Why QED invested in Airship

At QED we believe that software will be verticalized. We also believe that vertical software businesses will monetize, in part, via financial products. With this in mind, we are proud to share our thesis behind why we led Airship’s Seed round.  

Airship provides software tools and financial products to help home services owner-operators grow their businesses.

An HVAC system is one of the largest purchases a homeowner can make. This purchase is often made sitting around the kitchen table with an HVAC technician who has incomplete information, presenting proposals via pen and paper.

For such a large and important transaction, we don't believe it has to be this way. We believe software is needed to help homeowners make a better purchasing decision; one that is better for their wallet, home and the environment. We also believe such software will enable HVAC technicians to sell more units and services.

Beyond these pain points, the HVAC industry checks many of the boxes we look for when analyzing verticals, including:

• Necessary - Unfortunately, due to climate change, heating and cooling is necessary to survive across much of the U.S.
• Long tail of SMBs and market participants - There are more than 140,000 HVAC businesses in the U.S.
• Seasonal or volatile revenues – Weather and seasonality drives cycle.
• Underserved by incumbent software and financial products - Pen and paper is a critical tool for many HVAC technicians.
• More than $100 billion in aggregate GMV - The HVAC industry is a ~$200 billion industry.

When we introduced co-founders Michael Sachse and Craig Battin we knew that, together, they could revolutionize the home services industry by blending breadth and depth of expertise honed while leading Earnest, Dandelion and Opower.

Airship has built a point-of-sale (POS) solution that allows HVAC technicians to seamlessly build quotes as they learn about the home and homeowner's priorities. Gone are the days of filling out an order form with pen and paper. Today’s reality is a digital hub, responsive to a user’s needs, that is efficient and intuitive. This dynamic application has enabled Airship customers to increase ticket sizes by more than 20 percent and improve close rates by more than 15 percent.

As we've seen across other verticals (Toast in restaurants, Square in small businesses etc.), vertical-specific POS solutions create insights and brand permission that allows for better consumer experiences - before, during and after the checkout. Over time, homeowners could apply for loans or buy insurance, warranties and service contracts via the Airship POS system, allowing for an ever more seamless HVAC buying journey.  

With Airship, homeowners are able to make better decisions and HVAC businesses are able to increase revenues.  We couldn't be more excited about what the Airship team is building. If you're interested in learning more, please reach out.