Take Control of your home maintenance with ShipShape and Alexander Linn

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[00:00:07] Alexander Linn: People want to interact with people and the home is very emotional. So we provide a home assistant, yes, supported by a ton of software, but you can really call a real person and say, what should I do? And I think that's super important when the demographic of homeowners are mostly baby boomers that don't wanna learn new apps all the time.

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[00:00:45] Alexander Linn: Yeah, you can just download our app, plug in your appliance info, get a report so you've got some heads up on. When an appliance might be repaired, when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know the, we've [00:01:00] got you covered. This is

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[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: This is what we talk about, everything about your home every single week. Thanks for joining us today. We're getting into technology today, which you know is one of my passions around your house. And today you've got Alexander Lynn from Ship Shape. This is something that could change how you look and care for your house.

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[00:01:27] Alexander Linn: Eric. Great to be here. Thanks for having me, man.

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[00:01:37] Alexander Linn: Likewise. So let's

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[00:01:45] Eric Goranson: I know this is where technology's going, and you're the guy out there waving the flag is founder and c e o of this

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[00:02:07] Alexander Linn: One of the people's biggest cost in their lives is maintaining and operating their homes, and right now there's just no trusted advisor and no real data that helps a homeowner know. When to make a repair, how efficiently their equipment's operating, what maintenance need, what maintenance needs done to help 'em save money in the long run.

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[00:02:44] Eric Goranson: See, that's great.

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[00:03:12] Alexander Linn: Yeah, and I'm glad you say it's both of 'em, because both sides of the market right now really struggle to a op operate efficiently cuz they're driving in the dark and it's frustrating for both parties, A lot of really great contractors trying to do the best work they can. And someone else comes in the house and unplugs something, or the homeowner decides to install something or a window gets broken.

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[00:03:52] Eric Goranson: Yeah, crazy. So from the homeowner's side, they're trying to figure out who they can trust and the contractor's side who is paying for those [00:04:00] lead referral services.

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[00:04:21] Eric Goranson: And like you said, it's a disaster for both sides and it's so refreshing to see something new out there using technology to help steer information the right way. Yeah,

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[00:04:40] Alexander Linn: Yeah. And the business models that exist to help homeowners find a contractor, they really serve the contractor side of the market. That's one reason that Ship Shape's built a business model where the homeowner pays a subscription to Ship Shape to have access to home assistance services, where they get that trusted advisor.

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[00:05:16] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Like I tell people out there when it's free, By the way, you're the product they're selling. Yeah. .

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[00:05:36] Alexander Linn: To be that trusted advisor to the homeowner. And

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[00:05:57] Eric Goranson: 20 other things that it doesn't do all in [00:06:00] one platform. And to me it's like, all right, I love one-stop shops. And to be able to do that with your home, that's pretty cool. And you couldn't budget from what I was reading about

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[00:06:17] Alexander Linn: And next thing they know, they got a bunch of different vendors. They have contractors and a lot of different types of contractors. Your plumber doesn't work on your elec electrical work, and then they've got utilities, they've got it by power from somebody and they've got insurance. They buy manufactured products that go in their house that have warranties and require maintenance and cause damage if things go wrong.

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[00:07:01] Alexander Linn: So we wanted to be that technology partner to this industry that does so many great things for homes, just not typically making integrated software that's sensor enabled. AI to drive predictions. They do all kinds of other stuff like make the electricity the homeowners need. We can help them connect, provide that platform they're looking for, and do it in a way that, quite frankly, I think the market's been talking about this for 15 years.

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[00:07:46] Alexander Linn: And then several years later, we had some real breakthroughs with deep learning and machine learning. And I realized this technology that was like almost science fiction, was gonna actually go from smart factories and smart buildings and get cheap [00:08:00] enough to get all the way into the home. Yeah. And now we're made for the first time you could network all these homes together and start making it p.

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[00:08:13] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And on top of that, I think what's great is for the brand new homeowner for that person that just bought their brand new home that doesn't know what it takes to follow up, maintain, take care of that. It's great.

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[00:08:45] Alexander Linn: for you.

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[00:09:10] Alexander Linn: Don't wanna learn new apps all the time, , in fact, I'm not sure anyone wants to learn new apps all the time. So we just wanted to make it more like a service that would give you peace of mind, and that's the difference between our subscription and our version that doesn't require the subscription. You can use our app, like you mentioned, to get the budget report.

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[00:09:54] Alexander Linn: And have someone monitor it, like a security system, and then be able to call that person [00:10:00] when you need help. That's a service we provide and most people want ship shape for the service more than they want it for the technology.

