Business Model Innovation

This is the last issue in a 5-part series about accelerating heat pump adoption in America. If you missed the first, second, third, or fourth issues, check them out!

The complicated, often confusing process that homeowners looking to switch from gas heating to electric systems often face represents a gap in the HVAC market. In response, a new category of businesses has emerged to fill this need. These companies are increasingly known as “heat pump concierge” services.

The “Heat Pump Concierge” Model

These companies act as one-stop guides, managing the entire heat pump journey from education and planning to installation and ongoing support. They often work with vetted crews, handle all permitting and paperwork, secure rebates, and ensure system performance. 

Some also offer additional electrification services—such as induction stoves, EV chargers, heat pump water heaters, and weatherization—enabling a full-home transition. By streamlining every step, they remove the friction that typically holds homeowners back, making the process simple, affordable, and appealing.

By owning more of the process end-to-end than a traditional HVAC company would, concierge startups can streamline operations and even pass savings on to consumers. For example, Jetson found that vertical integration – working with an OEM to produce its own heat pump units – plus a tech-driven installation process can cut consumer costs by up to 90% after rebates.

Similarly, Boston-based Tetra redesigned the buying process with instant online quotes and automated workflow management, yielding cost savings of up to 30% compared to typical contractors. These efficiencies attract venture funding and fuel rapid growth. 

The early success of many of these businesses has been driven by venture capital investments. Elephant Energy, a Colorado-founded concierge provider, raised $5.8 million since 2021 to expand beyond its home market, and Tetra recently secured a $10.5 million round to support bi-coastal expansion.

By combining homeowner education, incentive capture, and streamlined business models, “heat pump concierge” companies simplify the buying process and can significantly reduce upfront costs. This is a powerful lever—cost parity with traditional systems changes the conversation entirely. If a heat pump costs the same or less than a gas furnace, runs more efficiently, lowers energy bills, and delivers a cleaner, healthier, more comfortable home, it becomes the obvious default.

Spotlight: Jetson

Jetson differentiates itself in the “heat pump concierge” category through a rare combination of vertical integration, modern software design, and a smart, connected heat pump. While most concierge companies act as sophisticated intermediaries, Jetson is building a fully integrated electrification stack.

Building the First End-to-End Platform

By co-developing and manufacturing its own heat pump, Jetson bypasses traditional HVAC distribution layers, dramatically reducing equipment and installation costs. The company’s signature unit—the Jetson Air, integrated with Jetson’s SmartHub and real-time monitoring platform— provides live performance data, fault detection, and predictive maintenance insights. Its consumer-friendly design earned the Jetson Air a spot on TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025.

Jetson’s quoting tool give homeowners instant, transparent pricing and a clear path to installation, eliminating the multi-visit, multi-bid friction that often discourages homeowners. The emphasis on software creates rare predictability and clarity in a process that is usually slow and confusing.

While competitors differentiate on contractor networks, customer service, or streamlined workflows, Jetson is effectively building the first vertically integrated, software-native heat pump company. Its model resembles Tesla or Nest far more than a traditional HVAC business: by owning the hardware, the software, and the customer relationship end-to-end, Jetson gains the ability to update system logic over time, incorporate fleet-wide performance learnings, and continuously reduce installation costs at scale.

Editor’s Note: I love Jetson’s ambition, and in fact there are many parallels in their vision to my last heat pump company, where we worked to vertically integrate installations.

But even without vertical integration, I’m confident that many of the other heat pump concierge companies will make a meaningful dent.

At my current company, Vayu, we partner with talented local installers and equipment distributors and align incentives, with quality installations and competitive prices even without making our own heat pump equipment.

There was a great conversation on LinkedIn recently about these different approaches, with representatives from equipment OEMs and even the CEO of Jetson chiming in. The comments are really insightful.

Different strategies will resonate in different markets, with different customers and different constraints. I’m grateful to have so many smart peers tackling the challenge of heat pump adoption!

Climate vs. Comfort

A notable divergence among these companies is how they market the benefits of electrification to customers. Broadly, two go-to-market messaging strategies have emerged:

Climate/Decarbonization-First Messaging

Many electrification concierge startups lean into an environmental pitch, seeking to attract the climate-conscious early adopters. Jetson and Elephant Energy are prime examples.

Jetson identifies “replacing outdated fossil-fuel systems” as a key component of its mission and emphasizes how switching to a heat pump can drastically cut a home’s emissions. Elephant’s entire brand is built around “climate-friendly homes” – the company frequently cites the carbon emissions avoided by its projects and urges homeowners to stop “burning stuff” to heat their homes. 

This climate-forward messaging resonates with sustainability-minded consumers and early-adopters while giving these startups a distinctly mission-driven identity. It’s also a powerful tool for attracting talent and investors who prioritize climate impact. 

But companies like Jetson and Elephant don’t rely on climate appeals alone—they link the green narrative to tangible homeowner benefits like cost savings, comfort, and cleaner indoor air, making the case both values-driven and practical.

