Watt It Takes: Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers
Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 August 2019
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Watt It Takes: How a former Apple engineer applied design principles from the iPod and the iPad to smart thermostats — jolting an industry badly in need of change.
Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Matt Rogers, the co-founder and former chief product officer of Nest.
Nest is best known for its elegant learning thermostat, the first major breakout hit in the smart home space. Google later acquired the company for $3.2 billion.
In this interview, Rogers talks about his Apple influence, how he and co-founder Tony Fadell initially got obsessed with the connected home, and how Nest fit into the Google structure.
Before Nest launched, “the connected home wasn’t really a thing. It was a bunch of hackers stringing things together, there were no products to speak of, really,” says Rogers. “And I was like ‘this is a huge opportunity, we can go and make great products like we did at Apple.’”
This conversation was recorded live at Powerhouse’s headquarters in Oakland, California. Buy tickets for upcoming events.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody Stephen here before we get into this edition of what it takes a very good episode with |
| 0:07.0 | Matt Rogers the co-founder of nest I just want to provide some housekeeping first of, you haven't heard my voice in a little while. |
| 0:14.5 | That's because I'm on paternity leave, |
| 0:16.9 | and I'm going to be out until the 15th of August. |
| 0:19.6 | So we won't have any new episodes of the Energy Gang until the week of the 15th of August. |
| 0:25.6 | But if you're looking for more content, go over to the Interchange. |
| 0:30.4 | It's the other show that I co-host with Shale Khan. We have tons of great back and forth, deep dives. |
| 0:37.0 | We also bring on guests for long-form interviews. Our most recent interview, which got a lot of traction, was with Leah Stokes of the University of California, |
| 0:46.5 | and she talked about the really surprising public opinion trends behind the Green New Deal. |
| 0:51.2 | So go check that out. |
| 0:52.4 | If you want something to read. You can find |
| 0:54.6 | GTM's new app in the Apple store for iOS users. Don't worry Android users. |
| 1:00.6 | There's one coming for you soon and of course you can sign up for the newsletter as well. |
| 1:05.0 | Again, we're going to be back on the 15th of August, so don't go too far. |
| 1:10.0 | Finally, thanks to Sungrow, our sponsor. Sungrow is the leading solar inverter |
| 1:16.1 | supplier by volume in the world. It's now a leading supplier across the |
| 1:20.1 | Americas too. With the world's most powerful 250 kilowatt 1500 volt string inverter Sungrow |
| 1:26.4 | is providing disruptive technology for utility scale projects. |
| 1:30.1 | You can find out more at Sungrow Power.com. |
| 1:34.0 | This week on what it takes, |
| 1:42.0 | how a former Apple engineer applied design principles from the iPod and the iPad to thermostats, jolting an industry badly in need of change. |
| 1:51.0 | Having the largest incumbent conglomerates sue you as a startup with zero revenue and, you know, 80 employees is |
... |
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