Episode 44 – The Secret to Beating Big Tech with Stuart Lombard of Ecobee

In this episode of IoT Podcast: Over the Air, Ryan Prosser, CEO of Very, is joined by Stuart Lombard, Founder & CEO at Ecobee. They discuss how Ecobee has been challenging the big names in the smart home products industry. They also discussed the idea behind the Ecobee thermostat product and how it has been integrated into smart homes to improve the owner’s experience. 

Stuart explains why it’s critical to ignore the cost of manufacturing a product and instead provide customers with products that add value to their smart homes. Ecobee is building products that can compete with other big brands while also being integrated into the technology of other smart companies.

Stuart Lombard is a born inventor and scientist. He is the founder of Ecobee, which Gentrec bought out in 2021 for 770 million dollars and was retained as the CEO of the company. Before he founded Ecobee in 2007, he was a partner at a venture capital firm for eight years. He also invented the foldable canoe when he was twelve years old.

Stuart is helping Ecobee improve people’s lives and homes through technology and accessible innovations. Ecobee is a leading IoT company that makes products that conserve energy in the home.

They cover:

👉 [04:10] The strategies to compete against big companies 

👉 [05:33] The mission of Ecobee in the IoT industry

👉 [06:25] What it’s like going against big names in the IoT industry 

👉 [07:20] The competitors that pushed Ecobee to be better 

👉 [09:31] Three tactics to competing effectively against big companies 

👉 [12:00] How startups can compete against big companies using Ecobee as a case study

👉 [13:10] Challenges small companies face in the industry 

👉 [14:47] How Ecobee has been differentiating itself in the industry 

👉 [16:04] Ecobee’s new product

👉 [18:08] How companies can tap into clean energy sources at home

👉 [22:50] The importance of creating a product that adds value to a customer

👉 [27:40] Ecobee biggest fans

👉 [29:56] The future of Ecobee

About the Show

“IoT Podcast: Over the Air” is a podcast that features unfiltered conversations with executives about their IoT journeys — the mistakes they made, the lessons they learned, and what they wished they’d known when they started. In each episode of Over the Air, our expert guests make bold predictions, reveal unpopular opinions, and share stories you won’t hear anywhere else.

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DISCOVER MORE INSIGHTS: Discover how Very helped PowerX transform their smart home product line and rapidly scale their products from a couple thousand to hundreds of thousands of units.