Comfort, Health, and Value Messaging: 

Other companies downplay the climate talk and instead sell heat pumps as a lifestyle upgrade – a better product for the homeowner’s comfort, safety, and wallet, installed by true experts.

Foundry, a Toronto-based heat pump installer, focuses its messaging on comfort, health, and safety—emphasizing that heat pumps are “the only system that can be properly sized to match the needs of the house.” Foundry also draws a clear distinction between traditional contractors, who service all types of HVAC systems, and its own specialized technicians, who work exclusively on heat pumps.

Similarly, Forge brands itself as “the heat pump experts,” spotlighting the systems’ versatility and cost benefits rather than leading with their climate impact. The company also highlights its fully in-house technician model—not subcontractors—and leans heavily on quality customer service as a key differentiator.

While this messaging is designed to broaden the appeal beyond the eco-aware niche, the fact remains that many of the homeowners reaching out to these “heat pump concierge” companies already have some understanding of the technology and its climate benefits—and that’s a primary motivator:

This is the next phase of heat pump adoption: reaching beyond early adopters. Once the climate-conscious and home efficiency enthusiasts are on board, the challenge becomes engaging homeowners who aren’t already invested in sustainability.

But before we can get there, we need to ensure every homeowner has a great experience—from education to installation to long-term performance. They need to feel comfortable in their home and confident in their choice. That’s what will ultimately allow heat pumps to thrive.

Summary and Final Solutions

If you’ve gotten this far—first of all, congratulations! You must really be PUMPED about heat pumps (sorry, couldn’t resist).

By now, it should be clear: heat pump adoption in the U.S. is at a critical inflection point. The technology is solid. The benefits are clear. But cultural inertia, misinformation, and complexity are still slowing things down.

To accelerate adoption, we need to focus on the following key goals:

Make heat pumps an easy, obvious choice for homeowners.

That starts with education and trusted guidance. Community groups, national platforms, and “heat pump concierge” companies all play a vital role. The more consumers understand what a heat pump is—and how it can improve their comfort, lower their bills, and reduce emissions—the more confident they’ll be in making the switch. Even small shifts in language, like referring to heat pumps as a “2-way AC,” can make the technology feel more familiar and approachable.

We’ve seen this play out before: early EV adoption was bogged down by skepticism, range anxiety, and myths. Over time, familiarity and visible benefits (plus improvements in the technology) helped turn the tide. The same can happen with heat pumps—and it should be even easier, because the technology is already fully viable in virtually every climate. But it will only happen if we meet people where they are and make the experience simple, affordable, and rewarding.

If you have a heat pump in your home and you love it—tell your neighbors, tell your family, tell your friends. Host a party and showcase your heat pump in action. Become a heat pump advocate in your local community!

Build the next-gen heat pump workforce

We must expand the pool of skilled heat pump system designers and installers. As a new generation replaces the aging HVAC workforce, it’s essential that they’re equipped not just with the technical skills to properly size and install heat pumps, but also free from the skepticism and outdated assumptions that have held the industry back.

Investing in training programs—whether through trade schools, public initiatives, or private companies—is key. Every new tech trained in heat pumps isn’t just another installer; they’re a front-line ambassador who can confidently recommend the technology to homeowners and deliver high-quality results, thus accelerating demand.

Upskilling legacy HVAC pros is another key component, but this won’t be easy. There are nearly 150,000 HVAC establishments in the U.S, with most being small, family-owned businesses. Even as trade organizations begin to promote heat pump adoption, they simply don’t have the reach to rapidly shift behavior across such a fragmented market.

That’s why consumer education is so critical. As homeowners learn to ask for heat pumps by name, market demand will push contractors to adapt—or risk being left behind.

Leverage better tools and data

We also have an opportunity to modernize the way heat pumps are sold, installed, and monitored through new tools, data, and diagnostics. Software like Amply can make right-sizing and commissioning faster, more accurate, and more transparent, cutting down the time to produce an accurate heat load-calculation from hours to minutes and opening the door to a conversation with the homeowner that focuses on value over cost.

But modeling tools, if used incorrectly and in isolation, risk leading to bad sizing and bad outcomes for homeowners. That’s why we also need to standardize performance-based heat loads, using either energy consumption or runtime data. Pairing each heat pump with a smart thermostat—and incorporating the use of that data into service and maintenance contracts—will allow heat pump-focused companies to build feedback loops, improve outcomes over time, and close the gap between modeling and real-world performance.

Prioritize quality and build trust 

Ultimately, the quality of installations will make or break public trust in heat pumps. A poorly installed or undersized system can underperform and leave a bad impression—reinforcing the very myths we need to erase. On the other hand, a well-executed project creates a comfortable home and a happy homeowner who will spread the word. Every successful heat pump is a living advertisement to neighbors and friends, building social proof that drives the next wave of interest. 

