Marisa Reddy与Shelby Breger的技术之旅：以创新、共情重塑暖通行业格局

嘿，大家好。

Hey, everybody.

欢迎回到HVAC ADHD播客。

Welcome back to the HVAC ADHD podcast.

我是你们的主持人杰里米·贝格利。

I'm your host, Jeremy Begley.

今天我邀请到了两位非常出色的嘉宾：玛丽莎·里迪和谢尔比·伯格，他们是Conduit Tech的联合创始人，这家公司是暖通空调行业增长最快的设计与销售平台之一。

And today I'm joined by two seriously impressive Marissa Reedy and Shelby Berger are the co founders of Conduit Tech, one of the fastest growing design and sales platforms in HVAC.

如果你还没听说过Conduit Tech，那接下来你就要知道了。

If you haven't heard of Conduit Tech yet, you're about to.

这两位在2022年创立了这家公司，短短几年内，已经帮助超过700家承包公司提升了业务水平。

These two launched the company in 2022, and in just a couple of years, they've helped more than 700 contracting companies level up their business.

我们谈论的是更快、更精准的流程，比如使用激光扫描生成更准确的负荷计算，以及更能促成盈利成交的销售演示。

We're talking faster, everything from more accurate load packs using LiDAR scans to better sales presentations that actually close jobs profitably.

但今天的节目不仅仅关于软件，更关于他们的故事。

But today's episode isn't just about the software, it's about the story.

这两位从 HVAC 行业之外起步，彻底重新思考了承包商如何设计、销售和扩展业务的历程。

The journey these two took from outside the HVAC industry to completely rethinking how contractors design, sell, and scale.

我们将探讨同理心与科技、反馈的力量，以及打造真正改善一线从业者生活的产品意味着什么。

We'll talk about empathy and tech, the power of feedback, and what it means to build something that actually makes life better for the people in the field.

让我们开始吧。

Let's get into it.

欢迎回到 HVAC ADHD 播客。

Welcome back to the HVAC ADHD Vodcast.

今天我在这里与马丽莎·里迪和谢尔比·伯杰同台，她们是如今 HVAC 行业顶尖圈子里人人熟知并喜爱的软件——Conduit Tech 的联合创始人。

I'm here today with Marissa Reedy and Shelby Berger, co founders of the software that everybody knows and loves, at least in the top of the HVAC food chain these days, Conduit Tech.

欢迎两位。

Welcome, ladies.

我请你们简单介绍一下自己，说说 Conduit Tech 是做什么的，以及人们在哪里可以了解它，以防有些听众还不知道。

I'll let you introduce yourself and pretty briefly tell us what Conduit Tech is and where people can find out about it, just in case there are listeners that don't know.

但今天我们讲的故事会稍微有点不一样。

But we're gonna tell a slightly different story today.

我很乐意先开始。

I'm happy to start off.

是的。

Yeah.

当然。

Absolutely.

我先做个个人介绍，然后谢莉，我把你的话筒交给你。

I'll I'll kick it off with my personal intro, and then Shelby turn it over to you.

我是玛丽莎。

So I'm Marissa.

我是Conduit的联合创始人之一。

I'm one of the co founders of Conduit.

我的个人背景是软件工程，之后我去了一家私募股权公司担任初级投资者。

Personal background was software engineering, and then after that, I went to go work at a private equity firm as a junior investor.

那实际上是我第一次接触到各种不同类型的企业，家政服务和技工行业就是其中之一，我对此产生了极大的尊重和浓厚的兴趣。

That was actually kind of my first exposure to lots of different types of businesses, home services, the skilled trades was one of those businesses that I saw in that and honestly just developed a huge amount of respect, a huge amount of interest in the space.

从经济角度、人类健康角度和能源效率角度来看，这都极其重要，我当时真的非常着迷。

It's incredibly important from an economic perspective, from a human health perspective, from an energy efficiency perspective, and I was just really enamored.

很早就意识到我不喜欢金融，我想找到一种方式来支持那些真正创造经济价值的人，让实际的生产得以实现。

Kind of learned early on that I didn't love finance and wanted to figure out how to support those who were making, you know, the real stuff in our economy, making the real stuff happen.

于是我去上了商学院，当时特别对技工行业感兴趣，尽管我知道我自己并不是技工，而且我身体还挺弱的。

So went to business school and and was really interested specifically in the skilled trades at that point in time, knowing though that I wasn't myself a tradesperson, and I'm like a very weak person.

那我能做些什么来提供支持呢？

So what could I do to support?

我很幸运在商学院期间遇到了谢尔比，大约五年前，这段旅程就此开启，哇，这么说让我觉得自己老了。

I was lucky to meet Shelby in that kind of through our business school environment, and it launched off this journey about five years ago now, I guess is when that was, wow, that makes me feel old.

但确实，我们开始了这段旅程，去接触各种人，了解这个行业，最终决定投身于Conduit的事业。

But yeah, launched off this journey of us reaching out to people, learning about the space and eventually coming to work on Conduit.

我漏掉了很多细节。

I left out a ton of details.

谢尔比，现在交给你了。

Shelby, I'll turn it over to you.

不，这和玛莉莎很相似，她之前在其他行业工作。

No, it's so similar to Marissa, was working in other industries.

我最近在工业能源效率领域工作，一直在思考：我们如何才能以更切实、更贴近日常生活的方式加速能源效率的提升？

I most recently was working in industrial energy efficiency and was just having this question of like, what can we do to accelerate energy efficiency in a way that's much more tangible and livable every single day?

