In 2005, I founded a home energy startup called Building Solutions, focusing on modeling energy efficiency to help homeowners make informed energy decisions and lower their costs. We sold that company to SolarCity (now Tesla) in 2010 and stayed for a while, helping hundreds of thousands of homes decarbonize through energy efficiency and solar.

Next I got a call from Google X to help them explore methods to increase the adoption of clean heating and cooling. Out of X, I co-founded Dandelion and built software to present geothermal designs and information to homeowners. Dandelion has installed thousands of heat pumps to date and is expanding quickly as homeowners increasingly opt to electrify.

After a few years back as a stay-at-home dad, I saw the solar industry struggling under the new policies and knew I had to get back in the game. By sizing solar and battery systems for all-electric homes, we could ensure homeowners still financially benefited under the new solar policies AND we could finally sell a packaged deal to fully decarbonize homes. 

Balto is my third startup, named in honor of a famous sled dog who delivered life-saving serum to a town in Alaska during a deadly epidemic in 1925. Balto the dog ran the second and then – unexpectedly – the third leg of the relay, and all through a blizzard.

Balto feels like the unexpected third leg. I have to do this because it’s the ultimate job that needs to be done for homeowners to fully decarbonize their homes. The acronym for the solar-led electrification (SLED) platform just fell into place, making the name Balto feel even more perfect. 

We hope you’ll join us on this journey and help homeowners everywhere achieve a fully decarbonized and highly resilient way of living.