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 his last startup, Gixo, to OpenFit and was looking for a new challenge. “I saw the kids and thought, ‘Let me see if there’s anything in there when it comes to sustainability and climate,’” she told TechCrunch. “There had to be something more than just turning off our lights.”
Without a background in climate science or hardware engineering, she didn’t know where to start. So Tobaccowala turned to something she knew well: investigations.
“Given my love of surveys, I’ve surveyed a ton – a ton – of customers,” said Tobaccowala, former president and CTO of SurveyMonkey.
What she discovered was that people were struggling to find a way to reduce their utility bills.
“When we talked to consumers, we heard the same thing over and over: They get this email that says, ‘Hey, you’re spending more money than your neighbors,'” she said. “They didn’t know 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 Starting Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025.
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HomeBoost’s evaluation process begins by sending customers a BoostBox, a small kit that includes an infrared camera, a black light, and a link to an app that guides customers through the process. When people walk around their home, the infrared camera shows them where cold (or hot) air is seeping into their home; the black light tells people which lights could be improved.
Using data from the analytics, the app then automatically generates a report suggesting 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 an incentive to reduce end-user energy consumption, 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 inconsistent, Tobaccowala said.
“We talked to a group of consumers who had energy assessments done on their homes, and there we felt like all they did was try to sell me an upgraded HVAC system,” she said.
The HomeBoost app is cheaper and faster than a listener, and it helps people feel more in control of the process, Tobaccowala said.
HomeBoost charges customers $99, about a quarter of the cost of a traditional in-person assessment. It also works with utilities, which cover all or part of the costs for customers. The startup has signed agreements with Central Hudson, Omaha Public Power District and most recently Avista. Omaha Power, for example, pays all but $19 of the cost, while Central Hudson will cover the entire cost if homeowners check out the BoostBox at a public library.
But not all owners want to go through the investigation process themselves, and not all auditors are pushy salespeople. Dedicated auditors can spend between two and 10 hours inspecting homes, gathering data and writing reports, Tobaccowala said. For this, HomeBoost has developed a version of its application intended for professionals, allowing them to serve more customers.
The company is also testing a feature that will connect homeowners with contractors who can follow through on the improvements outlined in the report. For contractors, it’s another source of new business, and it allows them to learn about a project before even setting foot in a house.
By bringing together consumers, utilities and entrepreneurs, Tobaccowalla hopes HomeBoost can also be climate effective. “This is a very unique situation where everyone has aligned to actually lower the utility bill, which ultimately is a climate improvement,” she said.
Tim De Chant is senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was a founding editor.
De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s graduate science writing program, and he received a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his doctorate in environmental science, policy and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, English and biology from St. Olaf College.
You can contact or check Tim’s outreach by sending an email tim.dechant@techcrunch.com.