我感觉自己离家居设计的日常影响以及消费者真正关心的问题太遥远了。

I felt so far from really like the day to day implications of home design and what every consumer is thinking about.

我当时在想，制造卫生纸要消耗多少能源——这在2020年是个重要话题，但真的不足以让我每天充满干劲。

And I was thinking about how much energy goes into the creation of toilet paper, which was a very important topic in 2020, but really not one that necessarily got me out of bed every single day.

于是我开始探索，玛莉莎和我同时都在研究住宅能源效率、家居性能这些概念，我们有太多问题，却找不到答案。

And so I started exploring and both Marissa and I were simultaneously exploring this whole concept of residential energy efficiency, home performance, all of that, and had so many questions, but no answers.

我们越深入研究，就越好奇，也越意识到自己懂得多么少。

And what we the more we dug in, the more curious we were and the more we realized how little we know.

这大概贯穿了我们整个Conduit旅程的一个主题：我们学得越多，就越意识到自己不知道的更多。

And that's probably a theme for our entire conduit journey is the more we learn, the more we realize how much we don't know.

但对我们来说，越来越清楚的是，承包商群体在市场上长期被忽视了。

But I think it it became clear to us that there was such an underserved market, when it came to contractors.

承包商。

Contractors.

他们根本没有被纳入关于如何推进住宅能效和家居舒适的重要对话中。

They They weren't weren't being being left left out of really important conversations about how can we move forward, residential energy efficiency, home comfort.

我知道，杰里米，我们已经多次谈到，当你从家居舒适入手时，能效自然会随之而来。

I know, Jeremy, we've talked a lot about how when you start with home comfort, energy efficiency follows.

而这恰恰打开了无数可能性。

And that was such a like that is that unlocked so much.

但当我们深入思考时，发现没有人听到这种观点，也没有人支持承包商应对这一挑战。

But as we thought about that, like we realized nobody was hearing that perspective and nobody was supporting contractors in navigating that challenge.

于是我们开始深入探究。

And that's where we started digging in.

这一切都始于研究，以及像您这样的人的善意，愿意回复一封随机的邮件、一条随机的LinkedIn消息或一通陌生电话。

And it all started with research and the kindness of people like yourself, being willing to answer a random email or random LinkedIn message or a cold call.

所以我们非常高兴能来到这里。

So we we are so happy to be here.

首先，给还不了解的听众介绍一下Conduit Tech是什么。

So first, tell everybody what Conduit Tech is just for listeners that don't know.

我们以为大家都懂，因为我们天天都在聊，但它到底是什么，有什么功能，你给大家讲讲。

I we assume everybody knows because we all love it and we talk about it every day, but tell everybody what it is and what it does.

然后我想听听那个关键时刻。

And then I wanna hear the moment.

就是，你们什么时候突然意识到：我们要做这个东西？

Like, where did where were you like, we're gonna work on that thing.

就是说，当时……

Like, so

是的。

Yeah.

简而言之，Conduit是一个为住宅暖通空调承包商打造的轻量级设计与销售平台。

It's so in short, Conduit is a lighter powered design and sales platform for residential HVAC contractors.

使用Conduit，你可以走进客户家中，全程通过它完成整个销售流程。

And the and and what you can do with Conduit is you walk into a home and you run your entire sales process using Conduit.

你与客户讨论他们的舒适度需求。

You talk to the customer about their comfort concerns.

然后你开始并构建一个项目，这将是你的负荷计算。

You then start and build out a project which is going to be your load calculation.

你进行三维房屋扫描，使用iPad Pro等日常设备中的LiDAR传感器，大约需要五分钟。

You do a three d home scan, takes about five minutes using LiDAR sensors in everyday devices like iPad Pros.

你完成三维扫描。

You complete your three d scan.

你调整我们为你生成的智能默认值，以生成负荷计算。

You update any of the smart defaults that we create for you to generate a load calculation.

通过这个负荷计算、三维模型以及客户教育材料和关于舒适度需求的信息，你实际上可以当场开始明确这位业主的需求，并让业主全程参与其中。

And with both that load calculation, that three d model, as well as customer education materials, information about comfort concerns, you can actually start really getting to an answer on what that homeowner needs right there and then, but engage the homeowner in the entire process.

我们就是从这里开始的。

That's where we started.

我们在此基础上不断扩展，因为我们发现核心价值主张是通过设计与客户建立互动。

We've continued to add on to that because we saw the core value proposition was engaging that customer with design.

我们已经完善了关于设备选型的报告功能。

We've built out reporting around equipment selection.

我们已经制作了逐房间的气流报告，并最近开始开发一套全新的功能，包括照片标注和平面图模拟，以便帮助用户将这些信息顺利交接给安装团队。

We've built out airflow room by air room airflow reports, and we've recently started building out a whole other just set of functionality around photo annotations and floor plan mock ups so we can help people actually hand off that information to the install team.

你刚才提到了那个关键时刻。

And so you asked about like that moment.

我认为每一项功能都是从我们最初学到的东西中自然衍生出来的。

I think each piece has sort of fallen out of what we've what we initially learned.

我提到过，每当我们学到一些东西，就会意识到自己还有多少不知道的，以及还能如何更好地服务我们的用户群体。

I mentioned like everything we learn, we then learn how much we don't know and how much more we can better serve our user base.

这真正构成了我们整个产品开发流程的基础。

And that really undergirds our entire product development process.