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[00:10:16] Eric Goranson: That's where it is. I have an AI security system out front and I love it. It, it mixes human with ai. It's great. And this is just such an extension into your home and I love that it can go through and you can really budget things down the road to, it tracks things within your home, so you. How it's functioning, right?

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[00:10:58] Alexander Linn: First time home buyers especially [00:11:00] go buy a house. They remodel the bathroom, they do some other cosmetic repairs, and then they realize that they're taken out at expensive interest rates to do absolutely critical repairs. Fix a broken air conditioning unit in the middle of the summer. And how did they have no idea that was coming?

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[00:11:38] Alexander Linn: and then you come back and you realize, oh shoot, it's already been five years and now that thing's leaking through my ceiling and I didn't bother to do the maintenance cuz I just didn't know. Yeah. So that's where having a system that actually has some of that data and can just pop up and say, Hey, you have an air conditioning unit that just turned 15 years old and yep, it might need maintenance and it might need repaired.

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[00:12:19] Alexander Linn: Oh, so we can use that real data to be proactive and give 'em advice about how to really save money on an area that is, it's a big expense and it really does impact how much. People can afford. When you look at what the actual true cost of it is with maintenance and energy,

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[00:12:43] Eric Goranson: One is maintenance questions. When do I have that H V A C system serviced? Is that once a year, twice a year, every other year? What is that? And. They're searching for somebody to work with. Mm-hmm. , I need this person. Who do you trust? And [00:13:00] you really have both of those boxes checked all in a program. And that's fascinating

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[00:13:07] Alexander Linn: Yeah. We thought you basically have to, we had to close that whole loop. And we even realized that if we're gonna use sensor data, let's say for example, we see there's a humidity problem. And we know that means mold is likely to grow and that can cause major health risk and property damage. When we tell them that we need to not only have a button they can push that says, help me get a professional to fix the issue.

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[00:13:47] Alexander Linn: And even to to lending partners because we have to help resolve the issues. The typical home in the United States. Like tens of thousands of dollars in many regions of the country, more than $30,000 of work to make that [00:14:00] home modernized. Yeah, so it's got the proper insulation, relatively efficient, electric appliances, and you're not susceptible to significant damage, health issues or energy waste.

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[00:14:35] Alexander Linn: So a homeowner thinks they spent their good money and to no fault of their own, they realize. They didn't get the full benefit and it didn't get the payback period. And we can help use the sensor data to make sure in the monitoring to make sure that sometimes it's as simple as something got unplugged or a window's broken, and that ends up making a big

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[00:14:56] Eric Goranson: Yeah, it's amazing. I know so many people that. That got the rebate from their [00:15:00] utility in wet. Okay, I'm gonna go weatherization, I'm gonna tighten this home up. But the company that came in didn't really plan ahead or think ahead and think that, wait a minute, I'm gonna seal this home up. But I didn't deal with the moist, musty air inside the house.

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[00:15:30] Alexander Linn: That's right, and that's a perfect example of where you've got these silos in the house where you really good certified experts, professionals very smart, know what they're doing.

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[00:15:55] Alexander Linn: They're not there. And they may call an HVAC company who might say, , they need a mold [00:16:00] specialist. And here are the homeowners going up their hands saying, what do I do? And it's all after the fact when it's too late and it's already a big problem. Yeah. And yes, simple sensors like our humidity and temperature sensors, and you've seen these on the market your customers have, and there's nothing, we don't make simple sensors.

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[00:16:36] Alexander Linn: Yeah, it's not enough. You send someone a leak alert. You would think every homeowner would deal with that, but some people have a lot of other things going on in their life. Maybe they're racing out to work and they're already overwhelmed with something else. They don't even know who to call and next thing they know that leak alert became a mold problem.

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[00:17:03] Eric Goranson: then that $500 leak turned into a five or $10,000 repair because you didn't get on it and it's maybe somebody's heading to the soccer game and all I'll deal with it, get when I get home.

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[00:17:40] Alexander Linn: And that reactive interaction with our home. Oh, it wastes a lot of money. We, in America, spend almost 1 trillion a year with contractors, utilities, insurance, and manufacturers. And when we look at that, depending on the different area of the market, but approximately 30% of that's wasted. [00:18:00] Yep. So we're talking like 300 billion a year.

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[00:18:30] Alexander Linn: Now. These are really important economic development goals for us. Yeah. And we've got to modernize our homes and we need to spend that money efficiently, not wasting it because we just didn't know. Yeah. It's a breakthrough and, and there's a lot of, Putting new technology into houses and mm-hmm. , I actually wrote a paper on predictive maintenance in the home and really encouraging the whole market to say, let's talk more about these applications.