“Heat pump concierge” companies like Jetson, Elephant, and Forge are leading the way on creating these high-touch, trust–building, delightful experiences for homeowners. By using modern software solutions for design and quoting, sorting out rebate paperwork, and positioning themselves as a partner on the homeowner’s electrification journey, these companies remove friction at every step of the process. This also allows them to escape the “race to the bottom” commodification of HVAC services and sell their customers on value—a more comfortable, healthy, and efficient home.

In doing so, they’re raising the bar for what homeowners should expect from HVAC contractors and proving that heat pumps can deliver on comfort, cost savings, and climate benefits. If we want to scale adoption, this model—centered on trust, simplicity, and homeowner experience—needs to become the norm, not the exception.

Policy: The final piece

Needless to say, public policy needs to continue to align with the goals of heat pump adoption and the home electrification movement in general. At the federal level, the Republican majority’s budget bill, which kills a variety of clean energy initiatives and incentives, would deal a huge blow to electrification and climate goals broadly. Specifically, ending the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit would cost homeowners up to $2,000 in tax credits on a qualified heat pump.

Editor’s note: Since this piece was originally written, OBBB passed, and most federal tax credits phase out at the end of 2025.

But there are other efforts beyond the federal level that must be protected. A full 48 out of 50 states have state-level or utility-level heat pump incentives—and that doesn’t include local programs. You can use the DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency) tool at www.dsireusa.org to find incentive programs offered by your state. So whatever state you live in, pay attention to the discussions around electrification and vote for representatives who support homeowner incentives and workforce development programs.

The political environment at the federal level is unfavorable currently, but as we’ve seen over the last 4 years, that can change quickly. One federal policy that has been discussed proposes to  essentially pay manufacturers to stop making one-way ACs and make heat pumps instead. The HEATR Act, which was introduced in the Senate in May 2022 but never made it out of committee, proposed establishing a tax credit at the manufacturer level for high efficiency heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. 

Because a heat pump is essentially an AC that just works both ways, getting manufacturers to stop making traditional ACs solves a variety of problems not only for manufacturers but distributors, contractors, and consumers. 

Editor’s note: this line of thinking is gaining traction at the local level across California, with jurisdictions adopting AC2HP rules encouraging heat pumps at the time of replacement.

If the manufacturers don’t make traditional ACs (saving assembly line costs), the distributors won’t stock them (saving inventory costs), and finally, contractors won’t recommend them—and will instead recommend a “2-way” AC. The consumer doesn’t even really need to know it’s a heat pump; they just need to know it will cool their home in the summer—and oh, by the way, it will also heat their home in the winter (potentially with some supplemental backup heat).

This means that every time a homeowner replaces an old or broken central AC system, they’ll be getting a heat pump—which will go a long way in moving their home completely off of direct burning of fossil fuels. When the gas furnace in the basement breaks, they won’t need to replace it—they’ll already have a perfectly capable piece of heating equipment already installed. 

Because the average lifespan of an AC or gas furnace is 15-20 years, we need to cut down significantly on the number of new systems that are installed in the next 5-10 years if we want to achieve net zero goals by 2050. Replacing old ACs with heat pumps will go a long way in getting us there.

Final Thoughts

Just recently, I had conversations with several people in my life that confirmed many of the things I learned in the course of researching this piece. They didn’t know what a heat pump was, much less how it would benefit them or the planet. 

This is the problem we face in a nutshell. The transition to heat pumps is mostly a social shift, supported by incremental improvements in tech, tools, and policy. It’s about people – homeowners, contractors, suppliers, policymakers – collectively learning while moving past old habits and comfort zones. It means turning the “2-way AC” from an oddity into the default.

With each well-informed homeowner, each newly trained technician, each successful project, we are building confidence in this solution. In the end, homeowners simply want a comfortable, reliable, expertly-installed system for their families. Deliver that consistently, while keeping costs down, and heat pumps will become not just a climate-friendly alternative, but the automatic choice for comfort and quality. 

The transition is already underway; now it’s up to all of us to accelerate it.

Are you working on solutions to accelerate heat pump adoption?

Connect with me on LinkedIn—I’m especially interested in speaking with:

• Electrification concierge companies redefining how homeowners navigate upgrades with full-service guidance and support

• Adjacent technology companies creating tech-based solutions for contractors

• Government agencies or policymakers (especially in Massachusetts) working to advance electrification through local or national initiatives

• Community-based organizations or nonprofits creating tools, education, or advocacy campaigns to guide consumers through the transition

Whether you're in the field, behind a desk, or building resources for your neighbors, I’d love to hear what you're working on!

This is the final issue in a 5-part series about accelerating heat pump adoption in America. If you missed the first, second, third, or fourth issues, check them out. Thank you to Climate Drift for letting us share this piece with the Heat Pumped community!

Want a heat pump in your own home?

The first Heat Pumped group buy is now closed! It generated a ton of interest, and we’d like to do something similar in the future. If you’re thinking about a new heat pump HVAC system for your home in 2026, and don’t have an urgent timeline, you might be a good fit. Let us know if you’re interested!