但如果要我说出我们的关键时刻，那是在我们开始做Conduit项目一年半之后。

But if I had to tell you where our moment was, it came like a year and a half after we started working on conduit.

我们当时有太多不同的想法，取决于你是在哪个阶段和我们交流，我们可能正在研究融资方案。

We had so many different ideas and depending on which phase you talk to us during, we may have been working on financing.

我们可能一直在做预测性维护。

We may have been working on predictive maintenance.

我们可能在做其他事情，但我认为那个关键时刻出现在我们开始构建这个设计和销售平台，并开始听到人们问‘我什么时候能用上这个工具？’的时候。

We may have been working on something else, but I think that moment came from when we started building this design and sales platform and starting to hear people be like, when can I have it?

我愿意签署一份数万美元的意向书，只为能优先使用这个工具。

I will send sign an LOI for tens of thousands of dollars just so I can get first access to this tool.

这是一个不同的回应，就在那时我们意识到，好吧。

That was a different answer, and that's when we realized, okay.

我们这里的东西将改变，并且会对承包商的工作流程产生重要意义。

We have something here that's going to change, that's going to be meaningful to a contractor's workflow.

那么，你们是什么时候开始特别考虑负荷计算的呢？

So when did you start thinking about load calculations in particular?

你们是什么时候觉得，这是我们在构建的这个销售工具中非常关键的一部分？

When were you like, this is a super important piece of this sales thing that we're building right here?

我很乐意试着回答一下这个问题。

I I'm happy to take a stab at this.

我的意思是，要说到这个，我也不太确定。

I mean, just to get into I I don't know.

杰里米，如果我说得太细了，就打断我。

Jeremy, stop me if I'm telling you too much of the nitty gritty

不用。

No.

不用。

No.

我们就是为此而来的。

That's what we're here for.

我喜欢这样。

I love it.

所以谢尔比和我，我们见面了。

So Shelby and I, we we met.

我们在探索。

We were exploring.

我们当时参加了大量的跟车考察。

We were going on a lot of ride alongs.

坦白说，我们和任何愿意花时间与我们交流的人都进行了大量对话。

We were having a ton of conversations, frankly, with anyone who would give us their time.

我们非常幸运，通过这些交流，能够结识像您这样的优秀专家。

And and we got incredibly lucky that we were able to, through that, connect with amazing experts like yourself.

事件的时间线是这样的：我们爱上了这个市场。

The sort of timeline of events was that we fell in love with the market.

我们希望与住宅暖通空调专业人士合作。

We wanted to work with residential HVAC professionals.

我们知道这是一个非常重要的关注领域。

We knew that this was a very important space to be focusing.

一开始，我们的范围要广泛得多。

In the beginning, we were much more broad.

我们应该面向家庭用户、公用事业公司，还是供应商？

Should we work with homeowners, utilities, or, suppliers?

但我们只是意识到，这些才是我们喜欢的公司。

But we just realized these are the businesses that we like.

这些才是我们感觉最有默契的人。

These are the people that we find the most kind of camaraderie.

他们是最有魅力的交流对象。

They're the most charismatic connections with.

我们该如何聚焦于此？

How can we focus here?

我们想弄清楚这个群体的需求是什么。

And we want to figure out what the needs of this segment are.

我们不想只是进来就说：‘哦，我们是搞技术的，能开发点东西。’

We don't just wanna come in and say, oh, we're like tech people who can build something.

这完全不是我们想做的事。

Like, that's not at all what we wanted to do.

我们希望花足够长的时间去理解，你们每天面临的真实痛点是什么，然后我们才能有针对性地开发支持方案。

We wanted to spend as long as it took to understand what are the real pain points that you face on a daily basis and what can we do then to build to support for those pain points.

很有趣的是，我们实际上在知道要专注于负载计算之前就已经融资了。

It's funny because we actually raised money before we knew that we were gonna focus on load calculation.

我们当初融资是基于一个完全不同的想法，谢尔比的观点是集中在预测性维护领域。

We raised money focusing on an entirely different idea, which Shelby's point was in the kind of predictive maintenance space.

我们开始沿着那个想法前进。

We started to go down the path of that idea.

我们和投资人打了一通电话，他们问：OEM厂商不会做这个吗？

We had a call with our investors and they were like, aren't OEMs going to do this?

而且你们俩有人懂硬件吗？

And also do either of you know anything about hardware?

我们当时说：哦，是的。

And we were like, oh, yeah.

我们不懂。

We don't.

我们只是些太年轻的人，根本不懂太多，只是觉得我们能在这里产生巨大的影响，而且我们热爱这些企业。

We're just too young people who don't really who just thought we could have, you know, a really big impact here, we love these businesses.

我们热爱这个市场。

We love this market.

这是我们的信念。

That's our conviction.

所以我们才去融资。

That's why we raise money.

这对我们来说是一次很好的警醒。

That was a really good wake up call for us.

大概三年前，我们开始进行这些非常真诚的深入对话，说：嘿。

This was, like, almost exactly three years ago that we started having these, like, pretty big heart to heart conversations saying, hey.

我们需要转型。

We need to pivot.

我们需要找到一个更符合我们能力、更贴近市场需求的方向，同时也要是我们独特有能力去打造的东西。

We need to find a better direction that is more in line with our skills, more in line with what the market needs, and also something that we uniquely might be positioned to build.

在那段时期，我想正是那时，杰里米，我们第一次建立了联系。

And through those, I actually think it was in that period, Jeremy, that we first connected.