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[00:19:13] Eric Goranson: It's always cheaper than to maintain it, than it is to have to not maintain it and fix it every single time.

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[00:19:41] Eric Goranson: You could put that on your rental properties, and it's giving you real-time information of how the sum pump's working, how all this stuff's working, and you can actually use that as well, right? To maintain those income properties for you. If you had. One or two rentals across town.

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[00:20:00] Alexander Linn: A vacation home, they put multiple homes in there, so not only are you getting one app that'll give you alerts about your water heater and your air conditioning system, and your refrigerator and your dehumidifier, it connects you to all these appliances, all these providers. You could use that same app for multiple vacation homes and a, yeah, there are a lot of renters, in fact, a lot of mom and pop.

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[00:20:45] Alexander Linn: Sure. But most rental homes are owned by Mom and Pop. No question. Less than 10 homes who are trying to find a way to build some wealth. Mm-hmm. . And they're able to produce some hard work to help manage these rental homes. And this is a [00:21:00] tool that totally changes the game because the renter really doesn't have a lot of economic alignment, incentive alignment.

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[00:21:17] Eric Goranson: renter, and I've seen this cuz I've had rentals in the past, and the renter goes, oh man, that some pump's not working right.

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[00:21:46] Eric Goranson: and then the landlord's chewing up money because that's just something's gone wrong and they can't fix it, and they don't even know that

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[00:22:06] Alexander Linn: Mold or had water damage issues. Yep. And it's a problem where now you're taking those baseboards, filling up the landfill, cutting down more trees to put 'em back. And we really need to use those to build more homes because we're like millions of homes short to have the housing we need for this generation.

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[00:22:42] Alexander Linn: But you're right. The whole market's just not very efficient. It's no one's fault is the interesting thing. Yeah. Everybody wants this and we get so much support. Everybody wants a better. Interaction with the home, but it's very challenging. Yeah, there's a lot of different [00:23:00] moving pieces and I think it's really only in the last few years we've gotten to a place where the technology exists for it to even make sense to be able to do this.

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[00:23:09] Eric Goranson: So a couple questions I have for you. One of 'em, I'm gonna go for the skeptic out there. There's so many people out there that, that don't like smart home tech because they're very concerned about security and a lot of the time it's because they don't really understand. How all this works. They see the headlines on TV that something got hacked or anything else.

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[00:23:35] Alexander Linn: Yeah, it's a great question. It's the most important question because to be the trusted advisor to the homeowner, We have to keep their trust and technology is honestly in a crisis of trust right now. Sure. And so there's a few things that we do before starting this company was at Salesforce and they've really prioritized building trust and their platform and how they work with their customers.

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[00:24:24] Alexander Linn: Yeah. Now the second thing is like we are mindful about what data we collect. We don't use cameras and microphones, even though it can be really helpful, we don't use those devices because it is more sensitive data. So when we're looking at how many watts of electricity is a sump pump using mm-hmm. , most of our customers tell us they're less concerned about that data.

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[00:25:09] Alexander Linn: So we just make sure we tell 'em, here's what. And then we give the customer the right if. If they ever want to, they can literally download all their data and take it with them. It's their data. Yeah. We're just helping them manage it and use it to save money.

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[00:25:31] Eric Goranson: Just trying to ha to ma for them to manage that data in your voice and what you are talking about is completely different than what you guys

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[00:25:52] Alexander Linn: And there are vulnerabilities that can come from hackers on the internet. , a lot of people, and the [00:26:00] industry has matured a lot in how we secure this device data. But another part that's really important is how do you align the long-term trust with the stakeholders? So how do you create a system where there's gonna be a good interest in how we use the data in a way that makes the customer better and the world better?

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[00:26:42] Alexander Linn: Nice to connect a bunch of homes for them, and we give our employees times to go volunteer five days a year to volunteer in the community. Cool. As we do that, they're. tied into and connected to. We are our, our business model, our culture is connected to the customer. [00:27:00] Mm-hmm. . And when you think about it, like that's the ultimate concern with technology, is the technology that's being built gonna be used to help me or gonna be used against me.

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[00:27:38] Alexander Linn: To be good for homeowners. Yeah.

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[00:27:56] Alexander Linn: N no, it's, it's not. It's pretty low on the, [00:28:00] but I understand where people are coming from where, yeah, you've had a couple scary things happen or you've read about something and.

