAKER_03Not only did you start zero, but just looking at I'm I mean uh very user-friendly in the sense that I mean uh to me it's the way you're uh for you're a forward thinker thinking about the future. Because your competitor doesn't ha usually necessarily have uh like an app, it's easy, take some pictures, uh and voila. Uh I I mean to me, usually, you know, you uh you you have to uh call a bunch of people, uh wait around all day uh to get an estimate or to get a quote or to get anything. I mean, the only the only time um contractors or uh when it comes to renovations or anything with within the home, the only time that they're actually on time is in porn. And that's I I remember is never, yeah, it's never, it's only in pornography. That's why when when adults would always tell me that you know porn is not, you know, it it's it's fantasy, they're right. Because I mean, you know, oh my gosh, it's 12 o'clock, you know, they're here, right? In the real world, you know, it's like uh I waited all day. Um, I thought you were gonna show up. Oh, well, well, maybe we'll be there tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, I mean, look, like that, that's right, right. I mean, it's really this super frustrating process, but it's kind of like this latent pain because everyone just kind of goes, Well, I guess there really isn't another way, so I suppose I'll just deal with it, right? And that is really, I think, the opportunity that we're communicating to folks is like, look, it doesn't have to be that painful. You know, I mean, as an example, we work in four states today. My my entire staff is in Denver, we kind of just beam
The App That Kills The Quote Headache
SPEAKER_02ourselves around the country, right? And you know, we've given quotes to folks within 15 minutes of first contact. We guarantee the quotes typically. Um, and you know, maybe a more complex job is 75 minutes or something, but it's 20 minutes on the app, and then it's another 30, 40 minutes on a video call. And um, you know, you can give people sure. Well, I mean, look, there's a lot of stuff we're doing, a lot of heavy lifting. I'm sure there's they're they're expecting maybe like two, three months out to I mean, look, it you know, we're not we're not like you know doing kitchens and bathrooms, and there's a lot of like touchy feelies in these problems, but or in these projects. But um, you know, the the the point there is like the the alternative route is like a dozen hours of time investment by a homeowner and and and a contractor and multiple home visits, and yeah, it's pretty painful, right? And uh there's an alternative route to make that a lot easier. So um it's been pretty cool, frankly. I mean, you know, the the customer reception of this product has been pretty great, and I I it's just like a total joy to have an idea, go build it, and and have a pretty phenomenal you know reception from from homeowners around this being you know something they didn't even think was possible, and then how amazing it is to actually go through a process like that.
SPEAKER_03Now, maybe it's because I grew up in in Florida. Now cooktops here, it's pretty much electric. Is there still a lot of um gas stoves throughout the country?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah, the uh the the southeast of the country really doesn't have a lot of gas in in in homes, but um, yeah, there's probably 50 million homes today that that have you know gas cooked tops in them. And you know, there's sort of this wonderful new appliance, like induction cooktops, or they're so effective. You could boil water in a minute flat, you know, as opposed to waiting around five minutes for them.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, that that's why that's why to me, when I read that, I was I was like, I thought that was maybe like you know, old homes with the gas.
SPEAKER_02Well, the the the electric resistance one is not not nearly as uh easy to use as gas stoves. So I think a lot of people went from electric resistance to gas. There's been a lot of people, you know, cooking with gas, right? Became such a huge like moniker. Um now we're going great. Well, there's an even better appliance called an induction electric stove. And people have such a bad rap with electric hooktops and whatnot that they're like, oh no, no, I don't want one of those. I want my gas stove. And we're like, okay, well, you know, there's a better thing yet. So there's still some messaging around that that has to be improved. Um, but yeah, there's there's a better appliance out there.
SPEAKER_03Why why would people think gas is better?
SPEAKER_02Uh I I think in general, like the control you get, the visual control and seeing the flame and how hot your food is getting is like actually helpful, you know. Um the this the unfortunate thing is like they're actually really not healthy. You know, you're burning a live flame in your house, and there's a lot of studies that have you know attributed that to like asthma and children and and whatnot. It's actually you know kind of awful to be honest. Um, and so I think there's an opportunity there just to improve the health of homes there, in addition to maybe saving you a few minutes every time you want to do that.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'll also bring up I I've seen them because you know I I do travel and I I've been to the Midwest. I mean, I'm a puss. I I I look at that and I'm fearful that I'm gonna set the whole house on fire. So a guy like me, that's why when you're like, hey, you want a gap, you want a gas stove. If somebody said that, I'd be like, are are are we back in the 1930s or what?