我想我给你发过一条消息，说我是辛辛那提人，看到你的LinkedIn个人资料上也写着辛辛那提。

I I think I sent you a note saying like, I'm from Cincinnati, and I see that you happen to have Cincinnati on your LinkedIn profile.

如果你能抽出十分钟，能和你连接真是太好了。

Would be amazing to connect if you happen to have ten minutes.

我对你的工作内容有很多问题。

I I have a lot of questions about what your job is like.

你真的非常友善。

And you were so incredibly kind.

你回复得特别快，我们开始了像今天这样的对话。

You responded so quickly, and we started to have conversations like the one that we that we had.

那次对话绝对是那个时刻的一部分。

That conversation absolutely was a part of the moment.

住宅暖通空调领域的销售是技术性的。

That sales is technical in residential HVAC.

这是一项技术性的工作。

It is a technical task.

要把这件事做好，是非常困难的。

It is a very difficult task to do it well.

从事这项工作的人必须精通家庭中多种不同的操作。

Somebody who's doing that task has to be the master of many different types of operations in the home.

与房主建立联系的能力、理解房主肢体语言的能力、理解空间结构的能力，以及对现有设备的了解。

The ability to connect with the homeowner, the ability to understand the homeowner's body language, the ability to understand the structure of the space, an understanding of the equipment that's there.

有太多如此困难的任务。

There's so many tasks that are so difficult.

当我们开始意识到这一点时，这一切就开始了。

That was started where we started to realize, okay.

我们可以把这些任务整合到一个系统中。

We can we can make those tasks come together in one system.

要完全实现所有操作都通过线管完成的愿景，我们还有很多工作要做，但我们可以先将一些任务统一起来。

We still have a lot that needs to be built to fully realize the vision of everything happens in conduit, but we can start to unify some of those tasks.

我们可以让其中一些任务变得稍微容易一点。

We can start to make some of them a little bit easier.

所以他们能随时为现场人员提供支持。

So they're available to somebody on-site.

结果可以在现场生成，并且这是业主能够理解的销售流程的一部分。

The the results can be generated on-site, and it is a part of the sales process that the homeowner understands.

其中的技术成分，是承包商在实地体验中所提供的价值主张的一部分。

It's the the technical element of it is a part of the value proposition that that contractor brings to the table in that on-site experience.

所以我认为，正是通过这些对话，我们的投资者告诉我们：你们知道自己在做什么吗？

So I think it was really through those conversations, through our investors telling us like, do you know what you're doing?

退一步想想。

Take a step back.

专注于更好的事情。

Focus on something better.

我们与像你、像亚历克斯·米尼、像克里斯·莫兰这样的人交谈，他们是愿意在我们还只是渴望学习的学生时，抽出时间帮助我们的专家。

Us having conversations with people like yourself, like Alex Meaney, like Chris Moran, experts who are willing to give us their time when we were essentially just students hoping to learn.

然后我们才逐渐明白，销售是技术性的，而且极其困难。

And then that that sort of insight that sales is technical and sales is incredibly difficult.

那就是我们开始构建的地方，我们正式朝这个方向推出公司大约花了三年时间。

That was where we started to build, and and it was about three years that we we officially launched on this direction of the company.

那么，你们是什么时候开始关注激光雷达的呢？

So when did you, look at LIDAR and be like, hey.

手动J激光雷达？

Manual j LIDAR?

是的。

Yeah.

这完全说得通。

That makes total sense.

我们就来做这件事吧。

Let's do that thing.

那整个对话是怎么开始的呢？

Like, how did that whole that whole conversation start?

对。

Yeah.

我的意思是，我们再次希望从根本上解决这个问题。

I mean, we were we again, we wanted to really root this in.

住宅暖通空调承包商面临的主要痛点是什么？

What's the pain point felt by a residential HVAC contractor.

所以我们从不想说，我们能带来什么酷炫的技术？

So we never wanted to say, like, what's the cool technology that we can bring to the table?

我们想从问题出发，然后去探索所有可能的技术，找出最适合解决这个问题的方案。

We wanted to start with what's the problem, and then we're gonna go out and we're gonna explore all the technologies and figure out which one is the best one to solve that problem.

所以我们从这个问题开始。

So we started with this problem.

销售很难。

Sales is hard.

销售是技术活。

Sales is technical.

我们能做些什么来解决或帮助改善这个问题？

What can we do to solve or or help with that?

我们非常幸运，拥有一群出色的技術顧問、一批優秀的技術投資者，以及當時一位極其出色的工程總監Gavin，他與我們一起協助評估哪些技術可以應用於此。

And we were really lucky to have an amazing set of technical advisers, an amazing set of technical investors, and a really fantastic VP of engineering at the time, Gavin, who was working with us to help us evaluate what are those technologies that we can bring to the table.

我們整理了一份極其冗長的文檔，如果你現在回頭看，這份谷歌文檔可能有20頁之多，詳細列出了應對技術銷售這一挑戰的各種可能解決方案。

We had this incredibly long I think if you were to look back at it now, it's probably 20 pages of a Google doc of how what are the possible solutions to this challenge of technical sales.

銷售很困難。

Sales is hard.

我們當時評估了許多不同的方案。

And we were evaluating a lot of different things.

我們評估過那種可以貼在房屋外牆上滾動的設備，它能測量房屋的尺寸。

We were evaluating like those rolly devices that you can roll on the outside of a home, and it will tell you how much you've measured at the home.

我們還評估過純粹的攝影技術。

We were evaluating just photo technology.

