@theventure: Tag @tfadell to see it 👇 The thermostat had gone thirty years without improving for a specific reason, and that reason is exactly why Tony Fadell won. Thermostats were sold to contractors, not homeowners. Your installer picked whichever brand paid him best, screwed it to the wall, and left. The person who lived with the product had no say in choosing it, so making it better earned nobody anything. Honeywell had dominated that channel for decades, which is precisely why they could never fix the problem: their entire advantage depended on the system staying broken. Fadell attacked from the one angle the incumbents couldn't copy. He’d spent a decade at Apple making complicated technology feel simple and selling it straight to consumers, so Nest skipped the contractors entirely: a $249 product on a retail shelf, bought by the person who would actually live with it. The moment homeowners could choose, thirty years of neglect became visible overnight, and the giant's lawsuit was an admission that the old game was over. He also held the one credential money can't buy: he was the frustrated customer. The rest of the industry saw a $40 commodity. Fadell saw the device that cost him a ski trip. Follow @theventureclips for the greatest founder stories ever told.@Tony Fadell @Google Nest

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Saturday 29 August 2026 20:20:12 GMT