SPEAKER_02No, I you gotta you gotta pan the camera on this one, right? To the the video of one of those homes was like exploding from a gas leak, you know.
SPEAKER_03Um that's what I think.
SPEAKER_02That that's that's I mean, but but it happens, it happens every year. Like there are a handful of houses around the country, there's some crazy gas leak, and the house literally explodes like a bottle. Or people die from totally power monoxide, yeah. Totally. I mean it's it's it's you know I've never I mean at some point there's gonna be there's gonna be a hilarious joke about people going like, wait, you had you had what in your house? You had this crazy flammable fluid, like at all times.
SPEAKER_03That's that's why when I I read that, you know, change your to me, it's like, oh shit, if I left the you know the stove on, oh my gosh, you know, the electric company is gonna ding me a little. That's it. It's not like I'm like, oh shit, let me race back home because my whole house might be, you know, 50 foot.
SPEAKER_02Might literally explode.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. So what what are the four states you cover?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so so we're in in Colorado, we're in Illinois, Minnesota, and in California, uh, but northern part of California. Um, and you know, the team's all in Denver. Um, you know, we have I think roughly 50 contractors in our network today across those states that that we um you know enable to to go deliver these projects and um works with homeowners across all those states to help
Induction And The Hidden Costs Of Gas
SPEAKER_02them scope out and get projects priced and help them uh get through the process of getting these projects done.
SPEAKER_03Now, Grant, do you ever see yourself expanding past those four or do you see that?
SPEAKER_02Oh, the ambition is nationwide for sure. Yeah, I mean our our technology works on anyone that has a has a uh has a smartphone. So um, you know, we really want to be able to be the front door for folks that want to go get you know these kinds of projects done. And you know, whether they want to or not, they're going to have to get these projects done, right? And it's pretty frustrating when your water heater goes out, you got people over or what you know, what have you, and you're like, oh god, right? And so I think you know, that that's the person we really want to solve is the person that has a very urgent need. That's most of the market. And, you know, I think we have an interesting opportunity to help people right in that moment go, shoot, I need to find someone, I need to know what it's gonna cost immediately. I don't want to spend a lot of time. Can you install it tomorrow? And that that's really Really, I think the best opportunity for us with you know being the front door to that. Um, it's just gonna take us a while to be able to deliver the the operational excellence to turn around a quote and then deliver it next day.
SPEAKER_03Well, urgency always moves the needle. Imagine, like, oh yeah, well, uh I mean, okay, you buy uh an electric vehicle, you're gonna need an EV charger. Now, somebody that's like, oh, if you're trying to tell me to uh yeah, maybe one day or whatnot, but something like that, or uh of home repair, it's not really sexy. Like even with the water heater, the person's not gonna want the water heater, though he's having like cold ass showers.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's right, that's right. Well, well, and even better, the my favorite one is like the father is responsible for getting that project done. The more people that are in that family, the more urgent it becomes because every single person is yelling about how cold their showers are, you know, of course, and it's just like, well, if I live by myself, I guess I can kind of suffer through this, but you know, family of five, all of a sudden it's like, man, I need this thing tomorrow because like I gotta get these people off my back, right?
SPEAKER_03Okay, usually you know, oh my water heater, I I I can tell it's gonna well, I I know from experience I I waited because I'm like, oh that that's a crappy purchase. You know, can go go to Vegas or spend money on some something foolish, not not like nothing like essential because everybody's like, okay, I'll just wait. It it I think you can do another six months, another year, another two years, and it doesn't, and then and that's why, yeah, you're you what when it when it goes, you know, uh I'm you could you're gonna be the first person you know I call, especially when you you can rectify the problem immediately instead of being like, Well, yeah, maybe.
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, importantly, you can have a conversation about what the options look like quickly, as opposed to trying to find someone to come over and and you know get one idea or something, and then go, well, I don't know if I like that. Well, let me call another person, you know, and a couple days go by, right? Um, I think that's the that's a super hard thing. I mean, it's even more urgent when it's the middle of winter and your furnace or your boiler goes out and you're like, oh my god, definitely, definitely. It's like a life-saving, you know, situation. All of a sudden your home's not necessarily even safe to be in. That you know, that that's even worse. It's also tough, too, because you know, these those are two to five two to five times the cost of a water heater in a lot of cases, right? So now it's even more consequential of a decision, even more urgency. And people are kind of shaking their boots going, Well, I don't want to make a bad choice here, but I kind of just need to get this done. So what what's the best way to solve that problem? I mean, that that I really feel for that person because they're kind of in a tight spot at that point.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, I mean, man, you are an innovator. And if if you just if you do more and more things, because I I I see your list of things, uh, the e you know, EV chargers, insulation. Everybody needs insulation. That's a no-brainer. Cooktops, especially those electric ones, like gas ones, go electric people. We're we're you know, we're we're you know, let's be forward thinking. You know, we're not little house on the prairie, you know. There's there's no reason. Water heater, that's a no-brainer. E even me, I had a there was no way living in South Florida, I was gonna go do cold showers, heat pumps. That's definitely a a Colorado and even California.