我們也考慮過拍攝室內視頻，然後讓其他人根據視頻建立模型。

We were evaluating taking videos of the inside of the space and having somebody else build a model.

就在那時，蘋果公司也逐漸成熟起來。

And then ultimately, right around that time, Apple was also maturing there.

也许‘成熟’这个词不太准确，但当时市场上配备激光雷达传感器的产品已经得到了广泛采用。

Maybe maturing is the wrong word, but the the products that were in market that had LIDAR sensors were mass adopted.

它们就是iPhone Pro型号和iPad型号。

They they were the iPhone Pro models, the iPad models.

所以，当时正是我们评估这项技术的绝佳时机。

So it was sort of the right timing for us to evaluate that technology.

这只是众多选项中的一个。

It was just one of many.

我们开始分析这项技术与其他方案相比的结果，发现它不仅可用，而且令人印象深刻。

We started to look at the results of what was that yielding relative to everything else and realized this is usable and also incredibly impressive.

看到这项技术在家居环境中如此完美地融合，真的能支持我们正在做的事情，这太棒了。

It is amazing to see this come together in the home that could really support what we're trying to do here.

因此，我们决定在此基础上进一步开发。

And so from there, we took the direction of building on on top of that technology.

所以你们俩是个人关系，你们是在大学时认识的吗？

So you guys were just your personal relationship, you met when you were were you in college together?

我不太清楚你们具体是在哪里认识的，比如你们是在哪里建立联系的？当时是在一个孵化器吗？

I wasn't clear on which where you actually met, like, where you connected and then you started was it like a a incubator?

你们最终是在哪里相遇的？

Like, where did you end up meeting that?

很遗憾，我当时已经远超大学毕业的年龄了。

Unfortunately, I I was much older than being a college graduate.

但我们是在毕业后相遇的——对我来说是研究生毕业之后，而玛丽莎还在读研，我们是通过研究生社群认识的。

But we we met post, post grad well, post grad school for me, Marissa was still in grad school and we were we met through our grad school community.

所以，坦白说，我们的故事就像一个典型的新冠疫情下的爱情故事，我们是在Slack上认识的。

So, like, truth truthfully in a true, like, COVID love story kind of way, we met over Slack.

当时有一个为研究生群体设立的共享Slack社群，我们不久后就线下见面了。

It was a shared Slack community for, like, for for people in our graduate school, and we met in person shortly thereafter.

但没错，这确实是一段线上相识的经历。

But, yes, it is the the online online online experience.

那你们是什么时候决定要合作的？

And when were you, like, let's collaborate.

我们一起做生意吧。

Let's go into business together.

你们既然在那个社群里认识，那这个关系是怎么一步步发展成我们刚才提到的Conduit Tech的呢？

Like, how did that that whole if you met in that community, like, where did how when did that relationship translate into, like, the beginnings of Conduit Tech that we just talked about?

说实话，几乎是立刻就决定了，这还挺不可思议的。

Honestly, like pretty instantly, which was kind of wild.

我们认识之后，玛莉莎在那个共享的Slack社群里发了一条消息——这事儿有点细节了，但玛莉莎在Slack上发了这么一条。

So we met, Marissa had posted this is way in the weeds, but Marissa posted on Slack like on this shared Slack community.

有没有人正在研究如何加速住宅能源效率，以及如何支持承包商？

Hey, is anyone looking at how you can accelerate residential energy efficiency and what ways you can support contractors?

大概就是这个问题的意思。

That was the gist of the question.

我当时也在同时关注这个问题，正和其他团队一起做快速原型开发。

I had simultaneously been looking at this, doing build sprints with other teams, building other like prototypes.

于是我回复说：是的，我确实在关注，但我目前完全没答案。

And I replied like, yes, I have been, but I have zero answers for you.

她单独给我发了消息，说：嘿。

And she separately messaged me and was like, hey.

我看到你现在在波士顿。

I see you're in currently in Boston.

我很想当面见你，聊聊这件事。

I'd love to meet in person and just discuss.

我们下周见了面，一拍即合，决定下周就开始一起工作。

And we met in person the next week and just, like, hit it off instantly and decided to work together the following week.

当我说一起工作时，我们当时都还在其他公司上班，还在思考很多其他问题，但我们决定，在空闲时间里，一起研究这个领域，分享彼此的发现。

And when when I say work together, we were both still employed in other jobs thinking through, many other issues, but we decided, like, in our free time, we're going to just like, we're gonna research this together and share what we learn.

我们非常好奇，该如何继续了解这个领域，找出可能的解决方案？

We're so curious, like, how can we continue to learn about this space and figure out what solutions might be there?

我们设定了一个目标：前六周每周投入十小时。

And we set a goal of, like, let's do ten hours a week for the first six weeks.

我确定，实际上在头六周里，我们每周投入的时间都超过了二十小时。

I know for sure that it both became more like twenty hours a week in those first six weeks.

在那最初的六周后，我们甚至都没想过要停下来。

And after those first six weeks, we were like, had a don't even think we had a touch point.

你愿意继续下去吗？

Were like, do you wanna keep going?

你愿意继续下去吗？

Do you wanna keep going?

我们继续了。

We kept going.

而现在，五年过去了，我们就在这里。

And now here we are five years later.

老实说，每一步都感觉顺其自然，让我们忍不住继续下去。

Honestly like each step, it just sort of was felt natural for us to keep going.

