A few years ago, Selina Tobaccowala’s daughter started leaving post-it notes around the house, telling everyone to “turn off the lights” and such.
Tobaccowala had just sold her last startup, Gixo, to OpenFit and was looking for a new challenge. “I saw the guys and I thought, ‘Let me see if there’s anything on the sustainability and climate side,'” he told TechCrunch. “There had to be more to it than turning off our lights.”
With no background in climate science or materials engineering, she wasn’t sure where to start. So Tobaccowala turned to something she knew well: surveys.
“Given my love of surveys, I’ve looked at a ton — a ton — of clients,” said Tobaccowala, who was president and CTO of SurveyMonkey.
What he found was that people were struggling to figure out how to lower their utility bills.
“When we talked to consumers, we heard the same thing over and over again: They get this email that says, ‘Hey, you’re spending more money than your neighbors,'” he said. “They were kind of stuck on what to do about it.”
Co-founder of Tobaccowala HomeBoost to help people carry out their own home energy assessments. The company was part of the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.
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HomeBoost’s evaluation process begins by mailing customers a BoostBox, a small kit that includes an infrared camera, a blacklight, and a link to an app that walks customers through the process. As people walk through their homes, the infrared camera shows them where cold (or warm) air is entering their homes. blacklight tells people which lights could be upgraded.
Using data from the scans, the app automatically generates a report that recommends the most cost-effective upgrades, including discounts based on where the person lives.
In many parts of the country, utilities offer a similar service. Utilities, which have incentives to reduce end-user energy use, often work with energy auditors to survey people’s homes to identify ways to reduce their consumption. But the quality of these services can be very uneven, Tobaccowala said.
“We talked to a bunch of consumers who had done home energy assessments and there was this feeling that it was like ‘all they did was sell me an upgraded HVAC,'” he said.
The HomeBoost app is cheaper and faster than a controller and helps people feel more in control of the process, Tobaccowala said.
HomeBoost charges customers $99, which is about a quarter of the cost of a traditional, in-person appraisal. It also works with utilities, which cover some or all of the cost for customers. The startup has signed deals with Central Hudson, Omaha Public Power District and most recently Avista. Omaha Power, for example, pays for all but $19 of the cost, while Central Hudson will cover the entire cost if homeowners check out the BoostBox from a public library.
But not every homeowner wants to complete the survey process themselves, and not every inspector is a pushy salesman. Dedicated inspectors can spend two to 10 hours surveying homes, collecting data and building reports, Tobaccowala said. For this, HomeBoost has developed a version of its app for professionals, allowing them to serve more customers.
The company is also testing a feature that will connect homeowners with contractors who can follow the upgrades outlined in the report. For contractors, it’s another source of new business and allows them to get information about a project before they even set foot inside a home.
By bringing together consumers, utilities and contractors, Tobaccowalla hopes HomeBoost can eventually deliver on the climate front as well. “It’s a very unique situation where everyone is aligned to actually reduce utility bills, which in net result is an improvement in climate,” he said.