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[00:28:28] Alexander Linn: So there are things that are being done to make sure that's more transparent and I think. Having real data is a big part of that, and having that data in the palm of your hands is a big part. It's not like your utility just turned your air conditioning unit off because it was good for the grid. In our scenario you got, now you understand that right now the utility's having a really hard time serving powered everyone who needs it.

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[00:29:09] Alexander Linn: Yeah, no

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[00:29:30] Alexander Linn: Yeah, it's a great question. We tried to keep it very simple so that we would have a universal platform that worked for all the appliances. And what I mean by that is we track power, water, temperature, humidity. Okay? Okay. And with those. Piece of data. We get it from a smart plug or an environmental sensor or maybe an, an appliance already has that data cuz it's a connected appliance.

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[00:30:15] Alexander Linn: then make it all talk together so that we can use it to drive these predictions about how to manage your home. And in doing so, we've built a sort of app platform where, you know, connected appliance maker who maybe in one specific sort of silo of the market, mm-hmm. is able to build on our platform and their customers now can have that single app solution that so many customers want and we can now help.

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[00:31:07] Alexander Linn: So we look at this as it's a win-win for everybody. We're not a disruptive business. We're actually a business saying we provide this unique platform, we can create some ongoing services and help the whole market innovate faster.

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[00:31:30] Eric Goranson: So you're also saving people money in the long run because that refrigerator that maybe has a bad door. Whereas using way too many energy or needs to be maintained is cranking the power bill out and it's not getting any cheaper out there for any of these utilities. So something that's working efficiently saves you money.

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[00:31:57] Alexander Linn: Yeah, it does add up pretty quickly. Like here's [00:32:00] an example of a smart. We've got lots of different smart plugs. This costs like $20. This is a, a very heavy duty one, so it costs a little bit more.

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[00:32:26] Alexander Linn: It's wasting $30 a month, $40 a month in energy. Yeah. It doesn't take very long to pay back the system when you catch one little thing going wrong and most people who have lived in house for very long know that it doesn't take long to catch something going wrong.

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[00:32:47] Eric Goranson: I, uh, my house is one big test bed for home tech stuff, so I have the sense home energy monitor. I have caught more problems. By me going, what's that spike doing? Oh, [00:33:00] what's that's on? And I go take a look at it and go, oh wow, okay. I know exactly what that, what that space heater is costing me. That's down in the basement or that old beer fridge out there that is, Using three times the energy than what my nice new fridge is in the house.

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[00:33:22] Alexander Linn: and that's important because you, Eric, are a better AI than any AI we have out there. The humans are actually really good at noticing that patterns aren't matching right. Something looks off. Why is there a spike in this data? If they just had access to the information, then we could empower a lot of people to get that visibility and help understand, and that actually improves the system as we learn more from our customers that catch more scenarios.

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[00:34:18] Alexander Linn: So that's a perfect example of how. Device makers and other, other partners in the market who have access to some data are saying, how do we help our customers take action on it? And that's where Ship Shapes platform really comes in.

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[00:34:32] Eric Goranson: to show this technology. I was standing probably three and a half years ago, so it's been a bit, I was standing in Cambridge.

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[00:35:01] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, I can see by the electrical how the signal's in. That's how GE does their front load washing machines. And so I can see that the way that's running, that's a, uh, GE front loader and I'm like, it shows you how that data can really help you. Yeah, it tells a story.

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[00:35:20] Alexander Linn: And they've gotten so smart now that they're gonna deploy their software into smart meters with utility partners. So you don't even have to put their hardware in. And they're so good at analyzing that power data. Yeah. They can look at all the power data going through the smart meter and say, What type of appliance it is and if it's acting normally, and help you manage that.

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[00:35:46] Eric Goranson: now. And that's a perfect example of what you guys are doing. You are partnering all of these companies out there that are doing really well in their segment, right?

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[00:36:05] Alexander Linn: I like it. Yeah, it's a really special opportunity because we can elevate our partners and we don't wanna make the devices that they make, we don't want to do the contracting work or build power plants.

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[00:36:47] Alexander Linn: The economy and the community with the technology, and we can choose how to use it. Yeah. And I've thought a long time about how to do it in a way that would be a win-win, and really help improve the [00:37:00] economy and the community. That's

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[00:37:06] Eric Goranson: People forget that maybe that LG TV or Samsung TV on the wall has a temperature sensor in it. Or things that you don't think are actually monitoring things within that, if you can gain access to that, gives you more data around

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[00:37:30] Alexander Linn: And I saw some of these predictions back in 2015 when I first started working. Some prototypes of ship shape and there were forecasts that homes were gonna have 200 sensors in 'em within the next 20 years. Here we are and sure enough, homes are filling with sensors. And remember when I, when this happened with cars, got all these electronics in them and the.