正是这种动力让我们走到今天——在我们成立公司、获得融资、开发产品之前，每一步旅程都让我们解锁了新的知识和热情，这些让我们保持动力，不断前行，因为我们热爱与这个行业建立联系。

And that's what brought us here today is that every step of the journey we unlocked some additional knowledge, some additional excitement that kept us motivated and wanting to keep going before we even incorporated as a company, before we received any funding, before we built any product, it was actually just the motivation and loving connecting with the industry.

正如玛丽莎所说，整个社区都愿意花时间帮助我们打造一些东西，希望它能为行业中的每个人提供支持，即使不是直接对他们自己。

And to Marisa's point, all of all of this community was willing to give us time to build something in the hopes that it might support everyone in the industry, even if not themselves directly.

这对我们来说非常有激励作用。

And that was so motivating to us.

直到今天，这依然非常有激励作用：我们能做些什么来支持这个产业，而这个产业也曾支持我们努力打造一些东西，并希望创造出有影响力的产品。

It still is really motivating today is what can we do to support this industry that has also supported us in trying to build something and hopefully build something impactful.

在之前的经历中，你们有接触过承包商吗？

So had had either of you dealt with contractors at all prior to this experience?

比如在Conduit Tech这个过程中，你们之前有没有直接与承包商合作过，还是这是你们第一次接触承包商？

Like, the conduit tech, you know, journey, had you ever had workings with contractors directly or anything like that, or was this your first experience with contractors?

哦，抱歉。

This is Oh, sorry.

你先说，

Go I ahead,

我本来想说，这是我第一次经历。

was gonna say it was my first experience.

那个研究阶段，确实是我第一次。

That research, like the research phase certainly was.

是的

Yeah.

抱歉，轮到你了，玛丽莎。

Sorry, over to you, Marissa.

不完全同意这一点。

No, not echoing that entirely.

这确实是第一次花相当多的时间与住宅暖通空调专业人员合作。

It was definitely the first time spending a decent amount of time working with with residential HVAC professionals.

我可能在金融领域有些相关经验，但绝对没有达到过那种程度——比如和他们进行深入交谈、搭他们的车、跟着他们出工，说实话，我至今仍惊讶于当时人们竟然允许我们这么做。

I mean, little bit of experience maybe through my experience in finance, but certainly not that with nothing that bordered on the level of, like, having a personal conversation, getting in someone's truck with them, and going on a ride along with them, which was I'm still shocked that people let us do that, to be honest with you in those days.

但我们给

But We give

外表看起来有点粗鲁，但在暖通空调行业里，我们其实都是挺友善的人。

off a gruff appearance, but we're pretty nice people here in the HVAC world.

非常，非常友善。

Incredibly, incredibly nice.

我必须说，正是这一点，让这五年的旅程从头到尾都如此愉快。

I have to say that is why this five year journey has, I think, been such a pleasure for the entirety of it.

有时我会和一些也在创业、试图把项目启动起来的朋友聊天，我觉得我们比有些人幸运，因为我们有很棒的客户。

And sometimes I I speak to friends who are also working on on companies trying to get something off the ground, and I feel like we've had it easier than some people because we have amazing customers.

我们有很棒的

We have amazing

你们也有很棒的想法。

You have amazing ideas too.

我的意思是，别忘了，你们自己也得为那些想法和最初创造的东西承担一些功劳。

I mean, so let's not, you know, you guys gotta take a little bit of credit for the thing that you you thought about and started creating.

那些说‘同意’的人，包括我自己，从一开始就被这个想法震撼了。

The people that said yes, including myself, are blown away by the idea to begin with.

你知道，暖通空调行业通常并不那么具有前瞻性。

Like, so, you know, the HVAC space is typically not that forward thinking.

过去一直如此，虽然制造商推出新产品时会有一些技术，但通常都只是上一代产品的翻版，加几个新功能而已。

It hasn't been like, there's technology and maybe the the OEMs when they come out with the next thing, but it's usually pretty similar to the last box with a few new features.

这让我想起了现在的苹果和安卓，是的。

It sort of reminds me of Apple and Android at this point where they're like, yeah.

好吧。

Okay.

我们会买这个东西，因为那个东西过几年就用不了了，但也没比我们之前用的强多少。

We'll buy that thing because this thing's not gonna work in a couple years, but it's not really that much better than the last thing we had.

所以，当你们带着这个想法出现时，这真是开创性的东西。

So, like, when you guys came along with your idea, it's groundbreaking stuff.

而且，我们当时非常印象深刻，现在依然如此。

And, I mean, we're we were super impressed, and we still are.

这显然正在改变整个行业，现在已经有追随者了。

And it's clearly changing the industry, and there's followers now.

现在有其他产品模仿你们的，和你们的很像，但据我所知，你们是第一个进入市场并率先提出这个想法的。

There's other products that that mimic yours and were like yours, but you guys were first to market and had the idea first as far as I know.

我的意思是，我不太清楚这些其他公司的历史，但我第一次听说这个概念就是从你们开始的。

I mean, I don't know, you know, the history of these other companies, but the first I ever heard of this was you guys.

所以这就是我认为你们当时得到这么多肯定回答的原因。

So that is the reason that I think you were getting so many yeses.

但你们之前从未涉足过这个领域，突然进入承包商世界，第一次体验所有机械方面的内容以及日常的方方面面，那感觉是怎样的？

But what was it like from you never having worked in that area before and then stepping into the contractor world for the first time and experiencing all the the mechanical side of it and the daily, you know, ins and outs and all of that.

对你们来说，那是什么样的体验？

What was that like for you guys?