SPEAKER_02So I well, Omar, you might you might not know. They do heating and cooling, so it's a it's an air conditioning box that does both, so it's what it's one box. Um, and so instead of having to you know have a furnace and an AC, I mean you might not even have a furnace down in for that. No, no, we don't have it.
SPEAKER_03But uh my my my when I can when I think of like a furnace, I think of like the scary movies like Nightmare on Helm Street. Sure, yeah, sure.
SPEAKER_02Of course you're a furnace, because well, just slightly north of you, you know. Your your friends in uh in in Alabama and Mississippi, they they do have heating systems, and uh, you know, they uh anyways, it's just it's it's one box, it moves heat just like you know your AC system does, but uh just operates in reverse when it gets cold outside. So um just simpler appliances and um honestly saves people a lot of money, especially if you're on like propane or oil or or whatnot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but I think like states like Alabama, Mississippi just mastered the the running water and the to have indoor plumbing and and not use the outhouse.
SPEAKER_01Got it, got it. They're not they're not that they're not that poor, thank you.
SPEAKER_03You're you're gonna be a little older than you. I remember, and this was only 30 years ago, which you know seems ancient when you're young, but there was like outhouses because I was driving through North Carolina, like a a shit, no, no pun intended, but a shit ton of outhouses, and it's like, come on, guys, it's like you know, 1998. I I think it's it's time that we mastered indoor plumbing.
SPEAKER_02We I haven't spent that much time in the South, so uh maybe maybe something.
SPEAKER_03I mean, hey, I I'm a graduate of LSU, so yeah, the the South's completely different. Prior priorities are different, like you know, instead of like investing money into a side hustle or something like that. Sometimes we need to invest money like into a tailgating RV for football season. The essentials.
SPEAKER_02Look, yeah, that well, I I still need to go down and and go to uh like an LSG Georgia game or something. You know, I mean that that's interesting.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, LSG, LSU Ole Miss, any SEC game. So man, I gotta say, entrepreneur, we we can literally say you're a rocket scientist, because you know, NASA. But you know, when you were a little kid though, I mean Nassau was super sexy. I mean, back in the day, we had astronauts, we you know, right? NASA is just like one of the shuttle programs was alive and well, yeah, exactly. You know, space exploration, now we outsource it. I don't know for how long since uh I think Elon said that he's gonna start overcharging based on uh on some political decisions on on the the the beautiful big beautiful bill, but we shall see.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um yeah, I mean it's been fun. You know, I've got I've gotten to do a lot of really cool things, um, and there's still a lot more to be done, you know. I mean, I'm turning 32 in like four or five days, but happy uh you see you're a Leo, two Leos, man.
SPEAKER_03You're a leader. That's why you're an entrepreneur, man. That's why you took charge. Yeah, you you took charge of your family, you helped, you helped out your family. At the end of the day, you you're always thinking of other people, whether you're you're thinking really of you know, you don't you don't want the you don't want us to all be flooded, you don't want us to all go through all these massive. I know it sounds corny, but I I you know I guess we're educated.
SPEAKER_02I mean, look, that was like a big part of my upbringing was like it, you know,
Scaling Nationwide Plus Service And Purpose
SPEAKER_02live a life of service. It's not about you. Maybe sometimes they take that a little too far, but you know, I think in a lot of ways, everything I've really been trying to do is just help other people, whether that's today, practically speaking, like help them have a better life at home or try to solve the climate problem or what have you. Um, that's really been the the core motivation.
SPEAKER_03But what's crazy though is everybody knows about being in service because oh, you know, even Zig Ziglar says the way to success is to help others find success. But we know it, but usually people don't operate that that way, Grant. Usually it's like, hey, I'm not gonna help out anybody, screw them. Who who was there for me? You know, sure.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_02I mean, look, no one's no no one's coming to save you, I think is in a lot of ways like the the reality for folks, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and you're you're highly in Grant. You could have been like, hey, you know what? Screw it. I'm in it for the money. I'm gonna find I'm gonna do the most profitable businesses, you know, screw the environment, screw this, screw that. That's someone else's because that that's how that's how most people that's someone that's someone else do that. And you can look at it, you tackled it.