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[00:37:55] Alexander Linn: then you're all in the service department. So homes are getting more complicated. Mm-hmm. , the technology [00:38:00] is going in that we can really tap into and build that layer on top of the sensors that are out there. And there's a lot of talk about interoperability in the market.

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[00:38:34] Alexander Linn: Or your refrigerator. If you got a humidity reading in your living room that says you're running high humidity, let's use that to trigger the alert that you could have a mold issue. And the real interoperability is connect you to the provider or the service provider. It helps you solve the issue because if, if you do that, you could make the home effectively smart enough to take care of itself.

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[00:39:16] Alexander Linn: because the people living in the homes are just not experts at all this stuff, and they're not gonna become experts. So we're looking at this in a world of just give 'em peace of mind and take it as much off their plate, but always keep 'em in control with visibility. So they're in the driver's seat, but they don't have to do all the tough stuff.

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[00:39:55] Eric Goranson: Includes, it'll run your Bath fans, it'll run your E R V system. [00:40:00] It's live monitoring. Your air quality, think of the data that's coming off that thing that you guys have the opportunity to grab at some point.

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[00:40:20] Alexander Linn: Yeah, so it's not, what we do is when we step in and we bring that all together. Sometimes there's two different systems that interact together. Like a good one I use a lot is if you got air conditioning in your house, central air conditioning, and you have a crawlspace and you have a dehumidifier in your crawlspace.

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[00:40:58] Alexander Linn: Sure. And we work with [00:41:00] Eco B, we work with Honeywell. They're getting really smart at how to use that data. Yeah. We just have to have a little bit different perspective and a way to connect to the contractors.

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[00:41:21] Eric Goranson: Interconnecting link that'll make that happen.

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[00:41:49] Alexander Linn: The time for integration, interoperability in the market, and it's gonna unlock a whole new wave of value for homeowner.

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[00:42:10] Eric Goranson: People went, okay, I'm tired of having 42 apps on my phone. How do we start to think about making something work

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[00:42:27] Alexander Linn: And I think the customer feels like that. Maybe the smart home has under deliver. and I think actually there's been so much experimentation done, and ultimately we're gonna see a lot more value that'll come in this next phase because of all the experimentation that was done. Sure.

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[00:42:52] Eric Goranson: And it's great to be able to control that stuff and to be able to man manage it. But man, you guys are doing some absolutely [00:43:00] great stuff that's gonna help. Really all homeowners out there. What have we not talked about today? Man?

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[00:43:22] Alexander Linn: Homes are not just about dollars and cents. Homes are about emotional wellbeing. It's literally like the bedrock of the American dream. It's the idea of having your home and if your home is working against you. I did a little bit of work helping with the nonprofit that my dad was working on, teaching entrepreneurship to orphans, and we were trying to help them, empower them to become self-sufficient.

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[00:44:11] Alexander Linn: We're building rockets to put billionaires in space. Yep. And literally less than a mile from where I sit, a kid's gonna miss school today from an asthma attack because mold's growing in the air conditioning docks. , and that happens 10 times more often in our low income and vulnerable populations. So just think about if you put all that together, the fact that our homes are bogging people down, even in America where we have all these resources, it is making it harder for everyone to participate in the economy and it's making.

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[00:45:11] Alexander Linn: And when we do that, The world could work together to solve great problems. So I know that sounds like crazy, but I really believe the home is tied to so much more than dollars and cents. It

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[00:45:31] Eric Goranson: That is their shelter and their biggest investment, and you've got something here that's gonna help them manage that. And give them a better chance of staying in that home instead of out in an apartment or even worse in some shelter someplace. And man, thanks for all you're doing with this. This is gonna be a game changer for homeowners out there and I'm excited

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[00:45:50] Alexander Linn: Thank you. And Eric, thanks for having me. And I agree. Thanks for what you're doing and the whole rest of the industry. Thank you to every one of our partners who say, and I want to be [00:46:00] a part of helping improve these outcomes for homeowners. I think it's. Really inspiring to me every day to see how much progress we're making.

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[00:46:11] Eric Goranson: soon. We will. What's the best place for people to find shipshape? Just go to our

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[00:46:25] Alexander Linn: We'll pick up the phone and, and be there to help you.

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[00:46:30] Alexander Linn: Thanks Eric. Have a great day.

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