确实让人不知所措。

Overwhelming, for sure.

我的意思是，我们很快就适应了。

I mean, I think we just quickly developed.

我认为谢尔比和我一直以来都非常谨慎，而且对我们来说非常重要的一点是，我们希望花时间去深入了解那些从事极其艰苦工作的人们。

I think one thing that Shelby and I have been really careful about and really matters to us is that we had we wanted to take the time to develop a strong empathy with individuals working in incredibly hard jobs.

对吧？

Right?

从事住宅暖通空调工作真的非常辛苦。

Like it is really hard to work in residential HVAC.

我认为，当我们开始深入挖掘，通过跟车实地观察、阅读教材、查找每一篇能找到的博客文章时，才真正意识到这有多么复杂。

And I think when we started to dig under the layers there to understand through ride alongs, through reading the textbooks, through reading every single blog post, could find how complicated it is.

如果你没有真正从事过技术行业，你是不会理解的。

If you're not really in the trades, you do not understand.

我认为，要理解这些领域有多么具有挑战性、技术性以及发展速度之快，几乎是不可能的。

I think it's nearly impossible to understand how challenging and technical and rapidly moving these fields are.

因此，我想我们早期确实感受到的一件事，就是第一次打开Manual J教材时的震撼。

And so I think one thing that we did feel early on was just cracking open open the manual j textbook for the first time, for example.

天哪。

Holy smokes.

这简直就像下象棋一样复杂。

This is like the BD chess.

这里面有一些值得考虑的地方。

There is something consider.

是的。

Yeah.

还有那么多实际中的限制条件，根本不会写在教科书里。

And so many real world constraints that are not written into the textbook.

还有那么多业主方面的限制，教科书里也完全不会提。

So many, you know, homeowner constraints that are not written into the textbook.

像这样的事，谁能做得了呢？

Like, how can anyone do this?

我认为我们必须保持开放的心态，真正接受在信息不完整的情况下工作，并通过尽可能多地进行交流、尽可能多地参与实地跟车观察，来弥补这一不足，从而学习和了解人们究竟是如何完成这项工作的。

And I think we had to keep ourselves open minded to really being okay operating without full information and really overcompensating for that by having as many conversations as we could and trying to have as much real world touch points, so ride alongs as possible so that we could learn and we could see how do people do the job.

顺便说一句，我们绝对没有达到真正的住宅暖通空调专业人士所拥有的那种知识水平。

We by no means, by the way, have anything close to the level of knowledge of residential HVAC that a true residential HVAC professional has.

我们只是学到了这个领域的一小部分。

We've been able to learn a small sliver of the field.

我们能够从这个领域的一小部分中获得视角，这完全归功于那些愿意向我们开放日程、分享知识的人，以及那些撰写了我们所阅读的教科书的人。

We've been able to take a perspective on a small sliver of the field, and that's really only been because of the time of of people who were willing to give us access to their calendars, access to their knowledge, those who've written the textbooks that we were able to read.

我们就像海绵一样吸收这一切，努力在学习过程中保持开放和同理心。

We just sort of absorbed it like sponges and tried to stay as open minded and empathetic to everything that we were learning in that process.

事实上，这还挺有趣的。

And I I actually it's funny.

我确实得反驳一下，说这些技术行业不够科技前沿的说法。

I I really do have to push back on using this that that trades are not technology forward.

我认为，这些行业真正诚实的地方在于，它们清楚哪些技术重要，哪些不重要。

I think that what the trades are is really honest about what technology matters and what technology doesn't matter.

我想，你很难遇到比那些真正关注家族企业损益表的人更精明的商人了。

I think that you will never meet a savvier business person than someone who is, you know, really thinking about the p and l of their family business.

而这正是许多技术行业的一大特点。

And that is what characterizes so much of the trades.

即使不是完全相同的情况，这种精神也贯穿于整个技术行业的大部分领域。

And I think if it's not that exact situation, it's that ethos across so much of the trades.

因此，我们一直保持着极其诚实的态度。

And so we have been kept incredibly honest.

人们会直接告诉我们哪些想法是糟糕的。

People will tell us what is a bad idea.

这实际上对我们帮助很大。

That's actually helped us a lot.

我认为，也许这也是我们团队有时面临挑战但也更轻松的原因，因为我们永远不会推出任何未经他人真正帮助验证过的东西。

I think that maybe that's also where sometimes things are challenging, but also easier for our team is that we're never gonna put something out there that somebody hasn't really helped us validate.

人们会坦诚地告诉我们他们需要什么、不需要什么。

And people are honest with us about what they what they need and don't need.

本周的节目由NoSow赞助。

This week's episode is brought to you by NoSow.

准备好将您的技术人员效率提升十倍了吗？

Ready to 10x your technicians?

现场服务团队正在错失收入机会。

Field service teams are missing out on revenue.

NoSO的AI确保您捕捉每一个机会，并以零纸质工作完成每一项任务。

NoSO's AI ensures you capture every opportunity and finish every job with zero paperwork.

从现场诊断复杂问题，到自动生成工作报告。

From diagnosing tricky issues on-site to automatically writing up job reports.

他们的AI助手NoSO在每个步骤中为技术人员提供支持。

Their AI assistant, NoSO, supports your technicians at every step.

要了解更多关于NoSO的信息，请点击节目说明中的链接，或访问他们的网站noso.so。

To learn more about NOSO, click the link in our show notes or head to their website at noso.so.

