Interviewee
Ran Roth is the Co-founder and CEO of Sensibo, the tech company combining ACs with technology. He’s on a mission to make the world a better place by bringing smart sensing & AI to indoor climate & air quality.
Transcript
Ran Roth: So I am originally a data scientist. So I was doing data science in various industries. I worked in automotive, doing autonomous vehicles a little bit back in the days before they called it autonomous vehicles. And then I did computer vision and a lot of data science. In 2014, along with my co-founder, we were looking for something to build ourselves. And we, we, we didn't have an idea at the time. Like us, we looked at maybe tens of ideas and then somewhere after idea number or whatever, 73 maybe we just crossed them one by one. And we had these criterions, we wanted to make sure that we're gonna do something good for the world. So that was the first, first test that an idea had to pass. We wanted to do something with data that would, that our DA, that data would have a big impact on. And we looked for something special. So we didn't want to do whatever everyone else was doing.
And then I remember us just looking at the ceiling, like not really knowing what we were going to do because we just crossed off everything. And then my co-founders told me “How about we connect the air conditioners to the internet?” And I was like, “Well, that's the dumbest idea I heard so far”. But then, you know, the rest is history. We started researching and we found that it really ticked all the boxes and we got really excited because I guess it's not like we were into air conditioning before, but we found so much you can do with the data in air conditioning and you can have such a good impact on the world. And it's such a big problem that that's what we ended up building and I'm really proud of it eventually.
Elisa Muñoz: Wow, that's great. Thank you so much for sharing the story. Also, I know that you guys released the first climate impact summary and found that heating and cooling devices account for 33% of global energy consumption, which I think it's really interesting.
Ran Roth: Yeah, so I think a lot of people, one of the things that's very sort of unique about what we do about air conditioners and about the air in general is that you don't see it so often I would see people in our, in the office, even myself, when you, you go out of the house, you always turn off the lights, but you almost never turn off the air conditioner because you don't see it, right? So it's much less visible than other parameters. And I think also in a similar way, the conversation around climate has sort of skipped this issue a little bit of heating and cooling. So a lot of people are talking about, you know, cars obviously with Tesla and electric vehicles and meat industry, which, and, and plastics, which are all really important matters.
But when you look, just look at this huge industry of heating and cooling and you realize that even that, that a third of the energy, just to put that number into perspective, is about twice as much as all the cars in the world. So it's much more than cars, what we're taking just for, for heating and cooling. And when you think of it, we're spending much and more, much and much more time indoors. So this number is just going to get higher and higher and, and the way that this is done today is very primitive in a lot of ways. So just using data we can save an average of 20% on energy from that huge energy problem. And, and the other thing about, I think about air conditioners is that it's not something you can live without.
So it's not something that you, you can give up, you know, maybe you can give up on, on flights sometimes maybe you can go less abroad or maybe you can recycle your plastic, but without air conditioners, people actually, it's been shown that air conditioners help reduce crime, help reduce corruption. And it's sort of intuitive because usually when people don't have air conditioning, they want to kill each other. So, it's something we can't live without and we still need to, to address. And, and that's basically what we do. We help reduce the carbon footprint of air conditioners, make people more comfortable and save energy at the same time.
And then my co-founders told me “How about we connect the air conditioners to the internet?” And I was like, “Well, that's the dumbest idea I heard so far”.
Elisa Muñoz: Well, thank you. I love the perspective of the company. I wanted to ask you, how do you think this information or this idea of Sensibo could create an impact or on future clients?
Ran Roth: So basically the customers have that, that already have air conditioners today. They can adjust to our product and in a matter of minutes make it a connected product. And that means that instead of the ac you know, you, you buy an ac for example, I remember when we just started working on the company, I had an AC and I suddenly realized that my AC and the million of other units that were sold were doing the exact same thing, the same control algorithm, the same temperature.
And, and it doesn't matter if they were installed in a big room or in a small room or whether there was someone at the room at the time, they were just doing the exact same thing. So once you install a sensible controller, suddenly the AC gets access to all the data from the internet to the weather outside to the geolocation. It knows who from the family is in the home. It lets you have feedback like greater control, so you are sort of more in control of your home climate and that creates a big change. So, so I, I think most people when they buy the product, they just want to control their air conditioner, but then when they discover the other features that we have, they end up, you know, they see all the energy savings and, and the fact that they, they feel much more in control of their, their climate and also we are helping them breathe better air, better air quality because we also give air quality data in addition to that.
Elisa Muñoz: Talking about next steps for the company, are you guys planning on expanding or just like you mentioned, I don't know, maybe like going to another country anytime soon?
Ran Roth: So first of all, we're very global also today we are, we have expanded to a new vertical, which is air quality. And we released a lot of new features around maintenance, around energy. We just released an energy report email. So we're doing a lot of work on the energy side. We're also partnering with people in the academia for implementing more and more complicated and let's say advanced techniques for saving energy. The other thing we're doing is we're going to also enter more verticals, not just air conditioners, but that's something we'll probably announce in, in the coming month.
Elisa Muñoz: Now that we have the opportunity to be talking to you right now, Where do you think the future of the industry is going?
Ran Roth: So I think there are a lot of interesting things that can happen in the core technology of air conditioning, but these things will take a lot of time, especially changing the infrastructure. A lot of people are talking about the change to heat pumps from, from gas or from fossil fuels. And I think that we will see two things that happen simultaneously.
So you will have the, let's say the, the long project, the infrastructure project of changing all the air conditioners in the world to more efficient ones, which obviously will take 20, 30 years. And in the paradigm you have what people are looking for for quick solutions to deploy. And that's where we come in because we can bridge that gap. So turning legacy systems into energy saving devices without you having to replace your own air conditioner at home and by a new unit you could just install a sensible and then you can already get all the benefits of the future if you want to and start saving 20% on your energy.
Elisa Muñoz: That's great. And I mean, now that you're mentioning everything regarding Sensibo, I would like to know how hard it was for you order to find the product market fit.
Ran Roth: Yeah, I guess we never really pivoted in a way that a lot of companies do. I mean, we always did the same thing, but I think there were, there, there were a lot of subtle things that we had to find, like how to, for example, how to really control in a very accurate way the air conditioners how to what, what are the things that really save energy and, and make an impact. So in the first years of the company, it was definitely something that we were working on, but I think once we found it and we, we sort, but, but we, we were able to go with our vision, which really didn't change. So, I think the product market fit is in the details if you want. Okay, So the vision has always been let's make AC smarter for a smarter climate and that's where we, what we did, but then the details we had to find the product market fit.
Elisa Muñoz: Last but not least, Do you have any advice for future entrepreneurs or people starting on this path?
Ran Roth: Yeah, so I mean I think that it's a great time to be an entrepreneur. I know that's, you know, it's, it's, it's tough. It's a, it was a tough year for everyone and a lot of people are talking about the economic downturn, but my message for, for people who, who have the urge to build something, I think it's still a really good time in, in, I don't know, maybe in in the the in history if you want to be able to really build good things. And for us it was the urge to really do something that would have an impact on climate. And, and so if you have that you wanna build something, especially in climate because I'm really enthusiastic about it. For us it was about making AC Smarter but for someone else it might be something else. So just go and do it. Don't, don't get any excuses.
Elisa Muñoz: Perfect. Thank you so much Ran, really motivational. It was a pleasure to have you at the Builder Nation’s podcast today.
Ran Roth: Thank you very much. The pleasure was mine.