SPEAKER_02I I I well, I mean, I kind of started in that spot, right? I mean, when I was working for these hedge funds, it's really, you know, it's pretty easy to make a lot of money doing that. Um, it's not fulfilling though. And you know, you gotta wake up every day and do something that you care about. Um otherwise life's really not worth living. Um, or you're not gonna have a lot of fun doing what you're doing. So um I don't know. That's that's what motivates me. That's what like gets me out of bed in the morning. Um, it's much more fun to build things that go help people, and um, you know, bring brings a lot of joy to go do those things. Um stuff in your pockets full of money, like I think I mean, uh a million and one people have said you get on the other side of money and you just realize that there's nothing there. You know, now look, I I haven't been there, so I I don't really know what what that that world looks like, but um at the end of the day, I I think it's just about people. Um, and anyways, that's that's the most important thing to me.
SPEAKER_03Well, Grant, I've lived my life both ways. One chasing money and thinking that money creates happiness or money creates uh success and it doesn't. I've I've gone the other route of being in service and actually realizing that you know, at the end of the day, I mean that's why people are oh my god, that guy killed himself and he was worth his net worth or this and that. It's because uh if you're like if you're living an unfulfilled life, you know, or you feel like you're not you don't matter, it doesn't matter if you have a hundred million dollars net worth because you know deep down inside I I believe that you know all of our souls are saying, Hey man, we were meant for more, you're meant to help out other people, you're you're meant to create a better today for even a much better tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02That's right, totally. Um, and it's fun to be able to live your life that way, you know. I mean, you're not taking it with you. No, not yet always right. I mean, we all we all came into this world naked, we're all going out naked, so that just is what it is.
SPEAKER_03Unless you're you're a Pharaoh, uh you know, you you could you could get married with this stuff.
SPEAKER_02And well, let me know if you uh if you got a trick for that, maybe I'll take you up on it. But um, you know, that's not uh I don't think that's in the cruise for me.
SPEAKER_03Well, Grant, how do we how do how did people get to know you more? I know I know your website, I've seen your LinkedIn, I've I've been social media stalking you. How to other people? Because you know, maybe you're an inspiration. You to you know, I would love for others not necessarily hey, and you know what? If they're not in the other four states, you will soon be in their state.
SPEAKER_02That's true. Yeah, you will we'll we'll become a say hi soon. Um, you know, look, I I am active on LinkedIn. Um, there's there's a lot of good conversation on there. Feel free to to reach out, connect with me there. Um, you know, the the business URL is zerohomes.io. Come say hi if you want to help with with anything. Um, and uh, you know, otherwise, uh, you know, catch me on the socials. Um, happy to engage, happy to chat, happy to help if I can.
SPEAKER_03Grant, I I wish I there's like a million questions for my last question because there's not one thing speci.
Where To Find Grant And Final Challenge
SPEAKER_03I mean, you you are like uh great at everything, living in service or whatnot. Here, here, here, I'll I'll go I'll wear a hat. Of I know plenty of people uh are like this. Uh what answer would you give this person? Grant, I I just don't get it. I really don't. I see your all your products, I see all your services. It just it's like speak you're you're speaking to me uh in Greek. I I mean I honestly believe there's nothing wrong with the environment, there's nothing wrong with anything. I just think it's a big hoax. So why why why should we even bother getting into business and using your company?
SPEAKER_02Look, if you need to um you know, get one of the products installed that we need, whether you got uh something that that's broken that needs fixed, or you're trying to save money on your bills or your home's uncomfortable. You know, those are broadly all problems we can we can help you with. Um yeah, it's true. There's some climate warriors out there that are like, hell yeah, let's get the gas out of our house and whatnot, but it's a pretty small percentage of people. At the end of the day, we just want to make it easy, we want to make it less expensive, uh, and we want to help you get it tomorrow. You know, pretty soon.
SPEAKER_03Everybody look at that. Brant just wants to save money in your pocket so you can spend spend it on that fifty dollar pizza that you're Jonesing, or blow away money foolishly. He's gonna save it for you so you can help the economy in other ways. Uh so right there, as long as there's savings enough. All right, brother, dude. Thank you for the time, thank you for the hour. What a great conversation. And you uh tell your publicists you can be on every in any podcast because man, you dude, you even even those faith ones, because you're you're just all over the place, but in a great way. Your story resonates. It's an amazing story. Thank you for sharing it with me.
SPEAKER_02Appreciate it, Omar. Thanks for having me on that. I appreciate it.