你这样让我想到了一个有趣的问题。

Do you, so this is a, brought an interesting question to my mind.

不久之前，我采访过另一位 HVAC 行业的技术产品创始人，他正在努力将产品推向市场。

Not too long ago, I interviewed another HVAC guy that has a product, tech product in the HVAC space, and he's a founder, and he's trying to bring it to market and stuff like that.

他提到的一个观点是，他认为与私募股权公司打交道比与家族企业打交道更容易，因为现在有很多私募股权公司。

One of the comments that he made, was that he felt like dealing with the P companies, private equity, because there's a lot of that going on.

私募股权公司与家族企业相比，向私募股权公司展示他的价值主张更容易，因为他们对财务报表和业务有更理性的理解，而许多家族企业则不然。

The the P companies versus the family companies, that it was easier to show the P companies his value proposition because they had a more logical understanding of their books and their business than the family run a lot of the family run companies.

我想他就是这个意思。

I think that's what he was saying.

差不多就是这样。

Something like that.

但他基本上觉得，向私募公司而非家族企业展示价值主张更容易。

But basically, he felt like he had an easier time showing the value proposition to the p company the p owned companies than the family companies.

你们有没有什么想法？

You guys have any Super.

对此有什么看法吗？

Have any thoughts on that?

这很有趣。

It that's interesting.

我认为这并不是我们的经验。

I would say that's hasn't been our experience.

在我们的发展过程中，真正令人兴奋的是，我们与从个体经营者到私募支持的公司等各种客户合作。

And I think what what's been really cool during our conduit journey is we work with everyone from an owner operator all the way up to those PE backed companies.

我认为，决定一个人是否成为我们目标客户的关键在于，他们是否希望扩大业务并持续改进。

And I will say like the number one unification of like what makes somebody a target customer for us is are they trying to grow their business and do they want to continuously improve?

这是我们最看重的一点，而且我们在各个规模的企业中都能看到这一点。

That is like the number one thing we look for and we see that at every size.

我想起我们一位客户，他是个个体经营者，每次作业都力求提供最好的客户服务。

And I think of one of our customers who's who's an owner operator, he wants to give the best customer service every single job he does.

他决定卖掉自己更大的公司，只想保持一个人的经营模式。

And he has decided he he sold a much larger company off and he's like, just wanna remain a one one person entity.

我经常想到他，因为他做的事情让人完全想不到——你去他的网站看看，会发现他提供的整个客户体验，表面上看并不显眼，但他就是想亲力亲为。

And I think about him all the time because he's doing like, you would never guess that you go on his website, you go, you see the entire customer experience he's delivering and it doesn't look like that, but he just wants to he wants to do this himself.

同时，对我来说，Conduit 对我的业务来说是显而易见的选择，因为这正是我提供卓越客户体验的方式。

And at the same time, was like Conduit's a no brainer for my business because that's how I'm gonna deliver part of my great customer experience.

所以对我们来说，我们发现价值主张确实能引起共鸣，而且我们发现，那些没有私募股权背景的企业更有可能找到我们，因为他们是在自己的圈子里听说我们的。

And so I think for us, it really we we find that the value proposition resonates and what we find is those the businesses that aren't private equity backed are more likely to find us because they're hearing about us in their circles.

他们正在寻找不同的增长方式。

They're looking to they're they're looking for different ways to grow.

当然，我们也与许多私募股权支持的企业合作，他们要么通过投资组合公司，要么通过公司总部了解到我们。

And of course we work with many private equity backed ones that hear about us either at the portfolio company level or at the corporate level.

我们看到这个价值主张在两种情况下都有效。

And we see that value proposition work both ways.

但对我来说，成长Conduit过程中最喜爱的部分之一，就是与来自各种类型公司、遍布全美除夏威夷和阿拉斯加之外所有地区的用户合作，亲眼见证无论他们的市场或规模如何，我们的产品都适用。

But I think for us, that's been one of my favorite parts of growing Conduit is working with users of all different types of companies in in all but Hawaii and Alaska and just being able to see like this this works for them no matter their market, no matter their size.

你们目前有多少用户？

How many users do you have currently?

我不太关注我们的用户总数，但我们与700多家公司合作。我说的‘关注用户’，指的是用户数量。

I don't pay attention to our users, but we work with over 700 and by pay attention to our users, I mean, of users.

但我非常关注我们的每一位具体用户。

I pay a lot of attention to our individual users.

那并不是

That didn't

解释一下这句话。

qualify that statement.

是的。

Yes.

那很重要，好的。

That was a really important Okay.

为了记录在案，你可以保留这段话不变，但我真的非常喜欢我们的用户。

For for the record, you're welcome to leave that in as is, but I I I love our users.

我们只跟踪公司的数量，因为用户数量每天的波动幅度要大得多，可能差一个数量级。

We I I only keep track of the the number of, like, companies because that change the number of users changes a lot more from an order of magnitude per day.

所以今天，我们在全国范围内与700家公司合作。

So it's 700 companies that we're working with today across the country.

所以，我刚才想说的是，这种感觉是怎样的？

So, I mean, where I was going with that is, what's it feel like?

有什么不同？

What's the difference?

当你从‘嘿，有五个用户在用这个’，到‘我们现在有一百个、五百个，或者别的数字’时，你的反应是什么？

What's your reaction from when you're like, hey.

这种感受对你来说有什么变化吗？

We got five users using this to we have a 100 or 500 or whatever it is now.

你对这种增长的反应是如何变化的？

Like, how has that reaction changed from you?